Catherine Howard (1523-13 February 1542) was Queen consort of England from 28 July 1540 to 23 November 1541 as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was married to him for a little over a year, but he had her beheaded after he discovered her adultery with her servants Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Catherine Howard in 1540
Catherine Howard was born in Lambeth, London, England in 1523 to a family of aristocrats. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and she was also the first cousin of Anne Boleyn. Soon after the death of her mother in 1523, she was sent with some of her siblings to live under the care of her father's stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Her uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, found her a place at court in the household of Queen Anne of Cleves in 1540. As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, she quickly caught King Henry VIII's eye; he was not content with Queen Anne, and he found Howard as a new lover of his. On 28 July 1540, the two of them married in secret; that same day, Thomas Cromwell - the architect of Henry's marriage to Anne - was executed.
Queen of England[]
King Henry and Catherine in December 1540
On 8 August 1540, King Henry and Catherine made their marriage public. The two frequently made love, with Henry madly loving the young, joyous, and carefree Catherine, who craved the attention and gifts that Henry gave to her. However, she did not get along well with Henry's oldest daughter, Lady Mary of England, who was older than Catherine, yet unmarried. Catherine, sick and tired of Mary's hostility, decided to insult her by claiming that she was jealous, and that, although Mary was older than her, she was unmarried, and likely would be forever. She also proceeded to deprive Mary of two of her servants, making Mary incredibly sad and resentful towards the Queen. Catherine later grew jealous herself, as she saw that, on New Year's Eve, 1540, the King invited his ex-wife and good friend Anne of Cleves to celebrate the New Year, and gave her gifts as well. Catherine's old friend and new lady-in-waiting, Joan Bulmer, decided to arrange for her to have trysts with a young privy chamber gentleman, Thomas Culpeper, who had been longing for her. The two had a secret love affair, and this, coupled with Henry's absence due to his near-fatal leg problems, damaged their relationship.
Downfall[]
Howard's death
In early 1541, King Henry received an anonymous letter accusing his wife of sexual relationships with two men, including Francis Dereham. While skeptical of this claim, King Henry had the Earl of Hertford investigate further. Catherine was confined to her apartments by the King's orders, with no visitors permitted. Dereham, Bulmer, and the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk were interrogated, and Dereham confessed that he and Katherine Howard had planned to get married and that he knew her carnally before she became Queen. Henry responded by having Howard removed from court and her title as Queen withdrawn. Her pleas for understanding and forgiveness were coldly ignored, and Katherine Howard, Thomas Culpeper, Francis Dereham and Catherine's lady-in-waiting Lady Rochford were all executed by beheading for treason and adultery. Howard's last words were, "I have come here to die. I die a Queen, but I would rather die the wife of Culpeper." She was beheaded on the same bloody block on which Rochford had been executed moments before.