KATHERINE HOWARD

BORN: 1521? w MARRIED: JULY 28 1540 w EXECUTED: FEBRUARY 13 1542

Katherine Howard might be considered the most tragic of Henry's Queens. The daughter of Edmund Howard, a poor member of the large and powerful Howard family, she was orphaned young, and brought up in the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Her childhood was lonely, her education neglected and affection for a penniless child who was nothing more than a financial burden was nonexistent.

Katherine's actual birthdate is not known, just as there is no definitive portrait of her (the portrait above has been thought to be her, but is also possibly of Jane Seymour's sister, Elizabeth). It is thought that she was between the ages of sixteen and nineteen when she was brought to Court as a lady-in-waiting to Anna of Cleves, through the machinations of her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. The Howards were a Catholic family, and the Duke wished to increase his influence over King Henry. The Howards had been in disgrace since the fall of Anne Boleyn, who was part of their clan. Katherine Howard was Anne's first cousin, and she was obviously deliberately placed in Anna of Cleve's English household as bait for King Henry, whose displeasure with his recent marriage was well known.

The bait worked. Henry became enamoured of the young woman and was soon paying court to her, doting on her and making presents to her. Though she was not particularly literate or educated, she was lively, entertaining, kind and sweet. She loved music, as did Henry. She was flattered by his attentions, and she wanted to be Queen. A man who was old enough to be her father was showering her with affection and promises, and she was married to him sixteen days after his divorce from Anna of Cleves.

Henry's health had been in obvious decline since Jane Seymour's death, and had begun failing even earlier, after he'd injured his leg while falling in a joust during his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Now, married to a young and vivacious bride, he attempted to make some amends for his condition, adhering to a rigorous diet and exercising regularly, hoping to regain some shadow of his youthful form. He determined to make his Court, which had grown rather dour during his prolonged mourning for Jane Seymour, a pleasant and lively place for his new Queen, and ordered entertainments and dancing, sometimes taking part himself as his health would permit.

He had new coins struck in his Queen's honor, an unprecedented event, and presented them to her publicly, along with a thornless rose that his gardeners had developed at his request. The motto on the coins read "Truly a rose without a thorn" -- one of Henry's nicknames for Katherine.

Henry felt so enlivened that he embarked with Katherine on a long progress through England. This had been a common practice of English royalty before him, but Henry had never made an extended journey through his own country. He departed with his Queen for the north of England, and was gone from London for several months.

The Howards had many enemies at Court, as did any powerful family, and many people were shocked by Henry's precipitous marriage to a young woman of common birth and doubtful background. Katherine had acquired her own household when she was made Queen, and many Howard cousins and hangers-on came to her and were given positions in her employ. She was quite kind hearted, and accepted into her household several people it would have been better for her to turn away. Among them were a young music master named Edward Manox and a cousin of hers, Francis Dereham, whom she made her private secretary.

Rumors began to circulate about Katherine's past and soon were joined by darker rumors of her present infidelity to the King. Henry was blissfully unaware of the stories at first, and returned from his progress with his wife in tow, ready to settle down to the daily business of governing once more.

But evidence had been gathered against the young Queen, and in November of 1541, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer presented Henry with this information.

Katherine's secrets were revealed. During her girlhood at the home of her great-aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, Katherine had led a promiscuous life. Firstly, she had been caught in a compromising position with Edward Manox, her music teacher, when she was thirteen. The Duchess had immediately fired Manox, and beat Katherine severely for her transgressions. But the flirtation with Manox had been little more than that. There was even more damning evidence against the Queen.

Though the elderly Duchess carefully locked the dormitory of the single women of her household each night, she slept far from it, and was nearly deaf as well. What should have been a chaste and safe stronghold was far from it -- the dormitory was actually an unofficial brothel. The windows were opened as soon as the door was locked, and men from the area had free access to the room, and the women within it.

Katherine formed a liaison with Francis Dereham during this time, and he was a frequent visitor to the dormitory. In fact, they had sworn before witnesses to marry each other as soon as she was older, and called each other "husband" and "wife". When he went on a journey to Ireland, he left his money in her possession, and made presents to her of clothing and jewelry. Katherine, in turn, bestowed sexual favors on him, going so far as to have intercourse with him in full view of the other people in the dormitory. When Dereham was questioned (under the influence of torture), he revealed enough particulars about Katherine's anatomy, including a birthmark or scar on her upper thigh, to let Henry know that his testimony could not be trumped up.

Katherine had been brought to court while Dereham was away, and was Queen when he returned. She had made a terrible mistake in allowing him and Edward Manox to become members of her household.

But Henry might have overlooked the earlier transgressions, though they grieved him deeply. After all, at that time he hadn't known of her existence, and she had been very young and lacking in proper chaperonage and guidance.

Then he was presented with the evidence that damned Katherine -- testimony and love letters indicating that she had been and was still carrying on an adulterous affair with a gentleman of Henry's bedchamber, her cousin, Thomas Culpeper, with the help of her cousin-in-law, Jane Rochford, who had been George Boleyn's wife (she had testified against him and Anne Boleyn at their trial). Included among them was a letter where Katherine stated that if she were free of her marriage to the King, she would marry Culpeper. At that time, it was against the law to even mention or consider the death of the King -- it was treason, and the punishment was death.

Henry became hysterical when confronted with the proof that his rose without a thorn had betrayed him with a trusted member of his own household. He wept so violently that he lost all control and vomited on the table in front of Cranmer and the other advisors who were there when the King was presented with the evidence of his Queen's crimes. He demanded that someone bring him a sword, so that he could kill Katherine and Culpeper himself -- then he wept again and inquired "must so sweet a thing die?" Eventually, he had to be restrained and was confined to his bedchamber.

Culpeper was arrested and taken to the Tower, while Katherine was ordered to stay in her quarters. Henry recovered himself, and two days later, was at Mass with most of the Court when Katherine, now terrified and aware that she was in danger, got past her guards and ran to the Chapel, nearly reaching the door before she was caught and dragged back to her rooms, screaming Henry's name all the way. Henry did not react or give any sign that he had heard. He would never see her again.

Katherine confessed to everything. She seemed confused, and didn't understand the enormity of the crimes that she was admitting to, and kept asking to see the King. She also asked about Culpeper. She was not tried, but was taken to the Tower.

When given the option to have her marriage to Henry made invalid by admitting to an earlier precontract with Francis Dereham, she refused, probably not understanding that this was her opportunity to save her life. Then her only crimes would have been against Dereham, not the King, but Katherine would not admit that she had not been Queen of England. When told that she was sentenced to die by beheading, she requested that the block be brought to her chambers in the Tower, so that she could practice how she would lay her head on it, not wanting to appear ungraceful at her execution. Those who attended her said that she practiced approaching, kneeling and laying her head on it, and then stayed by it for a long time, praying.

Thomas Culpeper, Francis Dereham and Edward Manox were executed as traitors. Henry commuted the sentences of Culpeper and Dereham to simple beheading, as they were gentlemen, but the base-born Manox suffered the full rigors of a traitor's death -- he was hung, cut down while still alive, disemboweled and his body was then cut into four quarters.

Katherine was executed privately on Tower Green on February 13, 1542. Jane Rochford was executed at the same time for her complicity in Katherine's affair with Culpeper. Rochford was reported to state in her final speech, "I die today for the witness I bore against my husband and Queen Anne. The things I testified to then were not true."

After Jane Rochford met her end in full view of Katherine, the Queen of England was brought forward. She too made a final speech, in which she prayed that God would grant the King good health. Then, in one of the contradictory moments that were so plentiful in her life she said, "I would rather die the wife of Culpeper than the Queen of England."

Katherine Howard was buried under the floor of St. Peter ad Vincula, next to the body of her cousin, Anne Boleyn.

Katherine's short and tragic reign had no lasting effect on England. She had not dabbled in political affairs, and she was Queen so briefly that her family did not become firmly entrenched at Court. Her great-aunt, the elderly Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, was arrested for a time for possible collusion in Katherine's early sexual indiscretions, but she was soon released. Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk was not so lucky, but followed her to the block. He had evaded the axe years before in the matter of his other niece, Anne Boleyn by turning against her, but that tactic didn't work for him this time.

Henry's health and spirits took a downward turn that would continue for the rest of his life. He had probably loved Katherine deeply, and her betrayal made him a broken man. He was becoming very mentally unstable, and frequently cried out that he saw her or heard her voice in the corridor at Hampton Court where she had tried to reach him when she found that her secrets were no longer such.

Katherine's greatest asset, was probably also her greatest weakness -- her kind heartedness and the desire for love and affection that accompanied it. She had never been known to scheme against anyone, or to attempt to use her influence over Henry to harm anyone. She brought Princess Elizabeth forward, befriending her and calling her "kinswoman", though there was danger in angering the King with the reminder of Anne Boleyn. When she learned of Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury, once Princess Mary's governess, who had been imprisoned in the Tower for years after Catharine of Aragon's banishment from Court, she risked Henry's anger once again by sending warm clothing and bonnets to the old woman, though she did not even know her. Later, at Mary's request, she pled with Henry for the Countess of Salisbury's life, to no avail, earning herself nothing but a vicious reprimand.

In intellect and experience, she was no match for the people and intrigues surrounding her. She was very young and impulsive and was used remorselessly by the very people who should have protected and guided her -- her family.

Anna of Cleves was said to have remarked, when hearing of Katherine's adultery, "she was too much a child to deny herself any sweet thing she wanted".

Roses have thorns for protection. A rose without a thorn is defenseless.

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