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| 4 | <meta name="content" content="Primary Sources - Letter of Queen Catherine Howard to Master Thomas Culpeper, spring 1541">
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| 9 | <title>Primary Sources - Letter of Queen Catherine Howard to Master Thomas
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| 10 | Culpeper, spring 1541 </title>
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| 29 | <td width="15%" height="610"></td>
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| 30 | <td valign="top" width="70%" height="610" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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| 31 | <p align="center"><b><FONT size=+1>Letter of Queen Catherine Howard to Master Thomas
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| 32 | Culpeper<br>spring 1541</FONT> </b> </p>
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| 33 | <p>
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| 34 | <b>
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| 35 | <IMG height=202 alt="miniature portrait of Queen Catherine Howard"
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| 36 | src="howard1.jpg" width=200 align=left></b><FONT size=-1><b>Background</b><br>This is
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| 37 | the only surviving letter written by Henry VIII's fifth wife. It was
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| 38 | written in the spring of 1541, roughly eight months after she married the
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| 39 | king. After Catherine's fall from grace, Culpeper was among the men
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| 40 | charged with committing adultery with the queen. It was a treasonable
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| 41 | offense, and he was executed for it (along with Francis Dereham.)
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| 42 | Culpeper tried to save himself by arguing that he had met with Catherine only
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| 43 | because the young queen was 'dying of love for him', and would not let him end
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| 44 | the relationship. </FONT></p>
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| 45 | <p><FONT size=-1>Catherine, for her part, argued otherwise; she told
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| 46 | her interrogators that Culpeper ceaselessly begged for a meeting and she was
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| 47 | too fearful to refuse. However, the letter clearly supports Culpeper's
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| 48 | version of events. After all, the queen did write 'it makes my heart die
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| 49 | to think what fortune I have that I cannot be always in your company.'</FONT>
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| 50 | </p>
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| 51 | <p><FONT size=-1>The affection she felt for Culpeper led to a legend
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| 52 | surrounding Catherine's last words - 'I die a Queen, but would rather die the
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| 53 | wife of Culpeper.' This final declaration of love did not occur; its
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| 54 | invention was an attempt to give Catherine's pathetic and tragic story some
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| 55 | mark of distinction.</FONT> </p>
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| 56 | <P><FONT size=-1>Catherine was not as well educated as Henry's other wives,
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| 57 | though her mere ability to read and write was impressive enough for the
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| 58 | time. This letter taxed her greatly, as she points out in the closing
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| 59 | lines. It is transcribed here as originally written, and the grammatical
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| 60 | mistakes are Catherine's own.<br></FONT><br><hr>
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| 61 | <p>Master Culpeper, <BR>I heartily recommend me unto you, praying
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| 62 | you to send me word how that you do. It was showed me that you was
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| 63 | sick, the which thing troubled me very much till such time that I hear from
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| 64 | you praying you to send me word how that you do, for I never longed so much
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| 65 | for a thing as I do to see you and to speak with you, the which I trust
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| 66 | shall be shortly now. That which doth comfortly me very much when I
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| 67 | think of it, and when I think again that you shall depart from me again it
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| 68 | makes my heart die to think what fortune I have that I cannot be always in
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| 69 | your company. It my trust is always in you that you will be as you
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| 70 | have promised me, and in that hope I trust upon still, praying you that you
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| 71 | will come when my Lady Rochford is here for then I shall be best at leisure
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| 72 | to be at your commandment, thanking you for that you have promised me to be
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| 73 | so good unto that poor fellow my man which is one of the griefs that I do
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| 74 | feel to depart from him for then I do know no one that I dare trust to send
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| 75 | to you, and therefore I pray you take him to be with you that I may sometime
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| 76 | hear from you one thing. I pray you to give me a horse for my man for
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| 77 | I had much ado to get one and therefore I pray send me one by him and in so
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| 78 | doing I am as I said afor, and thus I take my leave of you, trusting to see
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| 79 | you shortly again and I would you was with me now that you might see what
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| 80 | pain I take in writing to you. <BR>Yours as long as life endures,
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| 81 | <BR>Katheryn. <BR>One thing I had forgotten and that is to instruct my man
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| 82 | to tarry here with me still for he says whatsomever you bid him he will do
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| 83 | it.</p>
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| 84 | <p> </p>
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| 85 |
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| 86 | <BLOCKQUOTE>
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| 87 | <P>
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| 88 | <HR width="100%">
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| 89 | </BLOCKQUOTE>
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| 90 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A
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| 91 | href="letters.html">to Letters of the Six Wives
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| 92 | of Henry VIII</A></FONT></p>
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| 93 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A href="primary.html">to
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| 94 | Primary Sources</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1><A
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| 95 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor England</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1>
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| 96 | <a href="monarchs/howard.html">to Catherine
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| 97 | Howard website</a></FONT></p>
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