Catherine and Henry
From the beginning, Henry VIII showed little to no interest in his fourth wife, Anna of Cleves.
Things were already pretty fragile in the royal household, when Catherine came to court as a Lady to Anna.
It didn’t take long for Henry VIII to notice the pretty young girl, and soon became completely infatuated with Catherine.
Henry didn’t hide his liking for the young Catherine either, within months of her arrival at court, he was openly gifting her expensive presents.
Catherine accepted his presents with great enthusiasm, and was always grateful for his gifts.
According to Henry, he had never met a woman like Catherine, including all of his previous wives ~ and his current one.
She was his “very jewel of womanhood.”
Henry was drawn to Catherine’s personality, which according to the small number of Medieval records out there, was quite vivacious and lively.
It was agreed by almost everyone, that Catherine loved flirting, and she loved having a good time.
Due to her upbringing being all over the place, her education was limited.
She had managed to learn how to read and write, but that was pretty much it.
Catherine had absolutely no interest in politics, her main passions were clothes and jewels, dancing and pretty things.
Catherine absolutely loved French fashion, there was something sexy and dangerous about French fashion that the young Catherine felt drawn to.
The fashion certainly fit Catherine’s flirtatious style, which Henry VIII loved.
Some historical records suggest that Catherine’s love affair with the king wasn’t so much of a coincidence, and in fact had a lot of thought behind it.
Apparently, Catherine’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, may have pulled a few strings to get his niece to court ~ basically pushing the teenager into the king’s arms.
On the 9th of July 1540, six months after their marriage, Henry VIII decided to annul his marriage to Anna of Cleves.
Henry was now free to pursue a new marriage, and he knew exactly who he wanted to be his next queen.
Henry wasted no time, he married Catherine Howard, only 19 days after the annulment of his previous marriage.
Things between Henry and Catherine started off quite well.
The new queen had one motto:
“Non autre volonte que la sienna,”
“No other will but his”
This basically meant that she was keen to obey her king.
Henry was head over heels in love with his fifth wife, totally besotted with her.
The couple departed on an expensive honeymoon all over England, while they anticipated the coronation of the new queen.
At that point, Henry did everything that Catherine wanted.
Henry wanted his new wife to feel loved and like she belonged, so he was willing to go the extra mile to meet all of her needs.
The king gladly gifted his young queen tons of French dresses and fashion items.
Henry absolutely loved parading his young wife, he was very proud of his precious little queen.
In the winter after their marriage, Henry began feeling ill.
His legs were riddled with ulcers, and the pain was excruciating.
The constant pain he was in brought a pretty scary side to him, with him violently accusing his aides of lying to him about several things, and of not being helpful enough.
For Catherine, that was the first time she experienced a side of her new husband that she wasn’t sure she enjoyed very much.
She let things go as much as she could, especially as the king constantly sent her trinkets in apology for not being with her.
It might have been Catherine’s young age, and perhaps her unstructured upbringing, which made her a little bit of a foolish girl.
She often acted immaturely, perhaps because it had become difficult to live with her constantly sick King.
Catherine also had lots of secrets that she hid during her time as queen.
There were some reports of when she still worked as Anna of Cleves’ maid of honor, she wasn’t only the King’s mistress, but she had also been courted by Thomas Culpeper.
Thomas was a favorite of the king, which made things pretty awkward.
Catherine had even considered the idea of marrying Thomas.
To make matters worse, when she eventually did get married to Henry and became queen, her affair with Thomas apparently didn’t end, like one would expect it to.
There is still a lot of debate on whether Catherine and Thomas continued their relationship after she became queen.
Even if the physical part of the relationship wasn’t being pursued, it was clear that the two of them were still very much, emotionally attached to one another.
Some reports, however, claim that Catherine and Thomas were actually sneaking around in the palace, while she was sharing a bed with Henry VIII.
The two lovers would meet in secret, especially since they had help from Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford.
During these secret meetings, the two would talk for hours, would touch one another, and would perhaps do much more than that, but that’s when things get a bit blurry.
This situation was detrimental enough for her relationship with the king, but Catherine had more problems piling up.
The young women she had befriended while she was growing up, weren’t so keen to be Catherine’s friends anymore….
One of them began asking Catherine for outrageous favours, threatening to tell the court of the things they had witnessed Catherine doing, during her younger years.
Terrified of what would happen if her old friends spilled her secrets, she caved in to some of these demands.
Catherine’s past relationships started to catch up with her ~ especially the pre-marriage contract to Francis Dereham.
While this was enough to put Catherine in a very complicated position at court, mostly removing her from the throne, things were only about to get worse.
A fatal love letter that Catherine had written to Thomas Culpeper was discovered ~ this would be one of the most crucial moments of her life.
The little lies she thought were inconsequential, started really catching up with her, at a pace that she could simply not control.
As soon as investigators read the letter Catherine wrote to Culpeper, they took the matter to King Henry.
As he heard everything in silence, the King Henry could simply not believe that his wife had deceived him so much, and in such a short amount of time.
A warrant for Catherine’s arrest was sent, while Henry spent some time praying in the palace’s chapel.
Apparently, Catherine’s arrest didn’t go so smoothly….
The queen managed to escape when she realized that the guards were approaching to arrest her.
She ran to where Henry was praying in the chapel, but didn’t manage to get to the door.
She screamed and begged for her life.
These accounts of Catherine’s arrest however, are subject to verification.
At this point, Catherine was completely terrified.
Knowing what her husband was capable of doing, she was so worried about what would happen to her, that she started being completely incoherent.
Eventually, every single sharp object was to be removed from where she was being held as a prisoner.
Henry wasn’t doing so well throughout all of this either…..
He fell into a deep depression, which led him to drink a ton of wine, and order a number of women up to his chambers.
In November 1541, Catherine was officially stripped of her title as queen, and was sent to a convent very far away from the palace.
There, she would stay for a few months under supervision.
Henry spent a ton of time figuring out what to do about Catherine.
Eventually he ordered her exEcution, but he also didn’t forget about her lovers.
In fact, when Thomas Culpeper was detained during the investigations, he ended up putting more firewood in the fire.
Culpeper admitted that even though the lovers hadn’t had sexual relations while Catherine was queen… things were definitely going in that direction!
On 10th December 1541, Thomas Culpeper was exEcuted by b~heading.
Catherine’s supposedly “promised ex,” Francis Dereham, saw an even worse fate.
Henry figured Dereham’s punishment should be worse, as Dereham had ‘spoiled’ Catherine first.
Henry ordered that Dereham be hanged, drawn, and quartered on the exact same day that his counterpart Culpeper was exEcuted.
While all this happened, Catherine’s own exEcution was looming.
By now Henry was angry, and ready to get rid of the wife that had cuckolded and lied to him.
Catherine was transferred from the convent to the infamous Tower of London.
Catherine was naturally terrified, and it didn’t help that the journey via barge took the London Bridge route ~ forcing her to look at the heads of both of her ex-lovers spiked on stakes.
Catherine Howard was exEcuted by b-heading, on 13th February 1542.
However, she wasn’t the only woman who was exEcuted that day.
Her lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn, was also b-headed straight after her.
Catherine’s reign had been incredibly short, with one of the most bitter ends in history.
The young queen had arrived at the palace at the age of 17, and died at 19 years old ~ without even reaching two years of ruling.
After her exEcution, Catherine wouldn’t even have a proper burial, just like her cousin Anne Boleyn seven years before her.
Catherine Howard and Jane Boleyn were buried in an unmarked grave in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, in the Tower of London.
🌹 Jonathan Rhys~Meyers & Tamzin Marchant as Henry & Catherine in ‘The Tudors’