Catherine Howard was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541, as the fifth wife of Henry VIII.
Background
Catherine Howard was born about 1523 in Lambeth, London. Catherine was one of the daughters of Lord Edmund Howard (c. 1478 – 1539) and Joyce Culpeper (c. 1480 – c. 1528).
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), King Henry VIII and Anne's daughter.
As a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524), Catherine had an aristocratic pedigree.
Her father was not wealthy, being a younger son among 21 children and disfavoured in the custom of primogeniture, in which the eldest son inherits all his father's estate.
When Catherine's parents married, her mother already had five children from her first husband, Ralph Leigh (c. 1476 – 1509); she went on to have another six with Catherine's father, Catherine being about her mother's tenth child. With little to sustain the family, her father was often reduced to begging for handouts from his more affluent relatives. After Catherine's mother died in 1528, her father married twice more.
Education
Catherine was not as well educated as some of Henry's other wives, although, on its own, her ability to read and write was impressive enough at the time.
Career
As a result of the Dowager Duchess's lack of discipline, Catherine became influenced by some older girls who candidly allowed men into the sleeping areas at night for entertainment. The girls were rewarded with food and wine and gifts.
In the Duchess's household at Horsham, in around 1536, Catherine and her music teacher, Henry Mannox, began a sexual relationship.
Catherine was then aged about thirteen. He later gave evidence in the inquiry against her. Mannox and Catherine both confessed during her adultery inquisitions that they had engaged in sexual contact, but not actual coitus.
Her affair with Mannox came to an end in 1538, when Catherine, now aged 15, moved to the Dowager Duchess's household in Lambeth. There she was pursued by Francis Dereham, a secretary of the Dowager Duchess.
They became lovers, addressing each other as "husband" and "wife".
Dereham also entrusted Catherine with various wifely duties, such as keeping his money when he was away on business. Many of Catherine's roommates among the Dowager Duchess's maids of honour and attendants knew of the relationship, which apparently ended in 1539 when the Dowager Duchess found out. Despite this, Catherine and Dereham may have parted with intentions to marry upon his return from Ireland, agreeing to a precontract of marriage.
If indeed they exchanged vows before having sexual intercourse, they would have been considered married in the eyes of the Church. 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.
As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Catherine quickly caught Henry's eye.
The King had displayed little interest in Anne from the beginning, but on Cromwell's failure to find a new match for Henry, Norfolk saw an opportunity. The Howards may have sought to recreate the influence gained during Queen Anne's reign. 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". 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. Henry called her his 'rose without a thorn' and the 'very jewel of womanhood'.
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. "King Henry and Catherine were married by Bishop Bonner of London at Oatlands Palace on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. The marriage was made public on 8 August, and prayers were said in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace.
Henry "indulged her every whim" thanks to her "caprice". Catherine was young, joyous and carefree; Mannox had taught her to play the virginals. She was too young to take part in administrative matters of State.
Nevertheless, every night Sir Thomas Heneage, Groom of the Stool, came to her chamber to report on the King's well-being. No plans were made for a coronation, yet she still travelled downriver in the royal barge into the City of London to a gun salute and some acclamation.
She was settled by jointure at Baynard Castle: little changed at court, other than the arrival of many Howards. Every day she dressed with new clothes in the French fashion bedecked with precious jewels.
With ominous foresight the motto adopted read Non autre volonte que la sienne (No other wish but his), decorated in gold around her sleeves. The Queen escaped plague-ridden London in August 1540 when on progress. The royal couple's entourage travelled on honeymoon through Reading and Buckingham.
On 29 August the Duke of Grafton arrived for a Council meeting.
After the Queen's Chamberlain got drunk and misbehaved, the King was in a bad mood when they moved on to Woking, when his health improved.
The King embarked on a lavish spending spree to celebrate his marriage, with extensive refurbishments and developments at the Palace of Whitehall.
This was followed by more expensive gifts for Christmas at Hampton Court Palace.
That winter the King's bad moods deepened and grew more furious. Undoubtedly the pain from his ulcerous legs was agony, but did not make relations any easier at court.
He accused councillors of being "lying time-servers", and began to regret losing Cromwell. After a dark depressed March, his mood lifted at Easter.
Preparations were in place for any signs of a royal pregnancy, reported by Marillac on 15 April as "if it be found true, to have her crowned at Whitsuntide. "
At the same time Henry wanted the last of the Yorkists found out. It was alleged that, in spring 1541, Catherine had already embarked upon a romance with Henry's favourite male courtier, Thomas Culpeper, a young man who "had succeeded [him] in the Queen's affections", according to Dereham's later testimony.
Culpeper, called Catherine "my little, sweet fool" in a love letter, she considered marrying him during her time as a maid-of-honour to Anne of Cleves.
The couple's meetings were arranged by one of Catherine's older ladies-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (Lady Rochford), the widow of Catherine's executed cousin, George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's brother. During the autumn Northern Progress, a crisis began to loom over Catherine's conduct.
People who had witnessed her earlier indiscretions while still a ward at Lambeth contacted her for favours in return for their silence, and many of them were appointed to her royal household.
The brother of Mary Lascelles, John Lascelles, tried to convince his sister to find a place within the Queen's royal chamber, however, Mary refused stating she had witnessed the "light" ways of Queen Catherine while living together at Lambeth.
After hearing this John Lascelles reported such news to Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer who then interrogated Ladcelles' sister and upon doing so; became informed of Catherine's previous illicit sexual relations while under the Dutchess' care.
The reformist Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, immediately took up the case to be made to topple his rivals—the Roman Catholic Norfolk family. While Lady Rochford was under interrogation, and from fear of being tortured, agreed to tell all. She told how she had watched for Catherine backstairs as Culpeper had made his escapes from the Queen's room.
During the investigation, a love letter written in the Queen's distinctive handwriting was found in Culpeper's chambers This is the only letter of hers that still survives (other than her later confession). On All Saints' Day, 1 November 1541, the King was to be found in the Chapel Royal, praying as usual for this "jewel of womanhood". He received there a warrant of the queen's arrest that described her crimes.
On 7 November 1541, Archbishop Cranmer led a delegation of councillors to Winchester Palace, Southwark, to question her.
He ordered the guards to remove any objects that she might use to commit suicide.
When the Lords of the Council came for her, she panicked and screamed aloud, as they manhandled her into the waiting barge that would escort her to the Tower on Friday 10 February 1542, her flotilla passing under London Bridge where the heads of Culpeper and Dereham were impaled (and remained until 1546). Entering through the Traitors' Gate she was led to her prison cell.
The next day, the bill of attainder received Royal Assent, and Catherine's execution was scheduled for 7:00 am on Monday, 13 February 1542.
Arrangements for the execution were supervised by Sir John Gage in his role as Constable of the Tower.
The night before her execution, Catherine is believed to have spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block, which had been brought to her at her request. She died with relative composure, but looked pale and terrified, she required assistance to climb the scaffold.
She made a speech describing her punishment as "worthy and just" and asked for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul. Instead, reporting that she stuck to traditional final words, asking for forgiveness for her sins and acknowledging that she deserved to die 'a thousand deaths' for betraying the king; who had always treated her so graciously.
Catherine was beheaded with a single stroke of the executioner's axe.
Achievements
Catherine Howard did not have an impact upon English history. She is perhaps the most inconsequential of Henry VIII’s six wives, her reign as queen a very brief eighteen months. She bore no children and made no lasting impression upon those who knew her. But it should be remembered that she was thirty years younger than her husband, a silly young girl who never understood the dangers of royal regard. Her life was over before it had truly begun; we can only wonder how it might have ended differently.
Views
Quotations:
When questioned Catherine was quoted as saying, "At the flattering and fair persuasions of Mannox, being but a young girl, I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret parts of my body, which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him to require. "According to popular folklore, her final words were, "I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper", however no eyewitness accounts support this.
Personality
She was tiny, pretty, and vivacious, her sparkle compensating for a lack of education.
Her character has often been described as vivacious, giggly and brisk, but never scholarly or devout. She displayed great interest in her dance lessons, but would often be distracted during them and make jokes.
She also had a nurturing side for animals, particularly dogs.
Quotes from others about the person
Even the staunch Cranmer found Catherine's frantic, incoherent state pitiable, saying, "I found her in such lamentation and heaviness as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man's heart to have looked upon her. "
Connections
King Henry and Catherine were married by Bishop Bonner of London at Oatlands Palace on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. The marriage was made public on 8 August, and prayers were said in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace.
Catherine was the third of Henry VIII's wives to have been a member of the English nobility or gentry; Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were of Continental royalty.
The annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves on 9 July 1540 was followed a fortnight later by his marriage to Catherine.
Normally Catherine would have been married to some courtier important to her family's political ambitions, and to this end she was sent to court in 1539.
Marriage to Henry was risky under any circumstances but was made doubly dangerous by Catherine's concealment of her premarital affair with Francis Dereham, a gentleman pensioner of her uncle, the duke of Norfolk.
Henry showered her with gifts but by the end of 1541 he had heard rumours of her adultery, before and after marriage.
Pre-marital affairs with Francis Dereham and her cousin Thomas Culpeper were the basis for a charge of treason, that she had contaminated the royal blood.
