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| 14 | <title>Catherine Howard: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources</title>
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| 24 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="1"><p></td>
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| 32 | <p align="center"><font size="4">'The King's affection was so
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| 33 | marvelously set upon that gentlewoman [Catherine], as it was never
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| 34 | known that he had the like to any woman.'</font><br>
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| 35 | <i><font size="-1">Thomas Cranmer's secretary, Ralph Morice, in a
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| 36 | letter to his master, 1540</font></i></p>
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| 37 | </td>
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| 44 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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| 45 | <p align="center"> </p>
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| 46 | <p align="center"><img height="95" alt="Catherine Howard"
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| 47 | src="howardcardinal.gif" width="389"></p>
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| 48 | <p align="center">
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| 49 | <img height="252"
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| 50 | alt="portrait of Catherine Howard by Holbein, on the back of a playing-card"
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| 51 | src="howard-crop.jpg"
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| 52 | width="250"></p>
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| 53 | <p align="center"> <i><font size="2">miniature portrait of Catherine
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| 54 | Howard by Hans Holbein the Younger</font></i></p>
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| 55 | <p align="left"> <b><br>Catherine Howard was a cousin of Henry
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| 56 | VIII's ill-fated second queen, Anne Boleyn; and like Anne, Catherine
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| 57 | would die on the scaffold at Tower Green. Her birthdate is
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| 58 | unknown, but her father was the younger brother of the duke of
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| 59 | Norfolk. Though personally impoverished, Catherine had a powerful
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| 60 | family name and thus secured an appointment as lady-in-waiting to
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| 61 | Henry's fourth queen, Anne of Cleves. While at court, she caught
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| 62 | the eye of the middle-aged king and became a political pawn of her
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| 63 | family and its Catholic allies. Catherine's greatest crime was
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| 64 | her silliness. Raised in the far too permissive household of her
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| 65 | grandmother, she was a flirtatious and emotional girl who rarely
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| 66 | understood the consequences of her actions. She made the mistake
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| 67 | of continuing her girlish indiscretions as queen. Henry was
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| 68 | besotted with her, calling her his 'Rose without a Thorn' and showering
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| 69 | her with gifts and public affection. Catherine was understandably
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| 70 | more attracted to men her own age and, after just seventeen months of
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| 71 | marriage to the king, she was arrested for adultery. The
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| 72 | distraught king at first refused to believe the evidence but it was
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| 73 | persuasive. Unlike Anne Boleyn, Catherine had betrayed the
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| 74 | king. She was beheaded on 13 February 1542, only nineteen or
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| 75 | twenty years old. <font face="Times New Roman,Times"
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| 76 | color="#000000">The drama of her execution lends gravity to a brief
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| 77 | life which would otherwise pass unnoticed.</font></b></p>
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| 78 | <blockquote>
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| 79 | <p> </p>
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| 80 | <p><a
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| 81 | href="howard.html#Biography">
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| 82 | <font size="4"><br>
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| 83 | Read the biography of Catherine Howard.</font></a></p>
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| 84 | <p><br>
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| 85 | <b>Primary Sources</b> <br>
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| 86 | Read <a href="../letter13.html">Catherine's
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| 87 | letter to Thomas Culpeper</a>. <br>
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| 88 | <a href="../pricath.html">The fall
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| 89 | of Catherine Howard</a>, 1540</p>
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| 90 | <p>Visit <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/images.html">Tudor
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| 91 | England: Images</a> to view the only known portrait of Catherine. </p>
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| 92 | <p>Test your knowledge of Catherine's life at <a
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| 93 | href="../tudor1.html">Tudor Quizzes</a>.</p>
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| 94 | <p><font size="2"><b><br>
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| 95 | Interact<br>
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| 96 | </b> Meet other Six Wives enthusiasts at <a
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| 97 | href="http://ladiesallfanlist.cjb.net/">Ladies All: A Fanlisting for
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| 98 | the Six Wives of Henry VIII</a>.<br>
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| 99 | <a href="http://tudorhistory.org/lists/list.html"> Tudor Talk </a> This
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| 100 | email discussion list is sponsored by Tudorhistory.org.<br>
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| 101 | <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Reign_of_the_Tudors_rpg/">Reign
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| 102 | of the Tudors</a> This is a role-playing game set in 16th century
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| 103 | England. If you would like to 'play' Jane Grey or Anne Boleyn or
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| 104 | other Tudors, click the link to join.</font></p>
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| 105 | <p align="left"> </p>
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| 106 | </blockquote>
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| 107 | </td>
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| 108 | <td width="25%" height="610"><br>
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| 109 | </td>
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| 110 | </tr>
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| 111 | </tbody>
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| 112 | </table>
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| 113 | <blockquote>
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| 114 | <blockquote>
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| 115 | <blockquote>
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| 116 | <p><b><a name="Biography"></a></b><font size="4">'I found her in
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| 117 | such lamentation and heaviness, as I never saw no creature, so that it
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| 118 | would have pitied any man's heart in the world, to have looked upon
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| 119 | her.'</font> <i><font size="-1">Thomas Cranmer describes
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| 120 | visiting Catherine after her arrest, 1542</font></i> </p>
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| 121 | </blockquote>
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| 122 | </blockquote>
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| 123 | <p> </p>
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| 124 | <p><b>Biography</b> <br>
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| 125 | Catherine Howard's short life is one of the great cautionary tales of
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| 126 | Henry VIII's reign; there is about it something strangely pathetic and
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| 127 | small, but also powerful and moving. Catherine was neither
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| 128 | particularly beautiful or intelligent, but she was a charming,
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| 129 | flirtatious girl who rose, virtually overnight, from obscurity to
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| 130 | become queen of England. </p>
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| 131 | <p>She was the daughter of the 2d duke of Norfolk's youngest son,
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| 132 | Edmund, and his wife, Jocasta (Joyce) Culpeper. She was one of
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| 133 | too many children for her impoverished parents and the date of her
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| 134 | birth was not recorded; most historians believe it was 1521.
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| 135 | Edmund was not an auspicious individual and, like most younger sons,
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| 136 | spent most of his life in constant need of money. He complained
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| 137 | to the king's chief minister <a
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| 138 | href="../citizens/cromwell.html">Thomas
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| 139 | Cromwell</a> that he wished to be a poor man's son for at least then he
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| 140 | could work without shame. But he was an aristocrat, a member of
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| 141 | one of the greatest noble families of England, and he could do little
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| 142 | but beg for help from one relation to another. He sent his
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| 143 | daughter to live with her grandmother, the dowager duchess of Norfolk,
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| 144 | and thus avoided responsibility for Catherine's upbringing. This
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| 145 | should not reflect badly upon him since it was typical of the times;
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| 146 | and though Catherine's grandmother complained ceaselessly about the
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| 147 | expense of supporting numerous grandchildren, she did provide a
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| 148 | comfortable home. She did not, however, provide strict
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| 149 | supervision - a fact which would have dire consequences for the entire
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| 150 | Norfolk family after Catherine became queen. </p>
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| 151 | <p>Catherine was raised in a type of dormitory at Lambeth Palace,
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| 152 | crowded in with other young girls (some were servants to her
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| 153 | grandmother) and her education was not intellectual. Rather, her
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| 154 | days were spent passing the time in the most pleasant manner
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| 155 | possible. The duchess's household was not wealthy and Catherine
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| 156 | understandably chafed at her constricted lifestyle. There was
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| 157 | within her a strong love of luxury and inability to control her
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| 158 | desires; this was a lack of self-control, a realization that certain
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| 159 | things should not be done, must not be risked, no matter how much she
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| 160 | wanted something. While she was simply one of many daughters of
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| 161 | an impoverished lord, this immaturity did not matter. But when
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| 162 | she became queen, it remained and past indiscretions also returned to
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| 163 | haunt her. </p>
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| 164 | <p>Catherine grew into a merry and vivacious girl, not conventionally
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| 165 | beautiful but graceful and charming. She possessed all the
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| 166 | vitality of youth, something which proved irresistible to her aged
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| 167 | king. The only part of her sporadic education which she seemed to
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| 168 | enjoy were her music lessons; in particular, she enjoyed the attentions
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| 169 | of her music teacher, a man named Henry Mannox. They first met in
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| 170 | 1536, when Catherine was just fifteen years old. Hired to teach
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| 171 | her the virginal and lute, Mannox soon began a practiced seduction of
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| 172 | his young pupil. </p>
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| 173 | <p>Catherine later swore the relationship was not consummated.
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| 174 | 'At the flattering and fair persuasions of Mannox being but a young
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| 175 | girl I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret
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| 176 | parts of my body which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him
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| 177 | to require,' she later told interrogators. Mannox admitted the
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| 178 | same. Since Catherine later confessed to more serious
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| 179 | transgressions, there was no reason for her to lie in this
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| 180 | instance. And one can certainly condemn Mannox for taking
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| 181 | advantage of his young student. </p>
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| 182 | <p>As a mere music teacher, Mannox was too far below her in social
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| 183 | status for a serious relationship to develop. Though he followed
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| 184 | the duchess's household to London in 1538, Catherine's attentions soon
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| 185 | turned elsewhere. She fell in love with a gentleman-pensioner in
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| 186 | her grandmother's household named Francis Dereham. This
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| 187 | relationship was far more serious and undoubtedly consummated.
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| 188 | There is much evidence on this point, including Catherine's own
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| 189 | confession: 'Francis Dereham by many persuasions procured me to his
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| 190 | vicious purpose and obtained first to lie upon my bed with his doublet
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| 191 | and hose and after within the bed and finally he lay with me naked and
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| 192 | used me in such sort as a man doth his wife many and sundry times but
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| 193 | how often I know not.' </p>
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| 194 | <p>Their affair continued throughout 1538. They addressed one
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| 195 | another as 'husband' and 'wife' and when Dereham was sent to Ireland on
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| 196 | business, he left 100 pds in Catherine's keeping. </p>
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| 197 | <p>But Mannox, still with the household, was infuriated; his
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| 198 | attraction to Catherine continued while she spurned his company for
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| 199 | Dereham's. In revenge, he sent an anonymous note to the dowager
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| 200 | duchess. She then discovered Catherine and Dereham together and
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| 201 | there was a frightful scene. But a physical relationship between
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| 202 | a betrothed couple was not uncommon by sixteenth-century standards and
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| 203 | Catherine and Dereham parted with some understanding of marriage when
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| 204 | he returned from Ireland. </p>
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| 205 | <p>But, unluckily for Dereham, Catherine's heart cooled towards him
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| 206 | while he was away. And in 1539, having moved closer to court and
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| 207 | staying at her uncle's house, she met Thomas Culpeper. A
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| 208 | gentleman of the king's Privy Chamber and cousin of Catherine's mother
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| 209 | Joyce Culpeper, he was a handsome and charming young man; his position
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| 210 | in court was considered important since it allowed personal access to
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| 211 | the king. Catherine fell in love with him, though Culpeper's own
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| 212 | feelings are not known. Catherine's family was powerful and she
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| 213 | was an attractive girl. It is likely that he was at least
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| 214 | interested in her, if not immediately infatuated. </p>
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| 215 | <p>But then the great event occurred which was to change Catherine's
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| 216 | life forever. She arrived at court in late 1539 or early 1540 as
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| 217 | a lady-in-waiting to <a
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| 218 | href="cleves.html">Anne of
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| 219 | Cleves</a> and Henry VIII fell in love with her. </p>
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| 220 | <p>It is clear from Catherine's life before meeting the king that she
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| 221 | was a flirtatious and emotional girl. It is also clear that she
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| 222 | possessed the charm and sexual allure to attract men. These were
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| 223 | to be her greatest strengths and weaknesses, for while they attracted
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| 224 | the king, they also led her into increasingly reckless behavior.
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| 225 | If she had married Dereham or Culpeper, or any other social-climber,
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| 226 | she would have remained a gossip and flirt, perhaps she would have
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| 227 | succumbed to adultery. But behavior that could be tolerated in a
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| 228 | poor niece of a duke was treason in a queen of England. </p>
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| 229 | <p>Catherine's family was torn between elation and trepidation with
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| 230 | regard to Henry's infatuation. T<font face="Times New Roman,Times"
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| 231 | color="#000000">he Norfolk name was one of the oldest in
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| 232 | England. They had supported Richard III against the first Tudor
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| 233 | king, Henry VII, but managed to win favor with their military prowess
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| 234 | and servile devotion to the new dynasty. But Henry VIII never
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| 235 | fully trusted Thomas Howard, the 3d duke of Norfolk, though he wed two
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| 236 | of Norfolk's nieces. Their grand name, then, was both blessing
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| 237 | and curse. As an old family in a court of upstarts and fond of
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| 238 | feudal prerogative, Catherine's relatives had made wary friends and
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| 239 | bitter enemies at court. And the divisive reign of Anne Boleyn,
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| 240 | herself no friend of her Norfolk relations (the duke presided over her
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| 241 | trial), had taught them all to tread carefully about the king.
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| 242 | And Catherine's personality worried them. Could she sustain the
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| 243 | king's attraction? And, if so, could she become a mature and
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| 244 | successful queen?</font> </p>
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| 245 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">It is important
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| 246 | to remember that Henry's previous English queens, <a
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| 247 | href="boleyn.html">Anne Boleyn</a>
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| 248 | and <a href="seymour.html">Jane
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| 249 | Seymour</a>, had spent years in royal service before marrying their
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| 250 | king. They were veterans of the English court and knew the
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| 251 | intricacies and dangers of their position. Catherine was a mere
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| 252 | child by contrast, barely literate, and born in a later
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| 253 | generation. But for the conservative faction at Henry's court,
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| 254 | those dedicated to the restoration of the Catholic faith as practiced
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| 255 | before the Reformation, she was their last, best hope. Unlike
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| 256 | Anne Boleyn, Catherine's personal and political success was not tied to
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| 257 | the Protestant faith. She had been raised Catholic by her Norfolk
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| 258 | grandmother and, despite her personal lapses, she represented the
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| 259 | conservative faith to others.</font> </p>
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| 260 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">Catherine's
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| 261 | relatives questioned her maturity, but they were not willing to risk
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| 262 | the king's wrath by pointing it out. Henry VIII was mercurial and
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| 263 | dangerous, and his latest marriage was a bitter disappointment.
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| 264 | Woe to the courtier who spoke ill of his latest attraction! It
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| 265 | was left to the Norfolk clan to coach Catherine as best they could and
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| 266 | hope their triumph would last. </font> </p>
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| 267 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">The king soon
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| 268 | publicly favored young Mistress Howard. On 24 April she was given
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| 269 | lands seized from a felon; a few weeks later, she received an expensive
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| 270 | gift of quilted sarcanet. It is possible their relationship was
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| 271 | consummated around this time for there was a sudden urgency to annul
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| 272 | the ill-fated marriage to Anne of Cleves. The king's advisors
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| 273 | soon found a valid impediment to the fourth marriage and, on 13 July
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| 274 | 1540, it was officially ended by Parliament. Meanwhile, the
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| 275 | French ambassador reported rumors that Catherine was pregnant.
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| 276 | The king had one son and heir but the vagaries of life in the 16th
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| 277 | century made another heir necessary. Henry had just turned
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| 278 | forty-nine years old and half his subjects were eighteen or
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| 279 | younger. The security of his realm was his greatest concern and
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| 280 | it could only be guaranteed by legitimate heirs; as a second son
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| 281 | himself, he knew the life of young <a
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| 282 | href="edward6.html">Prince
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| 283 | Edward</a> was a slender thread upon which to balance a dynasty.</font>
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| 284 | </p>
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| 285 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">Henry married
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| 286 | Catherine on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. The
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| 287 | ceremony was a success, albeit lacking in the usual pomp and display of
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| 288 | royal unions. Catherine was never crowned queen of England.
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| 289 | Henry VIII simply couldn't afford the ceremony; perhaps, too, he wished
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| 290 | to wait until the marriage proved successful in the most important way
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| 291 | and Catherine bore him a son. The king consulted his council on
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| 292 | creating a new succession should the blessed event occur, pushing his
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| 293 | daughters Mary and Elizabeth even further from the throne.</font> </p>
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| 294 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">The next year
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| 295 | was an Indian summer in the king's life. Catherine chose as her
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| 296 | motto 'Non autre volonte que la sienne' ('No other wish but his' or 'No
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| 297 | other will than his') and did her best to amuse and distract him.
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| 298 | The waste of lives and exorbitant money fighting France had depressed
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| 299 | the English treasury and the king's spirits. And the Reformation
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| 300 | had cost him the love of the common people. Henry also
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| 301 | increasingly suffered from the ailments which would kill him a few
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| 302 | years later. He had severe headaches and pains throughout his
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| 303 | body; he found it difficult to sleep and was often impotent. </font>
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| 304 | </p>
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| 305 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">English
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| 306 | politics had become another headache for the king. His great
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| 307 | advisor and friend, Thomas Cromwell, had championed the Protestant
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| 308 | cause and the union with Anne of Cleves. The king's
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| 309 | disappointment - and the endless conniving of Cromwell's enemies - led
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| 310 | to his arrest and execution on the very day Henry and Catherine
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| 311 | married. Within a few months, the king openly lamented the loss
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| 312 | of his 'most faithful servant'. </font> </p>
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| 313 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">Chief among
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| 314 | Cromwell's enemies were Catherine's uncle Norfolk and his close friend,
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| 315 | Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. Norfolk had always chafed
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| 316 | at the power Henry granted the 'commoner' Cromwell; Gardiner was a
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| 317 | Catholic who despised Cromwell's legislative destruction of the papacy
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| 318 | in England. They used Catherine and the king's own impatience and
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| 319 | cupidity to destroy Cromwell. But it was only a brief triumph.</font>
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| 320 | </p>
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| 321 | <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times" color="#000000">Catherine was
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| 322 | not pregnant in the summer of 1540, nor did she become so. But
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| 323 | the king was so physically affectionate with her in public that none
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| 324 | doubted the happy event would occur. Still, warning signs about
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| 325 | this hasty marriage had already begun. Catherine's relationship
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| 326 | with Dereham had never been kept secret, though Henry was perhaps
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| 327 | unaware of it. His courtiers gossiped and wondered. Joan
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| 328 | Bulmer, a young woman who had lived with Catherine at Lambeth,
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| 329 | requested that Catherine bring her to court to share in her 'great
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| 330 | destiny'; it was a subtle blackmail. In August 1541, Dereham was
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| 331 | made her secretary, perhaps as a bribe to keep quiet about their former
|
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| 332 | relationship. So even as she collected rich gifts of gowns,
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| 333 | jewels, fur cloaks, and golden clocks, Catherine knew her indecorous
|
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| 334 | past lurked in the background. Was she worried? As her
|
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| 335 | later behavior showed, she was not. </font> </p>
|
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| 336 | <p>She was not merely collecting personal finery, but also lands and
|
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| 337 | manors that had once belonged to Jane Seymour and even Thomas
|
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| 338 | Cromwell. And she began to explore the traditional role of the
|
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| 339 | queen as patroness. She also took great care to ensure her aged
|
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| 340 | husband's happiness. Many biographers have speculated on
|
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| 341 | Catherine's true feelings for Henry VIII. She probably did not
|
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| 342 | love him in the most romantic sense of the word, but she did love him
|
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| 343 | for the affection and generosity he showed her. And she also
|
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| 344 | approached him with something of an awed reverence, for he was the king
|
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| 345 | and thus a quasi-mystical figure, all-knowing and all-powerful. </p>
|
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| 346 | <p>But he was not immune to illness and in the spring of 1541, the
|
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| 347 | king fell low with a serious fever and Catherine was sent away for her
|
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| 348 | own safety. It was around this time that she began her affair
|
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| 349 | with Culpeper, the handsome young man who had caught her fancy two
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| 350 | years before; as evidence, we need only <a
|
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| 351 | href="../letter13.html">read her only
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| 352 | surviving letter</a>, written to Culpeper in April 1541. When the
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| 353 | king recovered, he took Catherine on a royal progress through the north
|
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| 354 | of England and again the French ambassador reported rumors of her
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| 355 | pregnancy. It was even suggested that, should the condition be
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| 356 | confirmed, Catherine would be crowned at York Minster. These
|
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| 357 | rumors prove that Henry still made love to his wife on a somewhat
|
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| 358 | regular basis. And for her part, Catherine was confident she
|
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| 359 | could 'meddle with a man' without pregnancy, which made her
|
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| 360 | relationship with Culpeper safe. He and Dereham both traveled in
|
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| 361 | the progress as members of the royal household. </p>
|
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| 362 | <p>In Catherine's rather simple view of marriage, as long as she and
|
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| 363 | the king were happy, nothing else mattered. And since the king
|
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| 364 | would be happy as long as he was ignorant, all would be well. </p>
|
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| 365 | <p>And the king was ignorant for a surprisingly long time. For
|
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| 366 | his part, Culpeper was using Catherine's infatuation to further his own
|
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| 367 | ambitions. He was not a particularly 'gentlemanly'
|
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| 368 | gentleman. In fact, he had brutally raped a park-keeper's wife,
|
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| 369 | ordering three of his servants to hold her down during the attack; he
|
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| 370 | also murdered a villager who tried to save her. He had been
|
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| 371 | pardoned by the king, but it is one of the few facts we know about
|
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| 372 | Culpeper and not a pleasant one. His ambitions regarding
|
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| 373 | Catherine undoubtedly stemmed from Henry VIII's ill health. If
|
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| 374 | the king died, then the queen dowager would maintain some influence and
|
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| 375 | power at court. Before that inevitable day, she could give him as
|
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| 376 | many expensive gifts as he desired. </p>
|
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| 377 | <p>Did Catherine love Culpeper? She undoubtedly did, at least
|
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| 378 | as much as her immature view of love allowed. He was handsome,
|
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| 379 | very charming, if only in a superficial manner, and he complemented and
|
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| 380 | cajoled her. She became increasingly open in her affection,
|
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| 381 | enough to worry Culpeper himself. As a gentleman of the privy
|
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| 382 | chamber, he knew the king's moods better than anyone and had no desire
|
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| 383 | to risk much for Catherine. </p>
|
|---|
| 384 | <p>But there were others at court who knew of the relationship, and
|
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| 385 | they would not keep quiet. When the northern progress finally
|
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| 386 | ended on 1 November, and the royal couple settled at Hampton Court
|
|---|
| 387 | Palace, Catherine's past and present indiscretions caught up with
|
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| 388 | her. She had been safe enough during the northern progress, for a
|
|---|
| 389 | traveling court was not nearly as gossip-ridden as a settled one; there
|
|---|
| 390 | were, after all, far more practical matters to attend to as the king
|
|---|
| 391 | moved from city to city. But once they were home, other matters
|
|---|
| 392 | could take precedence - matters like the queen's infidelity. </p>
|
|---|
| 393 | <p>Catherine's fall from grace was so rapid that foreign ambassadors
|
|---|
| 394 | were at a loss to explain it. The man behind it was John
|
|---|
| 395 | Lascelles, the brother of Mary Hall, herself a chambermaid to the
|
|---|
| 396 | dowager duchess of Norfolk and thus privy to Catherine's past.
|
|---|
| 397 | However, the past was not necessarily a danger to the queen; most young
|
|---|
| 398 | women could not withstand scrutiny of their early flirtations.
|
|---|
| 399 | They were perhaps not serious enough to warrant her execution.
|
|---|
| 400 | Lascelles, who was a 'convinced reformer', was motivated by his
|
|---|
| 401 | religious convictions and not personal animosity towards
|
|---|
| 402 | Catherine. But she represented the conservative Catholic faction
|
|---|
| 403 | and, with her influence, they were growing more powerful and
|
|---|
| 404 | reactionary. Lascelles went to Thomas Cranmer, Henry's close
|
|---|
| 405 | friend and archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer recognized the
|
|---|
| 406 | dangers to Catherine, namely the precontract with Dereham that would
|
|---|
| 407 | invalidate her marriage to Henry VIII. The precontract, of
|
|---|
| 408 | course, while ending her marriage, also excused her intimacy with
|
|---|
| 409 | Dereham. </p>
|
|---|
| 410 | <p>On 2 November, while Henry attended a Mass for All Souls' Day,
|
|---|
| 411 | Cranmer passed him a letter with the charges. The king was
|
|---|
| 412 | immediately 'perplexed' and believed the letter was a forgery.
|
|---|
| 413 | This was his first and thoroughly honest reaction; Catherine had
|
|---|
| 414 | deceived him well. He ordered Cranmer to keep the matter private
|
|---|
| 415 | and began an investigation. It took but a few days for
|
|---|
| 416 | Catherine's house of cards to come tumbling down. </p>
|
|---|
| 417 | <p>An assortment of female servants were arrested and sent to the
|
|---|
| 418 | Tower, as was Dereham. He was tortured; he confessed his earlier
|
|---|
| 419 | relationship and named Culpeper as the queen's current lover.
|
|---|
| 420 | Culpeper was then arrested, tortured, and confessed. </p>
|
|---|
| 421 | <p>When confronted with the confessions, Henry's confusion gave way
|
|---|
| 422 | to great anger and self-pity. He managed to blame everyone but
|
|---|
| 423 | himself for this latest marital catastrophe. He wished for a
|
|---|
| 424 | sword to slay Catherine himself - a not uncommon reaction for a
|
|---|
| 425 | cuckolded husband, particularly one who had been so generous and
|
|---|
| 426 | trusting. He left Hampton Court on 5 November, sailing to
|
|---|
| 427 | Whitehall Palace. Catherine was arrested on 12 November and her
|
|---|
| 428 | tearful pleas to see the king were ignored; she was locked in her
|
|---|
| 429 | rooms. Two days later, she was taken to Syon House. She
|
|---|
| 430 | would never see Henry again. </p>
|
|---|
| 431 | <p>Cranmer was given the distasteful task of interrogating the
|
|---|
| 432 | terrified girl. She was hysterical, convinced she would be
|
|---|
| 433 | executed like her cousin; even the archbishop felt pity for her
|
|---|
| 434 | condition. Perhaps he suggested an option to Henry VIII that he
|
|---|
| 435 | had first proposed for Anne Boleyn - let Catherine admit her sins,
|
|---|
| 436 | annul the marriage, and send her away. The Dereham precontract
|
|---|
| 437 | was the perfect excuse. Catherine need only admit its existence
|
|---|
| 438 | and her life would be spared. It was the king's 'most gracious
|
|---|
| 439 | mercy' and her only possible chance for survival. </p>
|
|---|
| 440 | <p>But Catherine, frightened and lacking any counsel, did not realize
|
|---|
| 441 | that the precontract would save her life. Instead, she was
|
|---|
| 442 | convinced it would be used to condemn her. And so, even as she
|
|---|
| 443 | admitted to 'carnal copulation' with Dereham, she stressed his
|
|---|
| 444 | 'importune forcement' and 'violence'. She and Cranmer wanted the
|
|---|
| 445 | same end but talked at odds. And it was possible, too, that Henry
|
|---|
| 446 | VIII had never intended to spare her life. </p>
|
|---|
| 447 | <p>Indeed, with each day that passed, the king was less inclined to
|
|---|
| 448 | show mercy. The floodgates had opened and ever more scurrilous
|
|---|
| 449 | rumors were heard about his 'Rose without a thorn'. </p>
|
|---|
| 450 | <p>Catherine was demoted from her position as Queen on 22 November
|
|---|
| 451 | and formally indicted two days later for leading an 'abominable, base,
|
|---|
| 452 | carnal, voluptuous and vicious life'. She remained at Syon House
|
|---|
| 453 | for the next two months. On 10 December, Dereham paid a horrific
|
|---|
| 454 | penalty for his 'crimes'; he was hung, drawn, and quartered
|
|---|
| 455 | (disemboweled and castrated while still conscious) as a traitor.
|
|---|
| 456 | Culpeper was also executed that day, though he suffered a more merciful
|
|---|
| 457 | beheading; this was ordered by the king, perhaps because of Culpeper's
|
|---|
| 458 | higher rank and personal service in his household. Their heads
|
|---|
| 459 | were fixed on spears atop London Bridge and remained there as late as
|
|---|
| 460 | 1546. </p>
|
|---|
| 461 | <p>Catherine, meanwhile, continued in a state of suspended
|
|---|
| 462 | hysteria. Her various relatives were sent to the Tower, including
|
|---|
| 463 | the elderly dowager duchess. Only the duke survived, having
|
|---|
| 464 | sufficiently humbled himself before Henry. </p>
|
|---|
| 465 | <p>Perhaps the executions of Dereham and Culpeper had brought a
|
|---|
| 466 | newfound maturity to Catherine. She was content to remain quietly
|
|---|
| 467 | at Syon House, though it was clear the king could not allow it.
|
|---|
| 468 | On 21 January the House of Lords passed an Act of Attainder and it
|
|---|
| 469 | received the king's approval on 11 February. It was intended to
|
|---|
| 470 | answer the question vexing them all - of what exactly was Catherine
|
|---|
| 471 | Howard guilty? If she had been precontracted to Dereham, then she
|
|---|
| 472 | was never married to the king - and thus not guilty of adultery.
|
|---|
| 473 | But in a speech on 6 February, Henry made it clear that the new Act
|
|---|
| 474 | could punish those who <i>intended</i> to commit treason (or adultery,
|
|---|
| 475 | since adultery in a queen was treason.) It was this intent which
|
|---|
| 476 | sealed Catherine's fate. </p>
|
|---|
| 477 | <p>On Friday, 10 February 1542, the duke of Suffolk arrived to take
|
|---|
| 478 | Catherine to the Tower of London. The hysterical frenzy returned;
|
|---|
| 479 | she struggled and had to be forced aboard the barge. She was
|
|---|
| 480 | dressed in black velvet and lodged in the Queen's Apartments, though no
|
|---|
| 481 | longer queen. On Sunday night, she was informed that she would be
|
|---|
| 482 | executed the next day. Her only request was that the block be
|
|---|
| 483 | brought to her for she wished to 'know how to place herself.' It
|
|---|
| 484 | was to be her last act on a grand stage; she would die with all the
|
|---|
| 485 | dignity and composure possible. </p>
|
|---|
| 486 | <p>Around seven o'clock on Monday, 13 February, several privy
|
|---|
| 487 | councilors arrived as escort. Her uncle Norfolk was not among
|
|---|
| 488 | them, having wisely withdrawn to his country estates. Catherine
|
|---|
| 489 | was weak and frightened and had to be helped up the steps to the
|
|---|
| 490 | scaffold. But once there, she made a small, quiet speech
|
|---|
| 491 | regarding her 'worthy and just punishment'; she prayed for the king's
|
|---|
| 492 | preservation and for God's forgiveness. The actual execution was
|
|---|
| 493 | over quickly. Catherine's body was interred at the nearby chapel of St
|
|---|
| 494 | Peter ad Vincula. </p>
|
|---|
| 495 | <p>Catherine Howard did not have an impact upon English
|
|---|
| 496 | history. She is perhaps the most inconsequential of Henry VIII's
|
|---|
| 497 | six wives, her reign as queen a very brief eighteen months. She
|
|---|
| 498 | bore no children and made no lasting impression upon those who knew
|
|---|
| 499 | her. But it should be remembered that she was thirty years
|
|---|
| 500 | younger than her husband, a silly young girl who never understood the
|
|---|
| 501 | dangers of royal regard. Her life was over before it had truly
|
|---|
| 502 | begun; we can only wonder how it might have ended differently.</p>
|
|---|
| 503 | <p> <br>
|
|---|
| 504 | </p>
|
|---|
| 505 | <blockquote>
|
|---|
| 506 | <center>
|
|---|
| 507 | <p><font size="-1"><a
|
|---|
| 508 | href="wives.html">to the Six
|
|---|
| 509 | Wives main page</a></font> <br>
|
|---|
| 510 | <font size="2"><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to
|
|---|
| 511 | Tudor England</a></font></p>
|
|---|
| 512 | <p><font size="2">The only biography of Catherine Howard is <i>A
|
|---|
| 513 | Tudor Tragedy</i> by Lacey Baldwin Smith,<br>
|
|---|
| 514 | which is sadly out-of-print. Catherine is also the subject of
|
|---|
| 515 | Ford Madox Ford's<br>
|
|---|
| 516 | <i>The Fifth Queen</i>, one of my favorite works of historical
|
|---|
| 517 | fiction.</font></p>
|
|---|
| 518 | </center>
|
|---|
| 519 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 520 | </blockquote>
|
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| 521 | </body>
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