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You are here: UK History > Royal History > House of Tudor > Henry VIII | The king with 6 wives > Catherine Howard
Also sometimes written as Katheryn Howard, Catherine was the fifth wife of Henry VIII and was a cousin of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She caught the eye of the king while working as a lady’s maid for Anne of Cleves. She would be executed due to claims of adultery with her cousin, Thomas Culpeper.
Born: Around 1523, Lambeth, London
Died: 13th February 1542, aged 19, Tower of London
Queen: 28th July 1540 – 23rd November 1541
Married: 28th July 1540
Spouses: Henry VIII of England
Parents: Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper
Children: none
Catherine was born in Lambeth in 1523, though the exact date is unknown and it is not sure in what order she and her siblings were born. We do know that she had five half...Read More
Also sometimes written as Katheryn Howard, Catherine was the fifth wife of Henry VIII and was a cousin of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She caught the eye of the king while working as a lady’s maid for Anne of Cleves. She would be executed due to claims of adultery with her cousin, Thomas Culpeper.
Born: Around 1523, Lambeth, London
Died: 13th February 1542, aged 19, Tower of London
Queen: 28th July 1540 – 23rd November 1541
Married: 28th July 1540
Spouses: Henry VIII of England
Parents: Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper
Children: none
Catherine was born in Lambeth in 1523, though the exact date is unknown and it is not sure in what order she and her siblings were born. We do know that she had five half siblings from her mother’s first marriage and was one of six from her parent’s marriage. She came from an aristocratic family, her grandfather was the Duke of Norfolk, but her father, being the third son was not wealthy, as such, he would often have to seek financial aid from family members.
Her aunt, Elizabeth Howard, was the mother of Anne Boleyn. Henry must have liked keeping it in the family as Jane Seymour was also a relative, their grandmothers were sisters.
Despite her aristocratic ancestry, Catherine did not have a particularly comfortable life. Her father was poor with money and had a gambling addiction and as such, Catherine was thought to be generally unlearned and barely literate. Her education and future prospects were not high priorities for her father and at the age of 8, she was sent to be a ward of Agnes Howard, her step grandmother and Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess had a number of wards and split them between her two large households in Suffolk and London. She was often at court and had little involvement in the upbringing of the young ladies in her charge,
While Catherine was living at the Duchesses’ household in Suffolk she began music lessons with Henry Mannox. She was around 12 years and he was in his late thirties. Historians say the pair embarked on a relationship, but it is much more likely that Catherine was groomed and abused. When later questioned about her relationship with Mannox, Catherine stated that “I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret part of my body, which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him to require.”
The relationship with Mannox is said to have ended by 1538, however, the Dowager Duchess’ secretary, Francis Dereham began to pursue her not long afterwards. The pair allegedly became lovers and the whole household was aware of their relationship, which ended when the Dowager Duchess found out. It is widely believed that the pair intended to get married and this fact was used against Catherine during her arrest and imprisonment. Following this, her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, got her a position at court in the household of the new queen, Anne of Cleves. As a young and attractive lady in waiting, Catherine was popular among the men of court, including the King and her cousin, Thomas Culpeper.
The king’s failing interest in Anne of Cleves and Thomas Cromwell’s inability to find him an alternative queen, the Duke of Norfolk saw an opportunity to increase his family’s influence in much the same way as his predecessor had with Anne Boleyn. He began to manoeuvre the king towards his young niece and as the king’s interest in Catherine grew, so too did the Howard’s influence. At this time Henry was 49, Catherine was about 15.
Henry and Catherine were married just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage with Anne of Cleves. They were married at Outland Palace on 28th July 1540, the same day that Thomas Cromwell was executed for treason on the grounds that he organised the match with Anne of Cleves. The marriage was made public on 8th August.
Despite being married, there were no plans for a coronation and Catherine was too young to take part in the administrative matters of state like her predecessors. The pair went on progress shortly after their wedding to escape the plague which had broken out across London and they travelled extensively across England as part of their honeymoon celebrations. On their return, Henry went on a spending spree to celebrate, with extensive refurbishments at the Palace of Whitehall and a lavish Christmas celebration at Hampton Court. All was not well though, his temper was unpredictable, in part because of his chronic pain from his ulcerated legs and because he began to regret his execution of Thomas Cromwell. However, by Easter his mood had improved and the court prepared for the announcement of a royal baby, with the king declaring that should Catherine fall pregnant, she would be coronated in the summer.
It is widely believed that Catherine was involved with Thomas Culpeper during her marriage to the king. At the time, infidelity on part of the queen was tantamount to high treason, something Catherine would have been aware of, especially after what happened to her cousin, Anne. Many believe that prior to being pursued by Henry, Catherine was considering marrying Culpeper. The pair certainly did exchange love letters and were said to have been secretly meeting throughout her marriage to Henry, something that was said to have been arranged by the Lady Rochford, George Boleyn’s widow, Jane Boleyn, who was one of the head Ladies in Waiting.
One of Thomas Cromwell’s supporters approached the Archbishop of Canterbury, telling him of Catherine’s promiscuity, leading to an investigation. Lady Rochford was interrogated and under the threat of torture told of Catherine and Culpeper’s meetings and unearthed love letters which were found in Culpeper’s chambers. The Archbishop approached the king on 1st November and was then tasked with questioning the queen.
Part of the investigation was trying to prove a marriage contract between Catherine and Francis Dereham, as this would invalidate the marriage with Henry and allow him to banish her from court – though there is no proof that this was considered. Catherine denied that she had any plans to marry Dereham, claiming that he assaulted her. She was stripped of her title of Queen and imprisoned at Syon Abbey on 23rd November 1541. She remained there throughout the winter and was obliged to return her wedding ring. The king remained at Hampton Court and the pair didn’t see each other again.
Culpeper and Dereham were both arrested for high treason and were executed at Tyburn on 10th December 1541. Culpeper was beheaded, while Dereham was hanged, drawn and quartered, their heads were placed on spikes on London Bridge.
On 29th January 1542, parliament introduced a bill of attainder, which made it treason and punishable by death for a queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the king within 20 days of their marriage. This solved the matter of Catherine’s prior involvement with Dereham and made her guilty. No trial was held. When the Lords of the Council came for her, she panicked and screamed as she was forced into the barge that would escort her to the Tower of London. Her barge would pass under London Bridge where Culpeper and Dereham’s heads were impaled and where they remained for another four years. She was taken through Traitor’s Gate and imprisoned in a cell where she was told her execution was scheduled for 13th February 1542.
It is said that the night before her execution, Catherine practised how to put her head upon the block. It is said that she kept her composure during the execution but did need help to climb the scaffold. It was claimed that her last words were “I die a queen but would rather have died the wife of Culpeper” but there is no proof this was actually said. Following Catherine’s execution, Lady Rochford was also executed. Both bodies were buried in unmarked graves near those of Anne and George Boleyn.
Historians continue to debate whether Catherine Howard was promiscuous and adulterous or whether she was a victim of powerful men who abused and used her throughout her short life.
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