Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaronminkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: On November eighth, fifteen forty one, Queen Catherine Howard was
Speaker 1: brought to a small room to sit opposite Thomas Cranmer,
Speaker 1: Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop had assured King Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth a few days prior that his interrogation would be
Speaker 1: harsh and merciless, that he would import on the King's
Speaker 1: young bride the severity of her crimes and scare her
Speaker 1: into full honesty. But when Cranmore saw the young girl,
Speaker 1: he felt his resolve drain away. She was weeping, already
Speaker 1: frantic with grief and terror, her bloodshot eyes darting around
Speaker 1: the room as if an executioner's blade could appear at
Speaker 1: any moment. But she also looked so small, so young.
Speaker 1: She was a nineteen year old girl, and she was
Speaker 1: in a chair that looked far too big for her.
Speaker 1: Grandmar really had all the information already that his investigation
Speaker 1: really needed. Only two weeks ago, the allegations had just
Speaker 1: been a rumor, a single rumor from a single source.
Speaker 1: The claim was this, that the new queen had been
Speaker 1: less than virginal when she had married the king. Someone
Speaker 1: had informed the archbishop that in Catherine's home growing up,
Speaker 1: she had not one but two affairs, first with her
Speaker 1: music teacher and then with her grandmother's secretary. Did you
Speaker 1: or did you not? Cranmar began, as soon as Catherine
Speaker 1: had caught her breath, have a sexual relationship with your
Speaker 1: music teacher, Henry Mannox when you were living with your grandmother,
Speaker 1: the dowager Duchess in Lambeth. Catherine wailed, no, sir, it
Speaker 1: was a flirtation, that's all. He never knew me, and
Speaker 1: the way a husband knows his wife. I have only
Speaker 1: ever been true to King Henry. And what of a secretary?
Speaker 1: Some time later, a man named Francis Derham? Did you
Speaker 1: know him? Intimately? Catherine's breath began to quicken erratically. Cranmar
Speaker 1: noticed her cheeks and dressed sleeves were both wet with tears.
Speaker 1: Be honest, child, Granmar said, The Lord is merciful to
Speaker 1: those who are honest. As almost an afterthought, he added,
Speaker 1: I have already spoken to both men. Catherine didn't respond,
Speaker 1: and Cranmar continued, you and Derham called each other husband
Speaker 1: and wife. Did you not, Catherine nodded, Were you formally
Speaker 1: bound to Earham? The archbishop continued, still unable to quite
Speaker 1: locate the harsh tone that he had rehearsed. Did you
Speaker 1: lie with him? Once more? Katherine nodded her head. We
Speaker 1: did lie together two or three times in my bed
Speaker 1: in the maidens chamber when I lived in Lambeth. But
Speaker 1: I never betrayed King Henry. I never betrayed my husband
Speaker 1: or sinned against him in any way. But she had
Speaker 1: already said enough. She had betrayed the king, betrayed him
Speaker 1: by pretending to be a virgin in a lie by omission,
Speaker 1: humiliated the king by now letting the whole world know
Speaker 1: that he had been fooled by a teenager. Catherine broke
Speaker 1: down in sobs. As he left, the archbishop quietly whispered
Speaker 1: to the guards that they should remove any items from
Speaker 1: her chamber that might allow her to commit suicide. Katherine
Speaker 1: Howard and King Henry the Eighth had only been married
Speaker 1: about sixteen months, and now with her past revealed, she
Speaker 1: knew that her time as queen was over. With Henry's history,
Speaker 1: she would be lucky to make it out with her
Speaker 1: head for a little while, it seemed as though she might.
Speaker 1: After her interrogation, Catherine was sent away from court to
Speaker 1: Sion Abbey. It seemed as though the King was going
Speaker 1: to show her mercy. Her arrangement with Francis Dirham could
Speaker 1: technically qualify as a pre contract, which would mean her
Speaker 1: marriage to Henry was invalid, getting him off the hook easy.
Speaker 1: Katherine would have to give up her jewels and possessions
Speaker 1: and live in exile, away from court for the rest
Speaker 1: of her life. It looked as though that was what
Speaker 1: was going to happen. It looked that way for exactly
Speaker 1: three days. Three days after Katherine Howard's interrogation, Francis Dirham revealed,
Speaker 1: under torture something else about Queen Catherine, something that the
Speaker 1: King wouldn't be able to look upon with mercy. From
Speaker 1: that moment, Catherine's fate was sealed. I'm danishwartz and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. When Catherine Howard, motherless girl, was eight
Speaker 1: years old, she was sent to live at the estate
Speaker 1: of her father's stepmother, her stepgrandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.
Speaker 1: The Dowager Duchess seemed to collect wards she had about
Speaker 1: a dozen or so girls under her care, mostly the
Speaker 1: daughters of poorer relations, and the idea was that under
Speaker 1: the dowager Duchess's supervision, the girls would learn the skills
Speaker 1: of court and aristocracy, although in effect supervision was a
Speaker 1: little lax. The year Katherine Howard turned thirteen, two major
Speaker 1: things happened. First, her cousin Anne Boleyn was beheaded for
Speaker 1: adultery during her marriage to King Henry the eighth. Second,
Speaker 1: Katherine Howard began a flirtation with her music teacher, a
Speaker 1: man named Henry Mannox, who had been hired to teach
Speaker 1: the girls how to play the Virginals. Mannox was exactly
Speaker 1: the type of man that Catherine would fall in love
Speaker 1: with for the rest of her life. He was every
Speaker 1: stereotype of a poetic musician, moody, romantic, wildly passionate. We
Speaker 1: don't know how old Mannix was at the time. He
Speaker 1: could have been a teenager himself somewhere around nineteen, or
Speaker 1: he could have been approaching forty. Either way, it was
Speaker 1: not a relationship that an extremely young aristocratic men should
Speaker 1: have been engaged in, especially not in a world in
Speaker 1: which a woman's sexual purity was her primary currency. Catherine,
Speaker 1: for her part, refused to let Mannox go all the way.
Speaker 1: The relationship occurred mainly in the hiding spots around the
Speaker 1: estate grounds, where they could kiss each other and whisper
Speaker 1: words of love into each other's ears. That's where the
Speaker 1: Dowager Duchess found them kissing in an alcove near the chapel.
Speaker 1: The Dowager Duchess slapped Katherine twice and forbade the couple
Speaker 1: from ever seeing each other again. The warning didn't deter
Speaker 1: the pair. I don't know why you're still seeing her,
Speaker 1: said Mary Lassells one day to Mannix. Mary Lassell's was
Speaker 1: another young woman under the Dowager Duchess's lack supervision, but
Speaker 1: lower ranked than Katherine, and so she felt a sort
Speaker 1: of kinship with Mannox, who was more or less irvant.
Speaker 1: She's much too high born for you, Mary said, she's
Speaker 1: never going to marry you. You know that, right. Mannax
Speaker 1: sneered and curled his lip. He took a step closer
Speaker 1: to Mary Lassells and told her that he already knew
Speaker 1: Catherine Howard by her private parts. And he said, she's
Speaker 1: already promised her maidenhead to me. For Mary Lassell's word
Speaker 1: got around and back to Katherine Howard what Mannox had said.
Speaker 1: She ended their relationship the next day in the estates orchard.
Speaker 1: Mannox pleaded that he was just so far in love
Speaker 1: with her that he didn't know what he said, but
Speaker 1: Catherine didn't care. Besides, Mary Lassell's had been right. She
Speaker 1: was too high born for him. That's why teenage Catherine
Speaker 1: felt as though she was a much better fit for
Speaker 1: Francis Dearham, the Dowager, just as Secretary Darrem already had
Speaker 1: a reputation and seduced a good percentage of the women
Speaker 1: at the estate, including Katherine's Owes secretary. In fact, it
Speaker 1: was she who recommended dear Him to Catherine, praising him
Speaker 1: so highly that Katherine couldn't help but be intrigued. It
Speaker 1: was the type of whirlwind passion that only a teenager
Speaker 1: can have. Within months, they were calling each other husband
Speaker 1: and wife, planning for an imaginary future together. They sent
Speaker 1: each other gifts and wrote each other letters. Katherine, still
Speaker 1: under her grandmother's custody, didn't have the income to buy
Speaker 1: the dresses she wanted, and so Dearham bought her beautiful
Speaker 1: fabric and taught her which dressmaker to go to. I'll
Speaker 1: pay you back, I promise, Catherine said. Dearham just smiled.
Speaker 1: Though the girls the dowager Duchess's estate slept in a
Speaker 1: single room, the maiden's chamber, and though the girls usually
Speaker 1: slept to a bed, there were still ways for girls
Speaker 1: to entertain male visitors. The maidens chamber was locked every night,
Speaker 1: to preserve the girl's virtue, of course, but Catherine had
Speaker 1: an answer for that. While her friends giggled and encouraged her,
Speaker 1: Katherine snuck into the dowager Duchess's chamber while her stepgrandmother
Speaker 1: was sleeping and stole the key, quickly making a copy
Speaker 1: and replacing it. Men snuck into the room. Then Katherine
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one of the wards who had an
Speaker 1: illicit boyfriend. The men brought with them wine and strawberries
Speaker 1: and apples, and the boys and girls would laugh and
Speaker 1: talk or sneak off to beds together until one or
Speaker 1: two in the morning. We can be almost certain that
Speaker 1: Dearman Katherine, who by this point had been spending every
Speaker 1: moment together, were having sex. Dearham privately assured his friends
Speaker 1: that he knew enough to ensure that Katherine wouldn't get pregnant. Meanwhile, Mannox,
Speaker 1: bitter music teacher, was furious at Katherine and her new paramour.
Speaker 1: In his neatest script, he wrote a letter to the
Speaker 1: Dowager Duchess informing her that if she were to come
Speaker 1: to the maidens chamber an hour or so after she
Speaker 1: normally went to bed, she would see something she wouldn't
Speaker 1: like very much, involving a certain one of her secretaries.
Speaker 1: Mannix anonymously left the note in the Dowager Duchess's pew
Speaker 1: in the chapel so she would find it. That night,
Speaker 1: she stormed into the maidens chamber to catch not Katherine
Speaker 1: and Dearham, but a man named Hastings, another one of
Speaker 1: her secretaries, who had already been caught once flirting with
Speaker 1: one of the other girls. Katherine was in the here,
Speaker 1: but Catherine knew who the note had been written by,
Speaker 1: and she knew that it had been intended for her,
Speaker 1: and Dearham agreed. Puffing out his chest, Dearham confronted Mannix,
Speaker 1: telling him that his behavior made it appear as though
Speaker 1: he never loved Catherine at all. Mannix called him a cad.
Speaker 1: Two jealous men dressing each other down over their secret
Speaker 1: love affair. It was like a scene from Gossip Girl,
Speaker 1: half a millennium before its time. People knew that Derrim
Speaker 1: and Catherine were having an affair people other than the
Speaker 1: Dowager Duchess. But people also liked Catherine. She was a
Speaker 1: vivacious and funny and entertaining Plus she was high ranking.
Speaker 1: They had no reason to rad her out or risk
Speaker 1: incurring the wrath of her grandmother for being the ones
Speaker 1: to deliver the bad news. But like almost all wildly
Speaker 1: passionate love affairs, the one between Derehm and Catherine became
Speaker 1: less exciting. Catherine stopped being entranced by Dearham when she
Speaker 1: was presented with a new, gilded opportunity. Her family connections
Speaker 1: had secured her a position as a lady in waiting
Speaker 1: for the new Queen Anne of Cleaves, who would be
Speaker 1: arriving to England later that fall. In the same apple
Speaker 1: orchard where she had broken up with Mannix, Katherine Howard
Speaker 1: told Dearham that she was leaving. His version of the
Speaker 1: story involves her weeping with sorrow. Her version is her
Speaker 1: losing her temper at his insistence that they stayed together.
Speaker 1: It's possible both of her. She cried, and she lost
Speaker 1: her temper, and she left Dereham, thinking that there was
Speaker 1: still a chance they were going to end up together.
Speaker 1: But there wasn't. She was just going. Katherine had grown
Speaker 1: up thinking her house in Lambeth was grand. She had
Speaker 1: no idea what would await her at the court of
Speaker 1: Henry the Eighth. So many people, so many dances, so
Speaker 1: much food, so much to learn For the confident girl
Speaker 1: who had only ever been the queen b of the
Speaker 1: band of teenagers in the maidens Chamber, she was paid
Speaker 1: ten pounds a year. With her first paycheck, she sent
Speaker 1: money back to dear Him to repay him for the
Speaker 1: fabric he had bought her. The new Queen of England,
Speaker 1: Anne of Cleave's, wasn't set to arrive for another few months,
Speaker 1: so in the meantime the new ladies got to know
Speaker 1: each other and got to know the men of court.
Speaker 1: For Catherine, that meant being instantly drawn to a gentleman
Speaker 1: named Thomas Culpepper. Culpepper was tall and athletic, the type
Speaker 1: of man that Henry kept around him because he made
Speaker 1: him feel young again. Culpepper, for his part, had an
Speaker 1: incredibly checkered past. There was a rumor about him being
Speaker 1: convicted of raping a woman in the village and murdering
Speaker 1: a villager who saw them, only to get off without
Speaker 1: consequences with a royal pardon. Catherine knew none of that.
Speaker 1: She only saw the handsome, charismatic man that women seemed
Speaker 1: to gravitate towards, like hummingbirds to a flower, and Culpepper
Speaker 1: saw Catherine, a stunningly gorgeous girl of sixteen. Every contemporary
Speaker 1: description of Katherine Howard has that in common, the understanding
Speaker 1: that Catherine was uniquely pretty. For a few weeks, Culpepper
Speaker 1: and Catherine engaged in a typical court flirtation. Catherine would
Speaker 1: report back to her fellow ladies in waiting, giggling, helping
Speaker 1: to decipher everything that Culpepper had said to her that day.
Speaker 1: Catherine knew that her virtue at court would be essential
Speaker 1: in ensuring that she make an advantageous marriage, and so
Speaker 1: when Culpepper started making sexual overtures expecting her to come
Speaker 1: to bed, she declined, even as he professed his courtly love.
Speaker 1: If he loved her, Catherine believed he would understand. But
Speaker 1: Culpepper wasn't a man accustomed to sexual rejection or even delay.
Speaker 1: With Catherine's refusal, he shrugged and set his sights upon
Speaker 1: a new girl. It was Catherine Howard's first time getting
Speaker 1: her heart broken. The other ladies in waiting saw her
Speaker 1: spend days crying and ripping up his letters. Luckily, Catherine
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to wallow too long in heartbreak. Almost immediately
Speaker 1: after Anne of Cleave's arrived in England, Henry the eighth
Speaker 1: decided that he didn't care for her and set about
Speaker 1: trying to arrange an end to their arranged marriage. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, the king began doting on his new brides,
Speaker 1: very pretty, very young lady in waiting, Katherine Howard. He
Speaker 1: sent gifts and gave her land everyone saw, including Anne
Speaker 1: of Cleaves, but she hoped it was just an affair.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. Henry secured the annulment from Anne of Cleaves
Speaker 1: within a few months and married Catherine Howard so quickly
Speaker 1: afterward that people assumed that she must be secretly pregnant.
Speaker 1: In fact, Henry was just absolutely besotted with his new bride,
Speaker 1: who was just sixteen or seventeen years old. Henry was fifty.
Speaker 1: They were married the very same day that Henry's former minister,
Speaker 1: Thomas Cromwell, was executed for securing the disastrous marriage to
Speaker 1: Anne of Cleaves. The middle aged Henry was so amorous
Speaker 1: to Catherine Howard that it almost embarrassed the rest of court.
Speaker 1: He didn't take his hands off of her in public,
Speaker 1: caressing her almost constantly, to the point where ambassadors noted
Speaker 1: that he had never been this publicly affectionate with any
Speaker 1: of his wives to this extent before. Of course, Henry
Speaker 1: believed that his young bride was a virgin and that
Speaker 1: he was the only man she had ever laid with.
Speaker 1: Catherine was so young and so beautiful that she made
Speaker 1: Henry feel as though he were back in his prime,
Speaker 1: even as it became exceedingly obvious that he was not.
Speaker 1: Pain in his legs from his long troublesome ulcers kept
Speaker 1: getting worse. Henry had difficulty with impotence in the bedroom,
Speaker 1: even as he made his attraction to Catherine increasingly obvious
Speaker 1: outside the bedroom. Henry's doctors advised him to spend time
Speaker 1: away from his new bride so that he could recuperate.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, they put him on a weight loss
Speaker 1: regiment and wrapped his injured leg in boiled olive, lee
Speaker 1: eaves and murder. Henry's ill health and generally mercurial nature,
Speaker 1: combined with his shame at his inability to perform in
Speaker 1: the bedroom, meant that he spent most nights away from Catherine.
Speaker 1: A year into their marriage, Catherine had no pregnancy to
Speaker 1: show for it. Catherine knew full well what happened to
Speaker 1: queens who didn't give Henry sons. As her relationship with
Speaker 1: the King continued to strain, Catherine began to shut herself away,
Speaker 1: unhappy and anxious, refusing to go to dances. Uncertain of
Speaker 1: her future position. That summer strain or not, Katherine was
Speaker 1: to accompany Henry on the Northern Progress, a show of
Speaker 1: force and majesty to the rebellious northern parts of the country. Catherine,
Speaker 1: as the beautiful young queen, was an essential prop for
Speaker 1: the outing, to make Henry look all the more vital
Speaker 1: and powerful with her at side. But Catherine took ill
Speaker 1: on the journey, spending days and nights alone in her room.
Speaker 1: When the King sent a servant to her chamber one night,
Speaker 1: he found it bolted. The queen's ladies fretted about her listlessness,
Speaker 1: but they also whispered about the way she gazed down
Speaker 1: from her window at Thomas Culpepper, the young handsome man
Speaker 1: in the King's entourage, who had caught her eye from
Speaker 1: the moment that she had arrived at court. The way
Speaker 1: she looked at him with her hand cupped in her palm,
Speaker 1: it was almost like love. When the trip to the
Speaker 1: north of the country ended and they all returned to
Speaker 1: Hampton Court on October nine, Henry gave a speech giving
Speaker 1: hearty thanks for his good life with Catherine and his
Speaker 1: trust in their happy future together. The very next day,
Speaker 1: everything would fall apart. Do you remember Mary Lassell's the
Speaker 1: girl from Catherine's time with the Dowager Duchess Away from court,
Speaker 1: Mary Lassell's brother John was reprimanding her for not being
Speaker 1: able to secure a position in the new Queen's household.
Speaker 1: Didn't you two know each other? John scoffed at her.
Speaker 1: Mary Lassell's bristled at her brother's derision. Yes, I knew her.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even want to be in that household under
Speaker 1: a queen like her. I remember how she behaved back
Speaker 1: when she was in Lambeth. John paused and asked for
Speaker 1: more details. Mary Lassell's told him about Henry Mannox and
Speaker 1: Francis Dearham. Everybody knows the Queen wasn't so pure when
Speaker 1: she married the King, Mary said. John stopped in his
Speaker 1: tracks and demanded that Mary tell him everything she knew,
Speaker 1: and John Lassell's, a devout Protestant reformer, went to tell
Speaker 1: the arch Bishop, Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was in a delicate position.
Speaker 1: On one hand, this was just a rumor and he
Speaker 1: didn't want to incur Henry's wrath over nothing. But on
Speaker 1: the other hand, if he didn't tell Henry and somehow
Speaker 1: word got out, he would be responsible. And so on
Speaker 1: November two, in incredibly measured words, Granmar put the delicate
Speaker 1: claims in writing in a letter and left it on
Speaker 1: Henry's seat in Chapel. Henry was, of course outraged. He
Speaker 1: didn't believe the rumors for a moment, but still he
Speaker 1: demanded a full investigation. Man X and Dearham both confessed.
Speaker 1: On November six, without telling Catherine Howard, Henry the Eighth
Speaker 1: left Hampton Court and rode to Greenwich. She would never
Speaker 1: see him again. Once Henry was done with a wife,
Speaker 1: you wanted her out of sight at Greenwich, Henry held
Speaker 1: a midnight meeting that lasted for six hours, in which
Speaker 1: he and his ministers decided what to do. At one point,
Speaker 1: Henry broke down in tears. Why have I had such
Speaker 1: bad luck in meeting these ill conditioned women, he cried.
Speaker 1: He grabbed a sword. Maybe I should just go and
Speaker 1: kill her myself. However much pleasure she had in her sins,
Speaker 1: it won't be half as much as her torture in death,
Speaker 1: Henry's men subdued him. He really had been in love,
Speaker 1: he thought, with his beautiful young fifth wife. The next day,
Speaker 1: Catherine knew something was a mess. No one had told
Speaker 1: her anything. The investigation had been completely secret, but Henry
Speaker 1: was gone and had left no word about where he was.
Speaker 1: She could scent something in the air. When her musicians
Speaker 1: started to play, she silenced them. It's no time for dancing,
Speaker 1: she said. That night, she was brought before Thomas Granmar,
Speaker 1: where she confessed. Henry showed mercy enough that Catherine should
Speaker 1: be spared death and a real imprisonment in favor of
Speaker 1: a life of exile at Ccion House. But then a November,
Speaker 1: under torture, Francis Dirham said something new. No, he promised
Speaker 1: he had never slept with the Queen while she was
Speaker 1: married to the king, but everyone knew Thomas Culpepper did.
Speaker 1: Now there is no heart evidence to prove that Thomas
Speaker 1: Culpepper and Catherine actually slept together. She went to the
Speaker 1: grave denying it, but soon details began to emerge. In
Speaker 1: the spring after her wedding, feeling distant from Henry and
Speaker 1: lonely at court, Katherine and Thomas began exchanging love letters.
Speaker 1: They sent little gifts back and forth. Their letters became
Speaker 1: more and more emotional and personal. I trust in you
Speaker 1: that you will always be as you have promised me,
Speaker 1: Katherine wrote. She signed the letter yours as long as
Speaker 1: life endures, and that summer Culpepper had been in the
Speaker 1: large group of courtiers who accompanied Henry and Catherine on
Speaker 1: the northern progress. Had she really been sick when she
Speaker 1: insisted on staying alone in her room? Ladies were interrogated.
Speaker 1: Jane Rochford confessed that at one of the stops, Culpepper
Speaker 1: used a secret door that led up backstairs directly to
Speaker 1: Queen Catherine's bed chamber. Other ladies were interrogated about whether
Speaker 1: Catherine and Culpepper we're having an affair. I don't know
Speaker 1: for certain. One lady said, I am inclined to believe
Speaker 1: the queen, except except the Archbishop prompted, except the way
Speaker 1: she looked at Culpepper from her window. I would have
Speaker 1: believed her if I hadn't seen the way she gazed
Speaker 1: at him. Catherine had been in love, and she hadn't
Speaker 1: been able to hide it. Dearham was hanged, quartered and disemboweled. Culpepper,
Speaker 1: as a gentleman, was simply beheaded. Meanwhile, Catherine waited at
Speaker 1: Scion House, knowing her fate would be arriving swiftly. In January.
Speaker 1: An act of attainder made it treason for a woman
Speaker 1: to marry the king without plain declaration of having previously
Speaker 1: lived in chase life. That was it. The final piece
Speaker 1: had been put into place to ensure that Catherine would
Speaker 1: receive the death that Henry wanted for her. Anne Boleyn
Speaker 1: had been taken to the Tower of London under full
Speaker 1: light of day. Catherine had the privilege of arriving at night,
Speaker 1: although when the guards arrived at Zion House to take
Speaker 1: her to the barge, she collapsed in a fit of panic.
Speaker 1: Lucky it was dark during her boat ride down the
Speaker 1: Thames or else she would have seen the rotting heads
Speaker 1: of Francis Dirham and Thomas Culpepper leering down at her
Speaker 1: from London Bridge. That night, locked in the Tower of London,
Speaker 1: she heard the gates playing shut and the locks on
Speaker 1: the doors turn. She was told that she would be
Speaker 1: killed two days later. After her final confession, Catherine made
Speaker 1: a request that the guard take a back. Couldn't refuse.
Speaker 1: She asked for the block that she would be be
Speaker 1: headed on to be brought to her chamber so that
Speaker 1: she could practice. Catherine wanted to at least die with
Speaker 1: grace or as a little humiliation as possible, and she
Speaker 1: had heard stories of botched executions, including the execution of
Speaker 1: Thomas Cromwell, which it took four, five, even as many
Speaker 1: as ten strokes for the head to fully come off,
Speaker 1: and so for hours on her last day on earth,
Speaker 1: Catherine Howard kneeled in her cell at the Tower of
Speaker 1: London and raised and lowered the pretty neck on the
Speaker 1: black block. When the time finally came and she was
Speaker 1: escorted to the very spot where her cousin Anne Boleyn
Speaker 1: had died only six years earlier, Catherine knew exactly what
Speaker 1: to do MH. So she shook. She lowered her head
Speaker 1: into the valley of the block with well practiced ease,
Speaker 1: and the executioner took her head off with a single blow.
Speaker 1: She had gone from orphan to lady to queen. Two
Speaker 1: dead in two years. Katherine Howard hadn't yet reached her
Speaker 1: twenty one birthday. That's the very short, tragic life of
Speaker 1: Catherine Howard. Stick around after a brief sponsor break to
Speaker 1: hear a little bit more about the consequences of the
Speaker 1: investigation of Catherine's infidelity. Dearham Culpepper, Jane Rockford, and of
Speaker 1: course Katherine lost their lives in the aftermath of the
Speaker 1: investigation of Catherine's affairs, But there are two ladies whose
Speaker 1: fates fascinate me. During the course of the investigation, two
Speaker 1: of Catherine's ladies were caught gossiping idly about the king.
Speaker 1: What kind of man is this king? I mean, how
Speaker 1: many wives really have? The two women were jailed for
Speaker 1: their words, which just goes to show. If I had
Speaker 1: been alive in Tudor, England, with the way that I
Speaker 1: talked casually to my friends about my research for this podcast,
Speaker 1: things would not have ended well for me. I also
Speaker 1: want to offer a quick note about Catherine Howard's age
Speaker 1: and her sexual activity. It's troubling it isn't quite possible
Speaker 1: to apply our modern understanding of the age of consent
Speaker 1: onto the behavior of historical figures in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 1: Five years ago, a girl was considered a woman as
Speaker 1: soon as she began having her period, and a teenager
Speaker 1: marrying a man twice or even three times her age,
Speaker 1: far from being seen as an active abuse or pedophilia,
Speaker 1: was unfortunately incredibly common. Still, it's important to understand that
Speaker 1: these are real people. Katherine was a teenager, and her
Speaker 1: decision making and experiences were those of someone incredibly young. Personally,
Speaker 1: I find it most helpful not to make broad declarations
Speaker 1: about Katherine as a villain or a victim, but just
Speaker 1: to do my best to try to understand her with
Speaker 1: the most empathy I possibly can. Noble Blood is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky. The show was written and hosted by Danis
Speaker 1: Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at
Speaker 1: Noble Blood tales, and you can learn more about the
Speaker 1: show over at Noble blood Tails dot com. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: M HM