Catherine Howard

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen in November 1541 and beheaded three months later on the grounds of treason for committing adultery with her distant cousin, Thomas Culpeper.

Ancestry[edit]

Catherine had an aristocratic ancestry as a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443 – 1524), but her father, Lord Edmund Howard, was not wealthy, being the third son of his father – under the rules of primogeniture, the eldest son inherited all of the father's estate.


Catherine's mother, Joyce Culpeper, already had five children from her first husband, Ralph Leigh (c. 1476 – 1509) when she married Lord Edmund Howard, and they had another six together, Catherine being about her mother's tenth child. With little to sustain the family, her father often had to beg for the help of his more affluent relatives.


Her father's sister, Elizabeth Howard, was the mother of Anne Boleyn. Therefore, Catherine Howard was the first cousin of Anne Boleyn, and the first cousin once removed of Lady Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I), Anne's daughter by Henry VIII. She also was the second cousin of Jane Seymour, as her grandmother Elizabeth Tilney was the sister of Seymour's grandmother, Anne Say.^[1]


After Catherine's mother died in 1528, her father married two more times. In 1531, he was appointed Controller of Calais.^[2] He was dismissed from his post in 1539, and died in March 1539. Catherine was the third of Henry VIII's wives to have been a member of the English nobility or gentry; Catherine of Aragon^[3] and Anne of Cleves^[4] were royalty from continental Europe.

Arrival at court[edit]

Catherine's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, found her a place at Court in the household of the King's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.^[21] As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Catherine quickly caught the eye of multiple men, including the King and Thomas Culpeper. In the early stages of her time at court, and prior to the arrival of Anne of Cleves, the relationship between the King and Catherine has been little remarked upon. He seems to have found her attractive, and whenever they happened to be in each other's company they publicly flirted, but little else appears to have happened. As Anne arrived and the King came to show little interest in her, an opportunity for Catherine slowly began to present itself.^[22]


Prior to this point, Catherine and Thomas Culpeper had slowly entered into a quasi-relationship and one that was not sexual – although, from later testimony, Culpeper expected it to soon become so, also telling Catherine that he loved her (likely more lust than actual love). Catherine rejected this, and in response he moved onto another woman within the Queen's household. This deeply upset Catherine, who does appear to have had some level of feelings for him at this time, for on one occasion she broke down in tears in front of her fellow maids of honor. Prior to this instance, it was she who controlled how long her relationships lasted and when they ended. During this time, word reached back to Francis Dereham of the rumored soon-to-be marriage between the pair, and he arrived at court to dispute this with them both. After being, again, told off by Catherine, he returned to the dowager duchess's household, which he requested to leave, being Catherine was no longer there. Believing this desperation was temporary and soon to blow over, Agnes Howard denied this request.^[23]


The King had displayed little interest in Anne from the beginning, but some historians have argued that, with Thomas Cromwell failing to find a new match, Norfolk saw an opportunity. The Howards may have sought to recreate the influence gained during Anne Boleyn's reign as queen consort. According to Nicholas Sander, the religiously conservative Howard family may have seen Catherine as a figurehead for their fight by expressed determination to restore Roman Catholicism to England. Catholic bishop Stephen Gardiner entertained the couple at Winchester Palace with "feastings".^[24] However, Russell does not accept this interpretation.^[25]


As the King's interest in Catherine grew, so did the house of Norfolk's influence. Her youth, prettiness and vivacity were captivating for the middle-aged sovereign, who claimed he had never known "the like to any woman". Within months of her arrival at court, Henry bestowed gifts of land and expensive cloth upon Catherine. The first administrative evidence of this was a grant made on 24 April 1540.^[26] Henry called her his 'very jewel of womanhood' (that he called her his 'rose without a thorn' is likely a myth).^[27] The French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, thought her "delightful". Holbein's portrait showed a young auburn-haired girl with a characteristically hooked Howard nose; Catherine was said to have a "gentle, earnest face", ,^[28] while Elisabeth and Agnes Strickland, who co-authored the Victorian-era biography of Kathryn Howard in "The Lives of the Queens of England: Volume IV", where she is described as petite in stature, but of a full frame.