CATHERINE HOWARD ,FIFTH WIFE OF IMPOTENT HENRY VIII EXECUTED FOR TREASON

CATHERINE HOWARD ,FIFTH WIFE OF IMPOTENT HENRY  VIII EXECUTED FOR TREASON

10 December 1541 – இங்கிலாந்து மன்னர் எட்டாம் என்றியின் மனைவியும் அரசியுமான கேத்தரீன் உடன் தகாத உறவு வைத்திருந்தமைக்காக தோமசு கல்பெப்பர், கோடரியால் வெட்டப்பட்டும் ,பிரான்சிசு டெரெகம் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்டும் இறந்தனர்

( Culpeper and Dereham were arraigned at Guildhall on
1 December 1541 for high treason. They were executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, Culpeper being beheaded and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered.)

நான் அரசியாக சாகிறேன் .
ஒரு வஞ்சகனோடு( எட்டாம் ஹென்றி ) வாழ்ந்தேன்

கேத்தரீன்Catherine Howard

கேத்தரீன் ஹவார்டு (Catherine Howard, அண். 1523 – 13 பெப்ரவரி 1542)[1] இங்கிலாந்தின் எட்டாம் ஹென்றி மன்னரின் ஐந்தாவது மனைவியாக 1540 முதல் 1541 வரை இங்கிலாந்தின் அரசியாக இருந்தவர். இவர் எட்மண்ட் ஹவார்ட் பிரபு, ஜோயிசு கல்பெபெர் ஆகியோரின் மகளும், எட்டாம் என்றி மன்னரின் இரண்டாம் மனைவி ஆன் பொலினின் உடன்பிறவா சகோதரியும், நோர்போக் கோமகன் தோமசு ஹவார்டின் மருமகளும் ஆவார். என்றியின் அரசவையில் தோமசு ஹவார்ட் ஒரு முக்கிய அரசியல் புள்ளியாக இருந்து வந்தார். இவரது செல்வாக்கினால், என்றியின் நான்காவது மனைவியான கிளீவ்சின் ஆனின் வீட்டில் கேத்தரீன் தங்க இடம் கிடைத்தது.[2] இதன் மூலம் கேத்தரீன் மன்னரினால் ஈர்க்கப்பட்டார்.[3] ஆனுடனான மணமுறிவை அடுத்து கேத்தரீன் 1540 சூலை 28 இல் என்றியை ஓட்லண்ட்சு அரண்மனையில் மணம் புரிந்தார். மன்னருக்கு அப்போது அகவை 49 ஆகும், கேத்தரீனின் அகவை 16 அல்லது 17 ஆகும்.[4]

1541 நவம்பரில், கத்தரின் ராணி என்ற பட்டத்தில் இருந்து நீக்கப்பட்டார். மூன்று மாதங்களுக்குப் பிறகு தனது உறவினர் தாமசு கல்பெப்பருடன் தகாத உறவு கொண்டிருந்ததாக[5][6][7] தேசத் துரோகக் குற்றச்சாட்டில் மரண தண்டனை விதிக்கப்பட்டு தலை துண்டிக்கப்பட்டு கொல்லப்பட்டார்.[8]

Catherine Howard (c. 1523 – 13 February 1542) was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII.[a] She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII), and niece to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court, and he secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where she caught the king's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, almost immediately after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. He was 49 and she was 16 or 17.

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen in November 1541. She was beheaded three months later on the grounds of treason for committing adultery with her distant cousin Thomas Culpeper.Family life
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), Anne's daughter by Henry VIII. As a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524), Catherine had an aristocratic pedigree. Her father was not wealthy, being the third son among 21 children and disfavoured in the custom of primogeniture, by 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. 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 and Anne of Cleves were from continental Europe.

Early life

Catherine was probably born in Lambeth in about 1523, but the exact date of her birth is unknown.[3][4] Soon after the death of her mother (in about 1528), when Catherine was aged about five, she was sent with some of her siblings to live in the care of her father's stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess presided over large households at Chesworth House in Horsham in Sussex, and at Norfolk House in Lambeth where dozens of attendants, along with her many wards—usually the children of aristocratic but poor relatives—resided.[5] While sending young children to be educated and trained in aristocratic households other than their own was common for centuries among European nobles, supervision at both Chesworth House and Lambeth was apparently lax. The Dowager Duchess was often at Court and seems to have had little direct involvement in the upbringing of her wards and young female attendants.[6]

As a result of the Dowager Duchess's lack of discipline, Catherine became influenced by some older girls who allowed men into the sleeping areas at night for entertainment. The girls were rewarded with food, wine, and gifts. 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. 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.[7]

In the Duchess's household at Horsham, in around 1536, Catherine (then aged 13) was repeatedly molested by her music teacher, Henry Mannox (aged 36). 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. 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."[8]

The interferences by 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 allegedly 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.[8]

Arrival at court
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.[9] 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 Thomas 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 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".

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 'very jewel of womanhood' (that he called her his 'rose without a thorn' is likely a myth).[10] 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."

Marriage
The Six Wives of
Henry VIII
Catalina de Aragón, por un artista anónimo.jpg Catherine of Aragon
Anne boleyn.jpg Anne Boleyn
Hans Holbein the Younger - Jane Seymour, Queen of England - Google Art Project.jpg Jane Seymour
AnneCleves.jpg Anne of Cleves
HowardCatherine02.jpeg Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr from NPG.jpg Catherine Parr

Catherine Howard's arms as queen[11]

King Henry and Catherine were married by Bishop Bonner of London at Oatlands Palace on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. She was 16 or 17 and he was 49. The marriage was made public on 8 August, and prayers were said in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace.[12] Henry "indulged her every whim" thanks to her "caprice".[13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

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."[16]

Downfall
Catherine may have been involved during her marriage to the King 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. She had considered marrying Culpeper during her time as a maid-of-honour to Anne of Cleves. Culpeper called Catherine "my little, sweet fool" in a love letter.[17] It has been alleged that in the spring of 1541 the pair were meeting secretly. Their meetings were allegedly 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.[18]

During the autumn Northern Progress, a crisis began to loom over 17-year-old Catherine's conduct. People who claimed to have witnessed her earlier sexual behaviour while still a ward at Lambeth reportedly contacted her for favours in return for their silence, and some of these blackmailers may have been appointed to her royal household. John Lascelles, the brother of Mary Lascelles, claimed that he tried to persuade his sister to find a place within the Queen's royal chamber. However Mary allegedly refused, stating she had witnessed the "light" ways of Queen Catherine while living together at Lambeth. Supposedly after hearing this John Lascelles reported such news to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who then interrogated Lascelles's sister. Under the archbishop's interrogation, Mary alleged that Catherine had had sexual relations while under the Duchess's care, before her relationship with the King.

Cranmer immediately took up the case to be made to topple his rivals—the Roman Catholic Norfolk family. Lady Rochford was interrogated and from fear of being tortured agreed to talk. She told how she had watched for Catherine backstairs as Culpeper had made his escapes from the Queen's room.[19]


Letter from Catherine Howard to Thomas Culpeper

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 survives (other than her later "confession").[20][21][22]

It is unlikely that King Henry was unaware of the allegations against his wife when on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1541, he arranged to be found praying in the Chapel Royal,[23] where he received 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. Even the staunch Cranmer found the teenage 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."[24] He ordered the guards to remove any objects that she might use to commit suicide.

Imprisonment and death
Establishing the existence of a precontract between Catherine and Dereham would have had the effect of terminating Catherine's royal union, but it would also have allowed Henry to annul their marriage and banish her from Court in poverty and disgrace instead of executing her, though there is no indication that Henry would have chosen that alternative. Yet Catherine steadfastly denied any precontract, maintaining that Dereham had raped her.

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen on 23 November 1541 and imprisoned in the new Syon Abbey, Middlesex, formerly a convent, where she remained throughout the winter of 1541.[25] She was forced by a Privy Councillor to return Anne of Cleves' ring that the King had given her; it was a symbol of her regal and lawful rights. The King would be at Hampton Court, but she would not see him again. Despite these actions taken against her, her marriage to Henry was never formally annulled.[26]

Culpeper and Dereham were arraigned at Guildhall on 1 December 1541 for high treason. They were executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, Culpeper being beheaded and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered. According to custom, their heads were placed on spikes atop London Bridge. Many of Catherine's relatives were also detained in the Tower with the exception of her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, who had sufficiently distanced himself from the scandal by retreating to Kenninghall to write a grovelling letter of apology.[27]

The Duke of Norfolk's son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a poet, remained a favourite of the King. The Duke, knowing his family had fallen from grace, wrote an apology on 14 December to the King, excusing himself and laying all the blame on his niece and stepmother.[27] All of the Howard prisoners were tried, found guilty of concealing treason and sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. In time they were released with their goods restored. The King sank further into morbidity and indulged his appetite for food and women.[28]

Catherine herself remained in limbo until Parliament introduced a bill of attainder on 29 January 1542, which was passed on 7 February 1542.[29] The Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 made it treason, and punishable by death, for a queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the king within twenty days of their marriage, or to incite someone to commit adultery with her.[30] This retroactively solved the matter of Catherine's supposed precontract and made her unequivocally guilty.[31] No formal trial was held.

When the Lords of the Council came for her she allegedly panicked and screamed aloud as they manhandled her into the 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.[31] Arrangements for the execution were supervised by Sir John Gage in his role as Constable of the Tower.[32]

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.[33] 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. According to popular folklore her last words were, "I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper". However no eyewitness accounts support this, 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. This was typical of the speeches given by those executed during that period, most likely in an effort to protect their families, since the condemned's last words would be relayed to the King. Catherine was beheaded with a single stroke of the executioner's axe.[34]

Lady Rochford was executed immediately thereafter on Tower Green. Both bodies were buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where the bodies of Catherine's cousins Anne and George Boleyn also lay.[35] Other cousins were also in the crowd, including the Earl of Surrey. King Henry did not attend. Catherine's body was not one of those identified during restorations of the chapel during Queen Victoria's reign. She is commemorated on a plaque on the west wall dedicated to all those who died in the Tower.[36][37] Upon hearing news of Catherine's execution Francis I of France wrote a letter to Henry regretting the "lewd and naughty [evil] behaviour of the Queen" and advising him that "the lightness of women cannot bend the honour of men".[38]

Historiography
Catherine has been the subject of contention for modern biographies, A Tudor Tragedy by Lacey Baldwin Smith (1967), Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy by Joanna Denny (2006), Katherine Howard: A New History by Conor Byrne (2014), and Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell (2017). Each is more or less sympathetic, though they disagree on various important points involving Catherine's motivations, date of birth and overall character.

Her life has also been described in the five collective studies of Henry's queens that have appeared since the publication of Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1991) — such as David Starkey's The Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (2003). Several of these writers have been highly critical of Catherine's conduct, if sympathetic to her eventual fate. Baldwin Smith described Catherine's life as one of hedonism and characterised her as a "juvenile delinquent", as did Francis Hackett in his 1929 biography of Henry. Weir had much the same judgement, describing her as an "empty-headed wanton". The general trend, however, has been more generous, particularly in the works of Antonia Fraser, Karen Lindsey, David Loades and Joanna Denny.

Portraits

The Windsor version of the Holbein miniature[39]

Buccleuch version of the Holbein miniature[39]



Unknown woman formerly known as Catherine Howard.[40]



"ETATIS SVA 21" portraits[41][42]

Painters continued to include Jane Seymour in pictures of King Henry VIII long after she died, mainly because Henry continued to look back on her with favour as the only wife who gave him a son. Most of the artists copied the portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger because it was the only full-sized picture available. After Catherine Howard was executed, even the Howard family removed her picture from their family portrait gallery. Debate continues about the identity of the sitter(s) for these portraits, and there is no portrait conclusively known to be of Henry's fifth queen.

Susan James, Jamie Franco, and Conor Byrne have identified the "Portrait of a Young Woman" in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art as a likely portrait of the queen. The painting is attributed to the workshop of Hans Holbein.[43]

Round miniatures
Most historians believe that a round portrait miniature (shown here)—which exists in two versions by Holbein (Royal Collection and Duke of Buccleuch)—is the only surviving image of Catherine painted from life (in the case of the Windsor version). The historian David Starkey dated it (from details of her dress and the technique of the miniature) to the short period when Catherine was queen. In it, she wears the same large jewel as Jane Seymour in Holbein's panel portrait in Vienna. Records show that these jewels belonged to the Crown, not to any queen personally, and there is no record that they were removed from the treasury and given to anyone else.[39]

The pearls may tie in with a gift to Catherine from Henry in 1540, and she is the only queen to fit the dating whose appearance is not already known. For female sitters, duplicate versions of miniatures only exist for queens at this period. There are no other plausible likenesses of her to compare to. Both versions have long been documented as of Catherine Howard, since 1736 for the Buccleuch version and 1739 (or at least the 1840s) for the Windsor version.[39]

A Holbein sketch (above) is also traditionally identified as being of Catherine Howard, but this is widely disputed.[citation needed]

"ETATIS SVA 21" portraits
The contemporary Hans Holbein the Younger portrait of a woman in black (Toledo Museum of Art), was identified by Sir Lionel Cust in 1909 as Catherine[44] Two copies of Holbein's original are extant: one at Hever Castle and another owned by the National Portrait Gallery in London.[45] The portrait has long been associated with Henry VIII's young queen; however, the identification of the portrait as Catherine Howard is widely but not universally discounted.[41][44]

The text on the portrait, ETATIS SVA 21, indicates that the sitter was 21 years old, an age Catherine Howard never reached. Herbert Norris notes that the sitter is wearing a sleeve which follows a style set by Anne of Cleves,[46] which would date the portrait to after 6 January 1540, when Anne's marriage to Henry VIII took place.[47] The original Holbein is dated to 1535–1540,[48] but the National Portrait Gallery dates their copy to the late 1600s.[49] This would seem to indicate a sitter who was still a connection to be commemorated over a century later (unlike Catherine).

Historians Antonia Fraser and Derek Wilson believe that the portrait is far more likely to depict Elizabeth Seymour.[50][51] Antonia Fraser has argued that the sitter is Jane Seymour's sister, Elizabeth, the widow of Sir Anthony Ughtred, on the grounds that the lady bears a resemblance to Jane, especially around the nose and chin, and wears widow's black. Black clothing, however, was expensive, and did not necessarily signify mourning: it was an indication of wealth and status. Derek Wilson observed that "In August 1537 Cromwell succeeded in marrying his son, Gregory, to Elizabeth Seymour", the queen's younger sister. He was therefore related by marriage to the king, "an event worth recording for posterity, by a portrait of his daughter-in-law."[50] The painting was in the possession of the Cromwell family for centuries.[44]

The portrait shown on this page, attributed to Hans Holbein, dated circa 1535–1540, is exhibited at the Toledo Museum of Art as Portrait of a Lady, Probably a Member of the Cromwell Family (1926.57).[44] Another version of the portrait, now located at Hever Castle, dating from the 16th century, is exhibited as Queen Catherine Howard.[44] The National Portrait Gallery exhibits a similar painting, Unknown Woman, Formerly Known as Catherine Howard (NPG 1119),[52] which has been dated to the late 17th century. The National Portrait Gallery remains undecided about the sitter's identity.

The Six Wives of
Henry VIII

•  Catherine of Aragon
•  Anne Boleyn
•  Jane Seymour
•  Anne of Cleves
•  Catherine Howard
•  Catherine Parr

Portrayal in media

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On stage
In 1998 Emilia Fox played the title role in Katherine Howard at the Chichester Festival Theatre, in Chichester, Sussex;[53] she would later play Henry's third wife Jane Seymour in the 2003 ITV drama Henry VIII.[54]
Aimie Atkinson portrays a highly sympathetic Howard in Six the Musical on the West End, emphasizing her playfulness and youth, as well as her history of abuse.
In film and television
Catherine was first portrayed on screen in 1926, in the silent film Hampton Court Palace, when she was played by Gabrielle Morton.
In 1933, in The Private Life of Henry VIII, Catherine was played by Binnie Barnes. In this comedy of manners, Catherine ambitiously sets out to seduce the king, played by Charles Laughton, but ultimately falls in love with the debonair, devoted Thomas Culpeper, played by Robert Donat. Catherine's story dominates the film.
In 1970 Angela Pleasence played Catherine in a 90-minute BBC television drama, as part of the series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, opposite Keith Michell as Henry VIII, Patrick Troughton as the Duke of Norfolk and Sheila Burrell as Lady Rochford. In this interpretation, Catherine is characterised as a selfish hedonist who uses the naïve Culpeper to try to get herself pregnant to secure her position.
Catherine Howard made a cameo appearance, played by Monika Dietrich, in the 1971 slapstick British comedy Carry On Henry, with Sid James as Henry VIII.
In 1972 Lynne Frederick portrayed a deeply sympathetic Queen Catherine in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (a film version made subsequent to the 1970 BBC series) opposite Keith Michell as Henry VIII, in a production that highlighted her youth and positive qualities.
In 2001 Michelle Abrahams played Catherine in Dr. David Starkey's television documentary on Henry's queens.[55]
In 2003 Emily Blunt gave a more sympathetic portrayal of Catherine in the ITV television drama Henry VIII, which focused on Catherine's sexual escapades. This production, once again, explained her adultery by her relatives' desire for her to get pregnant. It shows Catherine crying and screaming with fear at her execution, although contemporary accounts suggest she died in a more dignified manner.
In 2009 and 2010 Tamzin Merchant played Catherine Howard in the third and fourth seasons of the Showtime series The Tudors.[56] Merchant portrays Catherine as being flighty yet sweet, sexually adventurous, fun-loving and unquestionably adulterous. She is willingly seduced into the affair with Culpeper (who nurses a lustful obsession with her) by Lady Rochford, whose motivations are somewhat murky. This interpretation also details Catherine's blackmail at the hands of her former friends from Lambeth, a detail often omitted from modern retellings due to its deficit of historical evidence.
Elena Valentine played Catherine in the 2016 Henry VIII and His Six Wives TV mini-series by Oxford Film & Television.[57]
In 2015, an episode of Horrible Histories entitled "Horrid Henry VIII" featured Louise Ford portraying Catherine Howard.
Lauren McQueen portrayed Catherine in the 2016 documentary drama Six Wives with Lucy Worsley
In novels
A highly fictionalised version of a devoutly Catholic, learned and serious Catherine, who wants to return Henry to the Old Faith, is depicted in the trilogy The Fifth Queen by Ford Madox Ford, originally published as separate novels in 1906, 1907 and 1908, and reprinted both as a single-volume omnibus edition and in its separate parts numerous times since.
The 1967 novel Katheryn, The Wanton Queen by Maureen Peters, written from the perspective of a fictional character, Geraldine Lyle, tells the story of Catherine from young girlhood to her marriage to Henry VIII.
Noonday Queen (1988), another novel by Maureen Peters.
Catherine appeared as a major character in both the last instalment of Jean Plaidy's "Queens of England" series, Rose Without a Thorn, published the year of her death in 1993; and the much earlier Murder Most Royal, first published in 1949 as part of her "Tudor Saga" series, which also included Anne Boleyn as a protagonist.
Catherine is a main character in the 2006 novel The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.
Catherine appears as a character in 2006's Sovereign, the third novel in author C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series.
Catherine's story, along with that of Anne Boleyn, is told from the viewpoint of Lady Rochford in the 2007 novel Vengeance Is Mine by Brandy Purdy; this same novel was re-issued under the title The Boleyn Wife in 2009, now under the pen name Emily Purdy.
Catherine's life was portrayed in the new play commissioned by restored Elizabethan playhouse The Rose: Rose Without a Thorn, written by Harry Denford in 2008.
Catherine's two years at court prior to her death are retold from her point of view in the 2009 novel The Queen's Mistake by Diane Haeger.
Catherine's story is fictionalised in the 2009 young adult novel The King's Rose by Alisa M. Libby.
Catherine appeared as a character in the 2010 novel Secrets of the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan.
The Confessions of Catherine Howard, a 2010 novel by Suzannah Dunn, includes a fictionalised version of maid-of-honour Katherine Tilney (with her name spelled Catheryn to distinguish her from her cousin who became Queen) as a close confidant of Howard who is torn between loyalty to her friend and to the man she loves.
Catherine's story is told in the 2012 novel The Unfaithful Queen by Carolly Erickson.
In Gilt, a 2012 young adult novel by Katherine Longshore, Catherine's story is shown side by side with that of "Kitty" Tylney, again fictionalised, this time as Catherine's best friend.
No Will But His by Sarah A. Hoyt (2013), tells Catherine's story from her perspective.[58]
Catherine Howard was a major character in Between Two Queens by Kate Emerson, part of the Secrets of the Tudor court series.
In music
Rick Wakeman recorded the piece "Catherine Howard" for his 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII. On his 2009 live version of the album the spelling is changed to "Kathryn Howard".[59]
The song "Marry Me" by Emilie Autumn is about the time period that Catherine was married to King Henry VIII.
Catherine's story is related in the song "Catherine Howard's Fate" by the band Blackmore's 

CATHERINE HOWARD , THE HENRY VIII `S FIFTH WIFE DIED 1542 FEBRUARY 13

CATHERINE HOWARD ,

THE HENRY VIII `S FIFTH WIFE

EXECUTED  1542 FEBRUARY 13

Catherine Howard was a cousin of Henry VIII’s ill-fated second queen, Anne Boleyn; and like Anne, Catherine would die on the scaffold at Tower Green. Her birthdate is unknown, but her father was the younger brother of the duke of Norfolk. Though personally impoverished, Catherine had a powerful family name and thus secured an appointment as lady-in-waiting to Henry’s fourth queen, Anne of Cleves. While at court, she caught the eye of the middle-aged king and became a political pawn of her family and its Catholic allies. Catherine’s greatest crime was her silliness. Raised in the far too permissive household of her grandmother, she was a flirtatious and emotional girl who rarely understood the consequences of her actions. She made the mistake of continuing her girlish indiscretions as queen. Henry was besotted with her, calling her his ‘Rose without a Thorn’ and showering her with gifts and public affection. Catherine was understandably more attracted to men her own age and, after just seventeen months of marriage to the king, she was arrested for adultery. The distraught king at first refused to believe the evidence but it was persuasive. Unlike Anne Boleyn, Catherine had betrayed the king. She was beheaded on 13 February 1542, only nineteen or twenty years old. The drama of her execution lends gravity to a brief life which would otherwise pass unnoticed.

‘I found her in such lamentation and heaviness, as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man’s heart in the world, to have looked upon her.’ Thomas Cranmer describes visiting Catherine after her arrest, 1542

Biography
Catherine Howard’s short life is one of the great cautionary tales of Henry VIII’s reign; there is about it something strangely pathetic and small, but also powerful and moving. Catherine was neither particularly beautiful or intelligent, but she was a charming, flirtatious girl who rose, virtually overnight, from obscurity to become queen of England.

She was the daughter of the 2d duke of Norfolk’s youngest son, Edmund, and his wife, Jocasta (Joyce) Culpeper. She was one of too many children for her impoverished parents and the date of her birth was not recorded; most historians believe it was 1521. Edmund was not an auspicious individual and, like most younger sons, spent most of his life in constant need of money. He complained to the king’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell that he wished to be a poor man’s son for at least then he could work without shame. But he was an aristocrat, a member of one of the greatest noble families of England, and he could do little but beg for help from one relation to another. He sent his daughter to live with her grandmother, the dowager duchess of Norfolk, and thus avoided responsibility for Catherine’s upbringing. This should not reflect badly upon him since it was typical of the times; and though Catherine’s grandmother complained ceaselessly about the expense of supporting numerous grandchildren, she did provide a comfortable home. She did not, however, provide strict supervision – a fact which would have dire consequences for the entire Norfolk family after Catherine became queen.

Catherine was raised in a type of dormitory at Lambeth Palace, crowded in with other young girls (some were servants to her grandmother) and her education was not intellectual. Rather, her days were spent passing the time in the most pleasant manner possible. The duchess’s household was not wealthy and Catherine understandably chafed at her constricted lifestyle. There was within her a strong love of luxury and inability to control her desires; this was a lack of self-control, a realization that certain things should not be done, must not be risked, no matter how much she wanted something. While she was simply one of many daughters of an impoverished lord, this immaturity did not matter. But when she became queen, it remained and past indiscretions also returned to haunt her.

Catherine grew into a merry and vivacious girl, not conventionally beautiful but graceful and charming. She possessed all the vitality of youth, something which proved irresistible to her aged king. The only part of her sporadic education which she seemed to enjoy were her music lessons; in particular, she enjoyed the attentions of her music teacher, a man named Henry Mannox. They first met in 1536, when Catherine was just fifteen years old. Hired to teach her the virginal and lute, Mannox soon began a practiced seduction of his young pupil.

Catherine later swore the relationship was not consummated. ‘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,’ she later told interrogators. Mannox admitted the same. Since Catherine later confessed to more serious transgressions, there was no reason for her to lie in this instance. And one can certainly condemn Mannox for taking advantage of his young student.

As a mere music teacher, Mannox was too far below her in social status for a serious relationship to develop. Though he followed the duchess’s household to London in 1538, Catherine’s attentions soon turned elsewhere. She fell in love with a gentleman-pensioner in her grandmother’s household named Francis Dereham. This relationship was far more serious and undoubtedly consummated. There is much evidence on this point, including Catherine’s own confession: ‘Francis Dereham by many persuasions procured me to his vicious purpose and obtained first to lie upon my bed with his doublet and hose and after within the bed and finally he lay with me naked and used me in such sort as a man doth his wife many and sundry times but how often I know not.’

Their affair continued throughout 1538. They addressed one another as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ and when Dereham was sent to Ireland on business, he left 100 pds in Catherine’s keeping.

But Mannox, still with the household, was infuriated; his attraction to Catherine continued while she spurned his company for Dereham’s. In revenge, he sent an anonymous note to the dowager duchess. She then discovered Catherine and Dereham together and there was a frightful scene. But a physical relationship between a betrothed couple was not uncommon by sixteenth-century standards and Catherine and Dereham parted with some understanding of marriage when he returned from Ireland.

But, unluckily for Dereham, Catherine’s heart cooled towards him while he was away. And in 1539, having moved closer to court and staying at her uncle’s house, she met Thomas Culpeper. A gentleman of the king’s Privy Chamber and cousin of Catherine’s mother Joyce Culpeper, he was a handsome and charming young man; his position in court was considered important since it allowed personal access to the king. Catherine fell in love with him, though Culpeper’s own feelings are not known. Catherine’s family was powerful and she was an attractive girl. It is likely that he was at least interested in her, if not immediately infatuated.

But then the great event occurred which was to change Catherine’s life forever. She arrived at court in late 1539 or early 1540 as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves and Henry VIII fell in love with her.

It is clear from Catherine’s life before meeting the king that she was a flirtatious and emotional girl. It is also clear that she possessed the charm and sexual allure to attract men. These were to be her greatest strengths and weaknesses, for while they attracted the king, they also led her into increasingly reckless behavior. If she had married Dereham or Culpeper, or any other social-climber, she would have remained a gossip and flirt, perhaps she would have succumbed to adultery. But behavior that could be tolerated in a poor niece of a duke was treason in a queen of England.

Catherine’s family was torn between elation and trepidation with regard to Henry’s infatuation. The Norfolk name was one of the oldest in England. They had supported Richard III against the first Tudor king, Henry VII, but managed to win favor with their military prowess and servile devotion to the new dynasty. But Henry VIII never fully trusted Thomas Howard, the 3d duke of Norfolk, though he wed two of Norfolk’s nieces. Their grand name, then, was both blessing and curse. As an old family in a court of upstarts and fond of feudal prerogative, Catherine’s relatives had made wary friends and bitter enemies at court. And the divisive reign of Anne Boleyn, herself no friend of her Norfolk relations (the duke presided over her trial), had taught them all to tread carefully about the king. And Catherine’s personality worried them. Could she sustain the king’s attraction? And, if so, could she become a mature and successful queen?

It is important to remember that Henry’s previous English queens, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, had spent years in royal service before marrying their king. They were veterans of the English court and knew the intricacies and dangers of their position. Catherine was a mere child by contrast, barely literate, and born in a later generation. But for the conservative faction at Henry’s court, those dedicated to the restoration of the Catholic faith as practiced before the Reformation, she was their last, best hope. Unlike Anne Boleyn, Catherine’s personal and political success was not tied to the Protestant faith. She had been raised Catholic by her Norfolk grandmother and, despite her personal lapses, she represented the conservative faith to others.

Catherine’s relatives questioned her maturity, but they were not willing to risk the king’s wrath by pointing it out. Henry VIII was mercurial and dangerous, and his latest marriage was a bitter disappointment. Woe to the courtier who spoke ill of his latest attraction! It was left to the Norfolk clan to coach Catherine as best they could and hope their triumph would last.

The king soon publicly favored young Mistress Howard. On 24 April she was given lands seized from a felon; a few weeks later, she received an expensive gift of quilted sarcanet. It is possible their relationship was consummated around this time for there was a sudden urgency to annul the ill-fated marriage to Anne of Cleves. The king’s advisors soon found a valid impediment to the fourth marriage and, on 13 July 1540, it was officially ended by Parliament. Meanwhile, the French ambassador reported rumors that Catherine was pregnant. The king had one son and heir but the vagaries of life in the 16th century made another heir necessary. Henry had just turned forty-nine years old and half his subjects were eighteen or younger. The security of his realm was his greatest concern and it could only be guaranteed by legitimate heirs; as a second son himself, he knew the life of young Prince Edward was a slender thread upon which to balance a dynasty.

Henry married Catherine on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. The ceremony was a success, albeit lacking in the usual pomp and display of royal unions. Catherine was never crowned queen of England. Henry VIII simply couldn’t afford the ceremony; perhaps, too, he wished to wait until the marriage proved successful in the most important way and Catherine bore him a son. The king consulted his council on creating a new succession should the blessed event occur, pushing his daughters Mary and Elizabeth even further from the throne.

The next year was an Indian summer in the king’s life. Catherine chose as her motto ‘Non autre volonte que la sienne’ (‘No other wish but his’ or ‘No other will than his’) and did her best to amuse and distract him. The waste of lives and exorbitant money fighting France had depressed the English treasury and the king’s spirits. And the Reformation had cost him the love of the common people. Henry also increasingly suffered from the ailments which would kill him a few years later. He had severe headaches and pains throughout his body; he found it difficult to sleep and was often impotent.

English politics had become another headache for the king. His great advisor and friend, Thomas Cromwell, had championed the Protestant cause and the union with Anne of Cleves. The king’s disappointment – and the endless conniving of Cromwell’s enemies – led to his arrest and execution on the very day Henry and Catherine married. Within a few months, the king openly lamented the loss of his ‘most faithful servant’.

Chief among Cromwell’s enemies were Catherine’s uncle Norfolk and his close friend, Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. Norfolk had always chafed at the power Henry granted the ‘commoner’ Cromwell; Gardiner was a Catholic who despised Cromwell’s legislative destruction of the papacy in England. They used Catherine and the king’s own impatience and cupidity to destroy Cromwell. But it was only a brief triumph.

Catherine was not pregnant in the summer of 1540, nor did she become so. But the king was so physically affectionate with her in public that none doubted the happy event would occur. Still, warning signs about this hasty marriage had already begun. Catherine’s relationship with Dereham had never been kept secret, though Henry was perhaps unaware of it. His courtiers gossiped and wondered. Joan Bulmer, a young woman who had lived with Catherine at Lambeth, requested that Catherine bring her to court to share in her ‘great destiny’; it was a subtle blackmail. In August 1541, Dereham was made her secretary, perhaps as a bribe to keep quiet about their former relationship. So even as she collected rich gifts of gowns, jewels, fur cloaks, and golden clocks, Catherine knew her indecorous past lurked in the background. Was she worried? As her later behavior showed, she was not.

She was not merely collecting personal finery, but also lands and manors that had once belonged to Jane Seymour and even Thomas Cromwell. And she began to explore the traditional role of the queen as patroness. She also took great care to ensure her aged husband’s happiness. Many biographers have speculated on Catherine’s true feelings for Henry VIII. She probably did not love him in the most romantic sense of the word, but she did love him for the affection and generosity he showed her. And she also approached him with something of an awed reverence, for he was the king and thus a quasi-mystical figure, all-knowing and all-powerful.

But he was not immune to illness and in the spring of 1541, the king fell low with a serious fever and Catherine was sent away for her own safety. It was around this time that she began her affair with Culpeper, the handsome young man who had caught her fancy two years before; as evidence, we need only read her only surviving letter, written to Culpeper in April 1541. When the king recovered, he took Catherine on a royal progress through the north of England and again the French ambassador reported rumors of her pregnancy. It was even suggested that, should the condition be confirmed, Catherine would be crowned at York Minster. These rumors prove that Henry still made love to his wife on a somewhat regular basis. And for her part, Catherine was confident she could ‘meddle with a man’ without pregnancy, which made her relationship with Culpeper safe. He and Dereham both traveled in the progress as members of the royal household.

In Catherine’s rather simple view of marriage, as long as she and the king were happy, nothing else mattered. And since the king would be happy as long as he was ignorant, all would be well.

And the king was ignorant for a surprisingly long time. For his part, Culpeper was using Catherine’s infatuation to further his own ambitions. He was not a particularly ‘gentlemanly’ gentleman. In fact, he had brutally raped a park-keeper’s wife, ordering three of his servants to hold her down during the attack; he also murdered a villager who tried to save her. He had been pardoned by the king, but it is one of the few facts we know about Culpeper and not a pleasant one. His ambitions regarding Catherine undoubtedly stemmed from Henry VIII’s ill health. If the king died, then the queen dowager would maintain some influence and power at court. Before that inevitable day, she could give him as many expensive gifts as he desired.

Did Catherine love Culpeper? She undoubtedly did, at least as much as her immature view of love allowed. He was handsome, very charming, if only in a superficial manner, and he complemented and cajoled her. She became increasingly open in her affection, enough to worry Culpeper himself. As a gentleman of the privy chamber, he knew the king’s moods better than anyone and had no desire to risk much for Catherine.

But there were others at court who knew of the relationship, and they would not keep quiet. When the northern progress finally ended on 1 November, and the royal couple settled at Hampton Court Palace, Catherine’s past and present indiscretions caught up with her. She had been safe enough during the northern progress, for a traveling court was not nearly as gossip-ridden as a settled one; there were, after all, far more practical matters to attend to as the king moved from city to city. But once they were home, other matters could take precedence – matters like the queen’s infidelity.

Catherine’s fall from grace was so rapid that foreign ambassadors were at a loss to explain it. The man behind it was John Lascelles, the brother of Mary Hall, herself a chambermaid to the dowager duchess of Norfolk and thus privy to Catherine’s past. However, the past was not necessarily a danger to the queen; most young women could not withstand scrutiny of their early flirtations. They were perhaps not serious enough to warrant her execution. Lascelles, who was a ‘convinced reformer’, was motivated by his religious convictions and not personal animosity towards Catherine. But she represented the conservative Catholic faction and, with her influence, they were growing more powerful and reactionary. Lascelles went to Thomas Cranmer, Henry’s close friend and archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer recognized the dangers to Catherine, namely the precontract with Dereham that would invalidate her marriage to Henry VIII. The precontract, of course, while ending her marriage, also excused her intimacy with Dereham.

On 2 November, while Henry attended a Mass for All Souls’ Day, Cranmer passed him a letter with the charges. The king was immediately ‘perplexed’ and believed the letter was a forgery. This was his first and thoroughly honest reaction; Catherine had deceived him well. He ordered Cranmer to keep the matter private and began an investigation. It took but a few days for Catherine’s house of cards to come tumbling down.

An assortment of female servants were arrested and sent to the Tower, as was Dereham. He was tortured; he confessed his earlier relationship and named Culpeper as the queen’s current lover. Culpeper was then arrested, tortured, and confessed.

When confronted with the confessions, Henry’s confusion gave way to great anger and self-pity. He managed to blame everyone but himself for this latest marital catastrophe. He wished for a sword to slay Catherine himself – a not uncommon reaction for a cuckolded husband, particularly one who had been so generous and trusting. He left Hampton Court on 5 November, sailing to Whitehall Palace. Catherine was arrested on 12 November and her tearful pleas to see the king were ignored; she was locked in her rooms. Two days later, she was taken to Syon House. She would never see Henry again.

Cranmer was given the distasteful task of interrogating the terrified girl. She was hysterical, convinced she would be executed like her cousin; even the archbishop felt pity for her condition. Perhaps he suggested an option to Henry VIII that he had first proposed for Anne Boleyn – let Catherine admit her sins, annul the marriage, and send her away. The Dereham precontract was the perfect excuse. Catherine need only admit its existence and her life would be spared. It was the king’s ‘most gracious mercy’ and her only possible chance for survival.

But Catherine, frightened and lacking any counsel, did not realize that the precontract would save her life. Instead, she was convinced it would be used to condemn her. And so, even as she admitted to ‘carnal copulation’ with Dereham, she stressed his ‘importune forcement’ and ‘violence’. She and Cranmer wanted the same end but talked at odds. And it was possible, too, that Henry VIII had never intended to spare her life.

Indeed, with each day that passed, the king was less inclined to show mercy. The floodgates had opened and ever more scurrilous rumors were heard about his ‘Rose without a thorn’.

Catherine was demoted from her position as Queen on 22 November and formally indicted two days later for leading an ‘abominable, base, carnal, voluptuous and vicious life’. She remained at Syon House for the next two months. On 10 December, Dereham paid a horrific penalty for his ‘crimes’; he was hung, drawn, and quartered (disemboweled and castrated while still conscious) as a traitor. Culpeper was also executed that day, though he suffered a more merciful beheading; this was ordered by the king, perhaps because of Culpeper’s higher rank and personal service in his household. Their heads were fixed on spears atop London Bridge and remained there as late as 1546.

Catherine, meanwhile, continued in a state of suspended hysteria. Her various relatives were sent to the Tower, including the elderly dowager duchess. Only the duke survived, having sufficiently humbled himself before Henry.

Perhaps the executions of Dereham and Culpeper had brought a newfound maturity to Catherine. She was content to remain quietly at Syon House, though it was clear the king could not allow it. On 21 January the House of Lords passed an Act of Attainder and it received the king’s approval on 11 February. It was intended to answer the question vexing them all – of what exactly was Catherine Howard guilty? If she had been precontracted to Dereham, then she was never married to the king – and thus not guilty of adultery. But in a speech on 6 February, Henry made it clear that the new Act could punish those who intended to commit treason (or adultery, since adultery in a queen was treason.) It was this intent which sealed Catherine’s fate.

On Friday, 10 February 1542, the duke of Suffolk arrived to take Catherine to the Tower of London. The hysterical frenzy returned; she struggled and had to be forced aboard the barge. She was dressed in black velvet and lodged in the Queen’s Apartments, though no longer queen. On Sunday night, she was informed that she would be executed the next day. Her only request was that the block be brought to her for she wished to ‘know how to place herself.’ It was to be her last act on a grand stage; she would die with all the dignity and composure possible.

Around seven o’clock on Monday, 13 February, several privy councilors arrived as escort. Her uncle Norfolk was not among them, having wisely withdrawn to his country estates. Catherine was weak and frightened and had to be helped up the steps to the scaffold. But once there, she made a small, quiet speech regarding her ‘worthy and just punishment’; she prayed for the king’s preservation and for God’s forgiveness. The actual execution was over quickly. Catherine’s body was interred at the nearby chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.

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.