Queens of England, Catherine Howard, around 1521 - 1542 Catherine Howard was born sometime arou

Queens of England, Catherine Howard, around 1521 - 1542 

Catherine Howard was born sometime around 1521, her exact date of birth was not recorded. Her father was Lord Edmund Howard, a younger son of the Howard family and as such not seen as an important member. Her mother, Joyce Culpeper was on her second marriage with Edmund and Catherine was around her tenth child. As the family had so many children and were at the lower end of the family, Catherine’s father often had to resort to begging his relatives for money or favours. 

Catherine’s mother died when she was around seven years old and Catherine was sent to live with her father’s stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess took in many wards, both male and female, who lived in her household. This practice was common at the time, however the rules in her household are said to have been lax and the Duchess had little direct involvement with her wards. It was whilst in this household that Catherine had an affair with her music teacher Henry Mannox. Catherine would have been a teenager at the time and Mannox was older than her and in a position of influence. Catherine would later confess that during this time she had let Mannox touch certain parts of her body, but that they had never engaged in sexual intercourse. 

After Catherine’s time with Mannox ended, a new man entered the household. Francis Dereham was a secretary in the household and the two became close. The two referred to each other as husband and wife and he came to her bed at night. Francis also let Catherine carry out other wifely duties, such as looking after his money whilst he went away on business. The affair between the two ended, supposedly when the Dowager Duchess found out and put a stop to it. 

When Anne of Cleeves was brought to England as Henry VIII’s fourth wife, the Duke of Norfolk found a place for Catherine in the new Queen’s household. Within months of her arrival at court, Catherine was being pursued by Henry VIII, who made gifts of cloth and jewels to her. Henry arranged to be divorced from Anne of Cleeves and swiftly married Catherine on 28th July 1540.

Early in 1541 Catherine is said to have started an affair with on of Henry’s courtiers, Thomas Culpeper. Catherine and Henry toured the country in the summer of 1541, during which her affair with Culpeper continued. People who had known Catherine when she was younger began to seek her out, looking for favours, seemingly in return for keeping the secrets of her earlier indiscretions. The most notable of these was Francis Dereham, who Catherine took on as her personal secretary. 

At the beginning of November 1541 Henry VIII was handed a letter containing details of Catherine’s early affairs. Henry ordered an investigation and this led to all of Catherine’s secrets being discovered. When Archbishop Cranmer visited Catherine to question her a few days later he was that worried for her state of mind that he ordered all objects that she could use to do herself harm to be removed from her rooms. When all the details were laid before Henry he was furious and deeply upset. Catherine was stripped of her title as Queen and imprisoned at Syon Abbey, 

On 10th December 1541 Dereham and Culpeper were both executed. Catherine herself remained imprisoned until February 1542 when a bill of attainder was passed, stating that it was treason to fail to disclose your sexual history to the king before marrying him and that to then commit adultery whilst married to the king was also treason. Catherine was taken to the Tower of London where she was to face execution on 13 February. She was to be executed alongside Jane Boleyn, who had aided in her affair with Culpeper.

Catherine is said to have faced her death calmly, her final speech stating that the king was just and asking people to pray for her. It took one fall of the axe to sever Catherine’s head. She was buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower, where her cousin Anne Boleyn was also buried after a similar fate.