WEBVTT - Beheaded II 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.720 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:08.240 and Grimm and Mild from Aaronminkie. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:17.079 On November eighth, fifteen forty one, Queen Catherine Howard was 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.480 brought to a small room to sit opposite Thomas Cranmer, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.840 Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop had assured King Henry the 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.120 Eighth a few days prior that his interrogation would be 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.080 harsh and merciless, that he would import on the King's 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.959 young bride the severity of her crimes and scare her 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.720 into full honesty. But when Cranmore saw the young girl, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.720 he felt his resolve drain away. She was weeping, already 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:53.440 frantic with grief and terror, her bloodshot eyes darting around 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.360 the room as if an executioner's blade could appear at 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:02.560 any moment. But she also looked so small, so young. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.160 She was a nineteen year old girl, and she was 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.840 in a chair that looked far too big for her. 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.240 Grandmar really had all the information already that his investigation 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.520 really needed. Only two weeks ago, the allegations had just 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.240 been a rumor, a single rumor from a single source. 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.640 The claim was this, that the new queen had been 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.560 less than virginal when she had married the king. Someone 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.640 had informed the archbishop that in Catherine's home growing up, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.800 she had not one but two affairs, first with her 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.679 music teacher and then with her grandmother's secretary. Did you 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.360 or did you not? Cranmar began, as soon as Catherine 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.640 had caught her breath, have a sexual relationship with your 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.360 music teacher, Henry Mannox when you were living with your grandmother, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:04.120 the dowager Duchess in Lambeth. Catherine wailed, no, sir, it 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.480 was a flirtation, that's all. He never knew me, and 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.200 the way a husband knows his wife. I have only 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:15.240 ever been true to King Henry. And what of a secretary? 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:20.160 Some time later, a man named Francis Derham? Did you 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:28.359 know him? Intimately? Catherine's breath began to quicken erratically. Cranmar 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.440 noticed her cheeks and dressed sleeves were both wet with tears. 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.320 Be honest, child, Granmar said, The Lord is merciful to 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.440 those who are honest. As almost an afterthought, he added, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.960 I have already spoken to both men. Catherine didn't respond, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:53.040 and Cranmar continued, you and Derham called each other husband 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:59.000 and wife. Did you not, Catherine nodded, Were you formally 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.799 bound to Earham? The archbishop continued, still unable to quite 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.440 locate the harsh tone that he had rehearsed. Did you 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.440 lie with him? Once more? Katherine nodded her head. We 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.960 did lie together two or three times in my bed 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.800 in the maidens chamber when I lived in Lambeth. But 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.520 I never betrayed King Henry. I never betrayed my husband 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.079 or sinned against him in any way. But she had 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.919 already said enough. She had betrayed the king, betrayed him 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.960 by pretending to be a virgin in a lie by omission, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.360 humiliated the king by now letting the whole world know 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.840 that he had been fooled by a teenager. Catherine broke 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:49.440 down in sobs. As he left, the archbishop quietly whispered 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.480 to the guards that they should remove any items from 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:57.640 her chamber that might allow her to commit suicide. Katherine 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.480 Howard and King Henry the Eighth had only been married 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:05.280 about sixteen months, and now with her past revealed, she 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.880 knew that her time as queen was over. With Henry's history, 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.200 she would be lucky to make it out with her 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.839 head for a little while, it seemed as though she might. 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.719 After her interrogation, Catherine was sent away from court to 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.640 Sion Abbey. It seemed as though the King was going 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:29.080 to show her mercy. Her arrangement with Francis Dirham could 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.440 technically qualify as a pre contract, which would mean her 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.840 marriage to Henry was invalid, getting him off the hook easy. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.080 Katherine would have to give up her jewels and possessions 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.680 and live in exile, away from court for the rest 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.360 of her life. It looked as though that was what 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.440 was going to happen. It looked that way for exactly 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:55.440 three days. Three days after Katherine Howard's interrogation, Francis Dirham revealed, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:01.440 under torture something else about Queen Catherine, something that the 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:06.760 King wouldn't be able to look upon with mercy. From 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:13.960 that moment, Catherine's fate was sealed. I'm danishwartz and this 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:27.479 is noble blood. When Catherine Howard, motherless girl, was eight 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.520 years old, she was sent to live at the estate 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:36.080 of her father's stepmother, her stepgrandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.640 The Dowager Duchess seemed to collect wards she had about 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.080 a dozen or so girls under her care, mostly the 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.640 daughters of poorer relations, and the idea was that under 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:53.719 the dowager Duchess's supervision, the girls would learn the skills 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:59.040 of court and aristocracy, although in effect supervision was a 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:05.320 little lax. The year Katherine Howard turned thirteen, two major 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:11.240 things happened. First, her cousin Anne Boleyn was beheaded for 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:16.200 adultery during her marriage to King Henry the eighth. Second, 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.839 Katherine Howard began a flirtation with her music teacher, a 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:25.200 man named Henry Mannox, who had been hired to teach 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:30.560 the girls how to play the Virginals. Mannox was exactly 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.159 the type of man that Catherine would fall in love 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.280 with for the rest of her life. He was every 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:43.560 stereotype of a poetic musician, moody, romantic, wildly passionate. We 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.599 don't know how old Mannix was at the time. He 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:51.200 could have been a teenager himself somewhere around nineteen, or 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.520 he could have been approaching forty. Either way, it was 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.479 not a relationship that an extremely young aristocratic men should 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.320 have been engaged in, especially not in a world in 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:10.040 which a woman's sexual purity was her primary currency. Catherine, 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.400 for her part, refused to let Mannox go all the way. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.920 The relationship occurred mainly in the hiding spots around the 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.560 estate grounds, where they could kiss each other and whisper 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.440 words of love into each other's ears. That's where the 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:31.239 Dowager Duchess found them kissing in an alcove near the chapel. 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:36.720 The Dowager Duchess slapped Katherine twice and forbade the couple 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:41.120 from ever seeing each other again. The warning didn't deter 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.760 the pair. I don't know why you're still seeing her, 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:49.560 said Mary Lassells one day to Mannix. Mary Lassell's was 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:54.080 another young woman under the Dowager Duchess's lack supervision, but 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.400 lower ranked than Katherine, and so she felt a sort 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.400 of kinship with Mannox, who was more or less irvant. 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.920 She's much too high born for you, Mary said, she's 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.680 never going to marry you. You know that, right. Mannax 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.280 sneered and curled his lip. He took a step closer 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:16.120 to Mary Lassells and told her that he already knew 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:21.560 Catherine Howard by her private parts. And he said, she's 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:27.080 already promised her maidenhead to me. For Mary Lassell's word 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.200 got around and back to Katherine Howard what Mannox had said. 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.319 She ended their relationship the next day in the estates orchard. 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.360 Mannox pleaded that he was just so far in love 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.360 with her that he didn't know what he said, but 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.360 Catherine didn't care. Besides, Mary Lassell's had been right. She 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:55.000 was too high born for him. That's why teenage Catherine 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.480 felt as though she was a much better fit for 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:03.480 Francis Dearham, the Dowager, just as Secretary Darrem already had 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.080 a reputation and seduced a good percentage of the women 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.840 at the estate, including Katherine's Owes secretary. In fact, it 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.720 was she who recommended dear Him to Catherine, praising him 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.840 so highly that Katherine couldn't help but be intrigued. It 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.719 was the type of whirlwind passion that only a teenager 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.040 can have. Within months, they were calling each other husband 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:34.120 and wife, planning for an imaginary future together. They sent 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.840 each other gifts and wrote each other letters. Katherine, still 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.319 under her grandmother's custody, didn't have the income to buy 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.000 the dresses she wanted, and so Dearham bought her beautiful 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.400 fabric and taught her which dressmaker to go to. I'll 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:55.160 pay you back, I promise, Catherine said. Dearham just smiled. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.680 Though the girls the dowager Duchess's estate slept in a 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.920 single room, the maiden's chamber, and though the girls usually 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.319 slept to a bed, there were still ways for girls 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:16.800 to entertain male visitors. The maidens chamber was locked every night, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.160 to preserve the girl's virtue, of course, but Catherine had 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.400 an answer for that. While her friends giggled and encouraged her, 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.200 Katherine snuck into the dowager Duchess's chamber while her stepgrandmother 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.880 was sleeping and stole the key, quickly making a copy 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.800 and replacing it. Men snuck into the room. Then Katherine 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:40.839 wasn't the only one of the wards who had an 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.240 illicit boyfriend. The men brought with them wine and strawberries 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.319 and apples, and the boys and girls would laugh and 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.480 talk or sneak off to beds together until one or 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.080 two in the morning. We can be almost certain that 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.880 Dearman Katherine, who by this point had been spending every 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:04.600 moment together, were having sex. Dearham privately assured his friends 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:11.559 that he knew enough to ensure that Katherine wouldn't get pregnant. Meanwhile, Mannox, 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:16.160 bitter music teacher, was furious at Katherine and her new paramour. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.160 In his neatest script, he wrote a letter to the 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.680 Dowager Duchess informing her that if she were to come 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.440 to the maidens chamber an hour or so after she 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.240 normally went to bed, she would see something she wouldn't 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:34.839 like very much, involving a certain one of her secretaries. 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.439 Mannix anonymously left the note in the Dowager Duchess's pew 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.480 in the chapel so she would find it. That night, 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.920 she stormed into the maidens chamber to catch not Katherine 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.880 and Dearham, but a man named Hastings, another one of 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.480 her secretaries, who had already been caught once flirting with 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.199 one of the other girls. Katherine was in the here, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.880 but Catherine knew who the note had been written by, 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.280 and she knew that it had been intended for her, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:13.880 and Dearham agreed. Puffing out his chest, Dearham confronted Mannix, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.839 telling him that his behavior made it appear as though 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.880 he never loved Catherine at all. Mannix called him a cad. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.360 Two jealous men dressing each other down over their secret 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.280 love affair. It was like a scene from Gossip Girl, 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.680 half a millennium before its time. People knew that Derrim 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.640 and Catherine were having an affair people other than the 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.599 Dowager Duchess. But people also liked Catherine. She was a 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.800 vivacious and funny and entertaining Plus she was high ranking. 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.760 They had no reason to rad her out or risk 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.520 incurring the wrath of her grandmother for being the ones 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.559 to deliver the bad news. But like almost all wildly 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.680 passionate love affairs, the one between Derehm and Catherine became 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:03.520 less exciting. Catherine stopped being entranced by Dearham when she 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:09.000 was presented with a new, gilded opportunity. Her family connections 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.160 had secured her a position as a lady in waiting 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.480 for the new Queen Anne of Cleaves, who would be 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:20.040 arriving to England later that fall. In the same apple 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.800 orchard where she had broken up with Mannix, Katherine Howard 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.400 told Dearham that she was leaving. His version of the 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.720 story involves her weeping with sorrow. Her version is her 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.840 losing her temper at his insistence that they stayed together. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.280 It's possible both of her. She cried, and she lost 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.959 her temper, and she left Dereham, thinking that there was 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.000 still a chance they were going to end up together. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:54.280 But there wasn't. She was just going. Katherine had grown 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.600 up thinking her house in Lambeth was grand. She had 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.560 no idea what would await her at the court of 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.520 Henry the Eighth. So many people, so many dances, so 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.960 much food, so much to learn For the confident girl 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.720 who had only ever been the queen b of the 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:16.040 band of teenagers in the maidens Chamber, she was paid 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:20.160 ten pounds a year. With her first paycheck, she sent 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.840 money back to dear Him to repay him for the 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.320 fabric he had bought her. The new Queen of England, 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.000 Anne of Cleave's, wasn't set to arrive for another few months, 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.040 so in the meantime the new ladies got to know 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.680 each other and got to know the men of court. 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:41.520 For Catherine, that meant being instantly drawn to a gentleman 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:48.040 named Thomas Culpepper. Culpepper was tall and athletic, the type 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.720 of man that Henry kept around him because he made 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.240 him feel young again. Culpepper, for his part, had an 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.280 incredibly checkered past. There was a rumor about him being 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.040 convicted of raping a woman in the village and murdering 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.240 a villager who saw them, only to get off without 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.440 consequences with a royal pardon. Catherine knew none of that. 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.000 She only saw the handsome, charismatic man that women seemed 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:21.280 to gravitate towards, like hummingbirds to a flower, and Culpepper 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:27.480 saw Catherine, a stunningly gorgeous girl of sixteen. Every contemporary 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:32.160 description of Katherine Howard has that in common, the understanding 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:37.440 that Catherine was uniquely pretty. For a few weeks, Culpepper 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:43.040 and Catherine engaged in a typical court flirtation. Catherine would 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.880 report back to her fellow ladies in waiting, giggling, helping 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.600 to decipher everything that Culpepper had said to her that day. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.280 Catherine knew that her virtue at court would be essential 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.160 in ensuring that she make an advantageous marriage, and so 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.720 when Culpepper started making sexual overtures expecting her to come 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:07.400 to bed, she declined, even as he professed his courtly love. 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:12.640 If he loved her, Catherine believed he would understand. But 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:18.080 Culpepper wasn't a man accustomed to sexual rejection or even delay. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.680 With Catherine's refusal, he shrugged and set his sights upon 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:27.560 a new girl. It was Catherine Howard's first time getting 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.960 her heart broken. The other ladies in waiting saw her 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:39.920 spend days crying and ripping up his letters. Luckily, Catherine 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.359 wouldn't have to wallow too long in heartbreak. Almost immediately 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.960 after Anne of Cleave's arrived in England, Henry the eighth 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.000 decided that he didn't care for her and set about 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:55.360 trying to arrange an end to their arranged marriage. In 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.960 the meantime, the king began doting on his new brides, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:04.679 very pretty, very young lady in waiting, Katherine Howard. He 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:09.359 sent gifts and gave her land everyone saw, including Anne 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.080 of Cleaves, but she hoped it was just an affair. 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.080 It wasn't. Henry secured the annulment from Anne of Cleaves 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.280 within a few months and married Catherine Howard so quickly 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.360 afterward that people assumed that she must be secretly pregnant. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:31.080 In fact, Henry was just absolutely besotted with his new bride, 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:36.000 who was just sixteen or seventeen years old. Henry was fifty. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.240 They were married the very same day that Henry's former minister, 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:46.679 Thomas Cromwell, was executed for securing the disastrous marriage to 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:55.680 Anne of Cleaves. The middle aged Henry was so amorous 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.080 to Catherine Howard that it almost embarrassed the rest of court. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.200 He didn't take his hands off of her in public, 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.159 caressing her almost constantly, to the point where ambassadors noted 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.920 that he had never been this publicly affectionate with any 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.400 of his wives to this extent before. Of course, Henry 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.000 believed that his young bride was a virgin and that 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.399 he was the only man she had ever laid with. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.000 Catherine was so young and so beautiful that she made 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.320 Henry feel as though he were back in his prime, 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.360 even as it became exceedingly obvious that he was not. 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.720 Pain in his legs from his long troublesome ulcers kept 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:40.840 getting worse. Henry had difficulty with impotence in the bedroom, 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.880 even as he made his attraction to Catherine increasingly obvious 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:49.640 outside the bedroom. Henry's doctors advised him to spend time 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.720 away from his new bride so that he could recuperate. 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:55.879 In the meantime, they put him on a weight loss 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.919 regiment and wrapped his injured leg in boiled olive, lee 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:05.639 eaves and murder. Henry's ill health and generally mercurial nature, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.359 combined with his shame at his inability to perform in 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.720 the bedroom, meant that he spent most nights away from Catherine. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.320 A year into their marriage, Catherine had no pregnancy to 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.840 show for it. Catherine knew full well what happened to 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:26.720 queens who didn't give Henry sons. As her relationship with 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:31.840 the King continued to strain, Catherine began to shut herself away, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.960 unhappy and anxious, refusing to go to dances. Uncertain of 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:42.280 her future position. That summer strain or not, Katherine was 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.439 to accompany Henry on the Northern Progress, a show of 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.960 force and majesty to the rebellious northern parts of the country. Catherine, 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.240 as the beautiful young queen, was an essential prop for 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.280 the outing, to make Henry look all the more vital 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.600 and powerful with her at side. But Catherine took ill 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:07.359 on the journey, spending days and nights alone in her room. 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.280 When the King sent a servant to her chamber one night, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:16.280 he found it bolted. The queen's ladies fretted about her listlessness, 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.320 but they also whispered about the way she gazed down 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:24.520 from her window at Thomas Culpepper, the young handsome man 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.920 in the King's entourage, who had caught her eye from 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.320 the moment that she had arrived at court. The way 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.160 she looked at him with her hand cupped in her palm, 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.199 it was almost like love. When the trip to the 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.480 north of the country ended and they all returned to 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.639 Hampton Court on October nine, Henry gave a speech giving 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.760 hearty thanks for his good life with Catherine and his 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:53.760 trust in their happy future together. The very next day, 0:20:54.320 --> 0:21:02.439 everything would fall apart. Do you remember Mary Lassell's the 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:07.560 girl from Catherine's time with the Dowager Duchess Away from court, 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.280 Mary Lassell's brother John was reprimanding her for not being 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.840 able to secure a position in the new Queen's household. 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.600 Didn't you two know each other? John scoffed at her. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:25.320 Mary Lassell's bristled at her brother's derision. Yes, I knew her. 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.600 I wouldn't even want to be in that household under 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.720 a queen like her. I remember how she behaved back 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:36.040 when she was in Lambeth. John paused and asked for 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:41.679 more details. Mary Lassell's told him about Henry Mannox and 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.000 Francis Dearham. Everybody knows the Queen wasn't so pure when 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.159 she married the King, Mary said. John stopped in his 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.399 tracks and demanded that Mary tell him everything she knew, 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.640 and John Lassell's, a devout Protestant reformer, went to tell 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:06.080 the arch Bishop, Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was in a delicate position. 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.159 On one hand, this was just a rumor and he 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.399 didn't want to incur Henry's wrath over nothing. But on 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.959 the other hand, if he didn't tell Henry and somehow 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.600 word got out, he would be responsible. And so on 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:27.560 November two, in incredibly measured words, Granmar put the delicate 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:31.439 claims in writing in a letter and left it on 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:38.040 Henry's seat in Chapel. Henry was, of course outraged. He 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.480 didn't believe the rumors for a moment, but still he 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:46.879 demanded a full investigation. Man X and Dearham both confessed. 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:53.000 On November six, without telling Catherine Howard, Henry the Eighth 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.400 left Hampton Court and rode to Greenwich. She would never 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:00.960 see him again. Once Henry was done with a wife, 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:08.879 you wanted her out of sight at Greenwich, Henry held 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:12.600 a midnight meeting that lasted for six hours, in which 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:17.200 he and his ministers decided what to do. At one point, 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.480 Henry broke down in tears. Why have I had such 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:25.399 bad luck in meeting these ill conditioned women, he cried. 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.320 He grabbed a sword. Maybe I should just go and 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.159 kill her myself. However much pleasure she had in her sins, 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:35.920 it won't be half as much as her torture in death, 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:40.480 Henry's men subdued him. He really had been in love, 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:46.640 he thought, with his beautiful young fifth wife. The next day, 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:50.800 Catherine knew something was a mess. No one had told 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:55.040 her anything. The investigation had been completely secret, but Henry 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:57.960 was gone and had left no word about where he was. 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:03.320 She could scent something in the air. When her musicians 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:07.680 started to play, she silenced them. It's no time for dancing, 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:12.480 she said. That night, she was brought before Thomas Granmar, 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:18.440 where she confessed. Henry showed mercy enough that Catherine should 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:21.720 be spared death and a real imprisonment in favor of 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:27.560 a life of exile at Ccion House. But then a November, 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:34.560 under torture, Francis Dirham said something new. No, he promised 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:36.639 he had never slept with the Queen while she was 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:41.080 married to the king, but everyone knew Thomas Culpepper did. 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:46.240 Now there is no heart evidence to prove that Thomas 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:50.800 Culpepper and Catherine actually slept together. She went to the 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:57.000 grave denying it, but soon details began to emerge. In 0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:01.320 the spring after her wedding, feeling distant from Henry and 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:06.560 lonely at court, Katherine and Thomas began exchanging love letters. 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:12.240 They sent little gifts back and forth. Their letters became 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:17.800 more and more emotional and personal. I trust in you 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:20.560 that you will always be as you have promised me, 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:25.680 Katherine wrote. She signed the letter yours as long as 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:30.199 life endures, and that summer Culpepper had been in the 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:33.840 large group of courtiers who accompanied Henry and Catherine on 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:38.520 the northern progress. Had she really been sick when she 0:25:38.600 --> 0:25:43.480 insisted on staying alone in her room? Ladies were interrogated. 0:25:44.400 --> 0:25:49.440 Jane Rochford confessed that at one of the stops, Culpepper 0:25:49.600 --> 0:25:54.639 used a secret door that led up backstairs directly to 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:59.840 Queen Catherine's bed chamber. Other ladies were interrogated about whether 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:04.479 Catherine and Culpepper we're having an affair. I don't know 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:08.080 for certain. One lady said, I am inclined to believe 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:15.240 the queen, except except the Archbishop prompted, except the way 0:26:15.280 --> 0:26:18.960 she looked at Culpepper from her window. I would have 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:22.240 believed her if I hadn't seen the way she gazed 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:26.560 at him. Catherine had been in love, and she hadn't 0:26:26.600 --> 0:26:39.320 been able to hide it. Dearham was hanged, quartered and disemboweled. Culpepper, 0:26:39.600 --> 0:26:45.320 as a gentleman, was simply beheaded. Meanwhile, Catherine waited at 0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:51.760 Scion House, knowing her fate would be arriving swiftly. In January. 0:26:51.880 --> 0:26:54.760 An act of attainder made it treason for a woman 0:26:54.840 --> 0:26:59.080 to marry the king without plain declaration of having previously 0:26:59.200 --> 0:27:03.800 lived in chase life. That was it. The final piece 0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:07.120 had been put into place to ensure that Catherine would 0:27:07.160 --> 0:27:11.560 receive the death that Henry wanted for her. Anne Boleyn 0:27:11.720 --> 0:27:14.440 had been taken to the Tower of London under full 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:18.680 light of day. Catherine had the privilege of arriving at night, 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:22.080 although when the guards arrived at Zion House to take 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:25.720 her to the barge, she collapsed in a fit of panic. 0:27:26.920 --> 0:27:29.600 Lucky it was dark during her boat ride down the 0:27:29.640 --> 0:27:33.000 Thames or else she would have seen the rotting heads 0:27:33.440 --> 0:27:37.959 of Francis Dirham and Thomas Culpepper leering down at her 0:27:38.760 --> 0:27:44.000 from London Bridge. That night, locked in the Tower of London, 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:48.000 she heard the gates playing shut and the locks on 0:27:48.040 --> 0:27:52.159 the doors turn. She was told that she would be 0:27:52.280 --> 0:27:57.920 killed two days later. After her final confession, Catherine made 0:27:57.920 --> 0:28:01.800 a request that the guard take a back. Couldn't refuse. 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:05.520 She asked for the block that she would be be 0:28:05.600 --> 0:28:09.040 headed on to be brought to her chamber so that 0:28:09.160 --> 0:28:13.640 she could practice. Catherine wanted to at least die with 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:18.399 grace or as a little humiliation as possible, and she 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:22.320 had heard stories of botched executions, including the execution of 0:28:22.359 --> 0:28:26.720 Thomas Cromwell, which it took four, five, even as many 0:28:26.800 --> 0:28:30.800 as ten strokes for the head to fully come off, 0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:36.880 and so for hours on her last day on earth, 0:28:37.720 --> 0:28:41.120 Catherine Howard kneeled in her cell at the Tower of 0:28:41.200 --> 0:28:45.240 London and raised and lowered the pretty neck on the 0:28:45.280 --> 0:28:50.120 black block. When the time finally came and she was 0:28:50.280 --> 0:28:53.920 escorted to the very spot where her cousin Anne Boleyn 0:28:53.920 --> 0:28:58.880 had died only six years earlier, Catherine knew exactly what 0:28:59.040 --> 0:29:03.360 to do MH. So she shook. She lowered her head 0:29:03.440 --> 0:29:06.920 into the valley of the block with well practiced ease, 0:29:07.480 --> 0:29:11.200 and the executioner took her head off with a single blow. 0:29:12.840 --> 0:29:16.240 She had gone from orphan to lady to queen. Two 0:29:16.320 --> 0:29:22.040 dead in two years. Katherine Howard hadn't yet reached her 0:29:22.080 --> 0:29:34.360 twenty one birthday. That's the very short, tragic life of 0:29:34.480 --> 0:29:38.000 Catherine Howard. Stick around after a brief sponsor break to 0:29:38.040 --> 0:29:40.840 hear a little bit more about the consequences of the 0:29:40.920 --> 0:29:56.280 investigation of Catherine's infidelity. Dearham Culpepper, Jane Rockford, and of 0:29:56.320 --> 0:30:00.120 course Katherine lost their lives in the aftermath of the 0:30:00.160 --> 0:30:04.840