Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard (1525 - February 13, 1542) was the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII of England 1540-1542, sometimes known as "the rose without a thorn." She was born in about 1525, probably in London, the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and granddaughter of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. She married Henry VIII on July 28, 1540, at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, having caught his eye even before his divorce from Anne of Cleves was arranged.

Abbreviated queenhood

Unfortunately, Catherine, though young, was far from innocent: In her early teens, she had had an affair with Francis Dereham, a young scholar employed by her family, and the pair had been unofficially engaged. After coming to court, she began a liaison with Thomas Culpeper, a member of the royal household, who was a relation of her mother, and foolishly hired Dereham as her private secretary, although their affair was over. When her activities were discovered, she confessed to adultery (which one modern historian, D. Starkey, believes she did not technically commit), but her life was not spared. She was convicted of high treason and executed on February 13, 1542, at the Tower of London, where she was buried, at the Royal Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. She made a "good Christian end" according to one observer. On the night before her execution, she made a strange request: She asked that the execution block be brought in her chamber so that she could rehearse her execution.

Catherine Howard in artwork

Painters continued to include Jane Seymour in pictures of King Henry VIII years after she was dead, because Henry continued to look back on her with favour as the one wife who gave him a son; most of them copied the portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger (below, left) because it was the only full-sized picture available. In the opposite situation, after Catherine Howard was executed, even the Howard family removed her picture from their family portrait gallery, because Henry never forgave her for her perfidy. Nobody dared make another portrait of her after she was dead.

For centuries, the picture above (also by Hans Holbein) was believed to be of Catherine, and some authorities said it is the only portrait of her that exists. Some historians now doubt that the woman in the picture is Catherine. Recently historian Antonia Fraser has persuasively argued that the above portrait is one of Jane Seymour's sister, Elizabeth Cromwell. The woman bears a remarkable resemblance to Jane (especially around the chin) and she is wearing the clothes of a widow, which Catherine never had occasion to wear but Elizabeth Seymour-Cromwell did. There is another picture of Catherine, a water-colour miniature (below, right); it has been dated (from details about how she is dressed and how the miniature is made) to the short period when Catherine was queen.

In it she is wearing the jewels remarkably similar to those Jane Seymour was wearing in her official portrait; these were jewels the records show belonged to the crown, not to any queen personally, and there is no record of their having been removed from the treasury and given to anyone else. The only other possibility is that the portrait shows Henry's Scottish niece, Lady Margaret Douglas, the mother-in-law of Mary Queen of Scots. So, whilst it is almost certain that the above portrait is not Catherine Howard, but rather Henry's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Seymour-Cromwell, the miniature shown above right is (possibly) Henry's unlucky fifth queen.

In film

Catherine first appeared on the silver screen in 1926, in the silent film Hampton Court Palace, in which she was played by Gabrielle Morton. In 1933, in The Private Life of Henry VIII, she was played by sultry British dancer Binnie Barnes. In this comedy of manners, Catherine chooses to abandon love and ambitiously sets out to seduce the king. Her tragedy comes upon falling in love with the debonair and devoted Thomas Culpeper. This inaccurate telling of Catherine's story dominates the film - which began with the execution of Anne Boleyn (played by Merle Oberon) and ended with Henry's marriage to Catherine Parr (played by Evelyn Gregg.)

American actress Dawn Addams made a 10-second appearance as the doomed queen in the 1952 romantic film Young Bess, with Charles Laughton as Henry VIII, Stewart Granger as Thomas Seymour and Jean Simmons as Elizabeth I.

In 1970, Angela Pleasance gave a melodramatic performance in a 90-minute BBC television drama Catherine Howard opposite Keith Michell as Henry VIII, Patrick Troughton as the duke of Norfolk and Sheila Burrell as Lady Rochford. In this version of events a shrill, indulgent, cruel, hedonistic Catherine uses the naive Culpeper to try and get herself pregnant in order to secure her position. The characterisations and plot-lines were very inaccurate - unusually, since the other 5 dramas in this series were widely praised in historical circles.

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. Two years later, Lynne Fredericks portrayed Queen Catherine in Henry VIII and His Six Wives opposite Keith Michell as Henry VIII.

In 2001, Michelle Abrahams played Catherine in Dr. David Starkey's television documentary on Henry's queens. In 2003, Emily Blunt, potrayed a more sympathetic portrayal of Catherine in the television drama Henry VIII which chose to focus almost entirely on Catherine's sexual escapades. Once again, her adultery was explained by her relatives' desire for her to get pregnant. Ray Winstone appeared as Henry VIII.

Historiography

Victorian writer, Agnes Strickland, argued that Catherine had been innocent of all charges laid against her. Others, namely American historican Lacey Baldwin Smith, described her life as one of "hedonism" and Catherine as a "juvenile delinquent." Alison Weir, in 1991, described her as "an empty-headed wanton."

Others are more sympathetic--particularly Dr. David Starkey, who offered revolutionary theories on Catherine's adultery, and feminist activist, Karen Lindsey, who was sympathetic but realistic in her assessment of Catherine Howard's personality.