Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener discretion advised Danish Sports Here.
Speaker 1: I am still on maternity leave and so we're continuing
Speaker 1: the archival series on the six Wives of Henry the Eighth.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is focused on Katherine Howard, the teenager that
Speaker 1: King Henry the Eighth fell in love with, who ultimately
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, lost her head. But was she actually guilty
Speaker 1: of what the king accused her of enjoy.
Speaker 2: On November eighth, fifteen forty one, Queen Katherine Howard was
Speaker 2: brought to a small room to sit opposite Thomas Cranmer,
Speaker 2: Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop had assured King Henry the
Speaker 2: Eighth a few days prior that his interrogation would be
Speaker 2: harsh and merciless, that he would import on the King's
Speaker 2: young bride the severity of her crimes and scare her
Speaker 2: into full honesty. But when Cranmer saw the young girl,
Speaker 2: he felt his resolve drain away. She was weeping, already
Speaker 2: frantic with grief and terror, her bloodshot eyes darting around
Speaker 2: the room as if an executioner's blade could appear at
Speaker 2: any moment. But she also looked so small, so young.
Speaker 2: She was a nineteen year old girl, and she was
Speaker 2: in a chair that looked far too big for her.
Speaker 2: Cranmer really had all the information already that his investigation
Speaker 2: really needed. Only two weeks ago, the allegations had just
Speaker 2: been a rumor, a single rumor from a single source.
Speaker 2: The claim was this that the new Queen had been
Speaker 2: less than virginal when she had married the king. Some
Speaker 2: one had informed the archbishop that in Catherine's home growing up,
Speaker 2: she had not one but two affairs, first with her
Speaker 2: music teacher and then with her grandmother's secretary. Did you
Speaker 2: or did you not? Cranmar began as soon as Catherine
Speaker 2: had caught her breath, have a sexual relationship with your
Speaker 2: music teacher, Henry Mannox when you were living with your grandmother,
Speaker 2: the dowager Duchess in Lambeth. Katherine wailed, no, sir, it
Speaker 2: was a flirtation, that's all. He never knew me in
Speaker 2: the way a husband knows his wife. I have only
Speaker 2: ever been true to King Henry. And what of a secretary.
Speaker 2: Some time later, a man named Francis Diurham. Did you
Speaker 2: know him intimately? Catherine's breath began to quicken erratically. Cranmer
Speaker 2: noticed her cheeks and dressed sleeves were both wet with tears.
Speaker 2: Be honest, child, Cranmar said, The Lord is merciful to
Speaker 2: those who are honest. As almost an afterthought, he added,
Speaker 2: I have already spoken to both men. Catherine didn't respond,
Speaker 2: and Cranmar continued, you and Dearham called each other husband
Speaker 2: and wife? Did you not? Catherine nodded, Were you formally
Speaker 2: bound to Denham? The archbishop continued, still unable to quite
Speaker 2: locate the harsh tone that he had rehearsed. Did you
Speaker 2: lie with him? Once more? Catherine nodded her head. We
Speaker 2: did lie together two or three times in my bed
Speaker 2: in the maiden's chamber when I lived in Lambeth. But
Speaker 2: I never betrayed King Henry. I never betrayed my husband
Speaker 2: or sinned against him in any way. But she had
Speaker 2: already said enough. She had betrayed the king, betrayed him
Speaker 2: by pretending to be a virgin in a lie by omission,
Speaker 2: humiliated the king by now letting the whole world know
Speaker 2: that he had been fooled by a teenager. Catherine broke
Speaker 2: down in sobs. As he left, the archbishop quietly whispered
Speaker 2: to the guards that they should remove any items from
Speaker 2: her chamber that might allow her to commit suicide. Catherine
Speaker 2: Howard and King Henry the Eighth had only been married
Speaker 2: about sixteen months, and now with her past revealed, she
Speaker 2: knew that her time as queen was over. With Henry's history,
Speaker 2: she would be lucky to make it out with her
Speaker 2: head for a little while. It seemed as though she might.
Speaker 2: After her interrogation, Catherine was sent away from court to
Speaker 2: Sion Abbey. It seemed as though the King was going
Speaker 2: to show her mercy. Her arrangement with Frantis Dearham could
Speaker 2: technically qualify as a pre contract, would mean her marriage
Speaker 2: to Henry was invalid, getting him off the hook easy.
Speaker 2: Catherine would have to give up her jewels and possessions
Speaker 2: and live in exile, away from court for the rest
Speaker 2: of her life. It looked as though that was what
Speaker 2: was going to happen. It looked that way for exactly
Speaker 2: three days. Three days after Catherine Howard's interrogation, Frantis Dearham revealed,
Speaker 2: under torture something else about Queen Catherine, something that the
Speaker 2: King wouldn't be able to look upon with mercy. From
Speaker 2: that moment, Catherine's fate was sealed. I'm Danish Schwartz and
Speaker 2: this is noble blood. When Katherine Howard, motherless girl, was
Speaker 2: eight years old, she was sent to live at the
Speaker 2: estate of her father's stepmother, her step grandmother, the Dowager
Speaker 2: Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess seemed to collect wards.
Speaker 2: She had about a dozen or so girls under her care,
Speaker 2: mostly the daughters of poorer relations, and the idea was
Speaker 2: that under the Dowager Duchess's supervision, the girls would learn
Speaker 2: the skills of court and aristocracy, although in effect supervision
Speaker 2: was a little lax. The year Katherine Howard turned thirteen,
Speaker 2: two major things happened. First, her cousin Anne Boleyn was
Speaker 2: beheaded for adultery during her marriage to King Henry the
Speaker 2: eighth Second, Katherine Howard began a flirtation with her music teacher,
Speaker 2: a man named Henry Mannox, who had been hired to
Speaker 2: teach the girls how to play the Virginals. Mannox was
Speaker 2: exactly the type of man Catherine would fall in love
Speaker 2: with for the rest of her life. He was every
Speaker 2: stereotype of a poetic musician, moody, romantic, wildly passionate. We
Speaker 2: don't know how old Mannix was at the time. He
Speaker 2: could have been a teenager himself somewhere around nineteen, or
Speaker 2: he could have been approaching forty. Either way, it was
Speaker 2: not a relationship that an extremely young aristocratic woman should
Speaker 2: have been engaged in, especially not in a world in
Speaker 2: which a woman's sexual purity was her primary currency. Catherine,
Speaker 2: for her part, refused to let Mannox go all the way.
Speaker 2: The relationship occurred mainly in the hiding spots around the
Speaker 2: estate grounds, where they could kiss each other and whisper
Speaker 2: words of love into each other's ears. That's where the
Speaker 2: Dowager Duchess found them kissing in an alcove near the chapel.
Speaker 2: The Dowager Duchess slapped Catherine twice and forbade the couple
Speaker 2: from ever seeing each other again. The warning didn't deter
Speaker 2: the pair. I don't know why you're still seeing her,
Speaker 2: said Mary Lassal's one day to Mannox. Mary Lassles was
Speaker 2: another young woman under the Dowager Duchess's lack supervision, but
Speaker 2: lower ranked than Katherine, and so she felt a sort
Speaker 2: of kinship with Mannox, who was more or less a servant.
Speaker 2: She's much too high born for you, Mary said, she's
Speaker 2: never going to marry you. You know that right. Mannox
Speaker 2: sneered and curled his lip. He took a step closer
Speaker 2: to Mary Lassal's and told her that he already knew
Speaker 2: Catherine Howard by her private parts. And he said, she's
Speaker 2: already promised her maiden had to me. From Mary Lassal's
Speaker 2: word got around and back to Catherine Howard what Mannix
Speaker 2: had said. She ended their relationship. The next day in
Speaker 2: the estate's orchard. Mannix pleaded that he was just so
Speaker 2: far in love with her that he didn't know what
Speaker 2: he said, but Catherine didn't care. Besides, Mary Lassell's had
Speaker 2: been right. She was too high born for him. That's
Speaker 2: why teenage Catherine felt as though she was a much
Speaker 2: better fit for Francis Dearham, the Dowager Duchess's secretary. Durham
Speaker 2: already had a reputation and seduced a good percentage of
Speaker 2: the women at the estate, including Catherine's own secretary. In fact,
Speaker 2: it was she who recommended Dearham to Catherine, praising him
Speaker 2: so highly that Catherine couldn't help but be intrigued. It
Speaker 2: was the type of whirlwind passion that only a teenager
Speaker 2: can have. Within months, they were calling each other husband
Speaker 2: and wife, planning for an imaginary future together. They sent
Speaker 2: each other gifts and wrote each other letters. Katherine, still
Speaker 2: under her grandmother's custody, didn't have the income to buy
Speaker 2: the dresses she wanted, and so Dearham bought her beautiful
Speaker 2: fabric and taught her which dressmaker to go to. I'll
Speaker 2: pay you back, I promise, Catherine said. Durham just smiled.
Speaker 2: Though the girls at the dowager Duchess's estate slept in
Speaker 2: a single room, the maiden's chamber, and though the girls
Speaker 2: usually slept to a bed, there were still ways for
Speaker 2: girls to entertain male visitors. The maiden's chamber was locked
Speaker 2: every night, to preserve the girl's virtue, of course, but
Speaker 2: Catherine had an answer for that. While her friends giggled
Speaker 2: and encouraged her, Catherine snuck into the dowager Duchess's chamber
Speaker 2: while her stepgrandmother was sleeping and stole the key, quickly
Speaker 2: making a copy and replacing it. Men snuck into the room.
Speaker 2: Then Katherine wasn't the only one of the Wards who
Speaker 2: had an illicit boyfriend. The men brought with them wine, strawberries,
Speaker 2: and d apples, and the boys and girls would laugh
Speaker 2: and talk or sneak off to beds together until one
Speaker 2: or two in the morning. We can be almost certain
Speaker 2: that Dearham and Katherine, who by this point had been
Speaker 2: spending every moment together, were having sex. Durham privately assured
Speaker 2: his friends that he knew enough to ensure that Katherine
Speaker 2: wouldn't get pregnant. Meanwhile, Mannox, bitter music teacher, was furious
Speaker 2: at Katherine and her new paramore. In his neatest script,
Speaker 2: he wrote a letter to the Dowager Duchess informing her
Speaker 2: that if she were to come to the Maiden's chamber
Speaker 2: an hour or so after she normally went to bed,
Speaker 2: she would see something she wouldn't like very much, involving
Speaker 2: a certain one of her secretaries. Mannix anonymously left the
Speaker 2: note in the Dowager Duchess's pew in the chapel so
Speaker 2: she would find it. That night, she stormed into the
Speaker 2: Maiden's chamber to catch not Catherine and Dearham, but a
Speaker 2: man named Hastings, another one of her secretaries, who had
Speaker 2: already been caught once flirting with one of the other girls.
Speaker 2: Catherine was in the clear, but Catherine knew who the
Speaker 2: note had been written by, and she knew that it
Speaker 2: had been intended for her, and Dearham agreed. Puffing out
Speaker 2: his chest. Dearham confronted Mannox, telling him that his behavior
Speaker 2: made it appear as though he'd never loved Catherine at all.
Speaker 2: Mannox called him a cab. Two jealous men dressing each
Speaker 2: other down over their secret love affair. It was like
Speaker 2: a scene from Gossip Girl, half a millennium before its time.
Speaker 2: People knew that Dearham and Catherine were having an affair
Speaker 2: people other than the Dowager Duchess. But people also liked Catherine.
Speaker 2: She was vivacious and funny and entertaining. Plus she was
Speaker 2: high ranking. They had no reason to rat her out
Speaker 2: or risk incurring the wrath of her grandmother for being
Speaker 2: the ones to deliver the bad news. But like almost
Speaker 2: all wildly passionate love affairs, the one between Dearham and
Speaker 2: Catherine became less exciting. Catherine stopped being entranced by Dearham
Speaker 2: when she was presented with a new gilded opportunity. Her
Speaker 2: family connections had secured her a position as a lady
Speaker 2: in waiting for the new Queen Anne of Cleaves, who
Speaker 2: would be arriving to England later that fall. In the
Speaker 2: same apple orchard where she had broken up with Mannix,
Speaker 2: Katherine Howard told Dearham that she was leaving. His version
Speaker 2: of the story involves her weeping with sorrow. Her version
Speaker 2: is her losing her temper at his insistence that they
Speaker 2: stay together. It's possible both occurred. She cried, and she
Speaker 2: lost her temper, and she left Dearham, thinking that there
Speaker 2: was still a chance they were going to end up together.
Speaker 2: But there wasn't. She was just going. Catherine had grown
Speaker 2: up thinking her house in Lambeth was grand. She had
Speaker 2: no idea what would await her at the court of
Speaker 2: Henry the Eighth. So many people, so many dances, so
Speaker 2: much food, so much to learn for the confident girl
Speaker 2: who had only ever been the queen Bee of the
Speaker 2: band of teenagers in the maidens Chamber. She was paid
Speaker 2: ten pounds a year. With her first paycheck, she sent
Speaker 2: money back to Dearham to repay him for the fabric
Speaker 2: he had bought her. The new Queen of England, Anne
Speaker 2: of Cleaves wasn't set to arrive for another few months.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, the new ladies got to know each
Speaker 2: other and got to know the men of court. For Katherine,
Speaker 2: that meant being instantly drawn to a gentleman named Thomas Culpeper.
Speaker 2: Culpeper was tall and athletic, the type of man that
Speaker 2: Henry kept around him because he made him feel young again. Culpeper,
Speaker 2: for his part, had an incredibly checkered past. There was
Speaker 2: a rumor about him being convicted of raping a woman
Speaker 2: in the village and murdering a villager who saw them,
Speaker 2: only to get off without consequences with a royal pardon.
Speaker 2: Catherine knew none of that. She only saw the handsome,
Speaker 2: charismatic man that women seemed to gravitate towards, like hummingbirds
Speaker 2: to a flower, and Culpeper saw Katherine a stunningly gorgeous
Speaker 2: girl of sixteen. Every contemporary description of Catherine Howard has
Speaker 2: that in common, the understanding that Catherine was uniquely pretty.
Speaker 2: For a few weeks, Culpeper and Catherine engaged in a
Speaker 2: typical court flirtation. Catherine would report back to her fellow
Speaker 2: ladies in waiting, giggling helping to decipher everything that Culpeper
Speaker 2: had said to her that day. Catherine knew that her
Speaker 2: virtue at court would be essential in ensuring that she
Speaker 2: make an advantageous marriage, and so when Culpeper started making
Speaker 2: sexual overtures expecting her to come to bed, she declined,
Speaker 2: even as he professed his courtly love. If he loved her,
Speaker 2: Catherine believed he would understand, but Culpeper wasn't a man
Speaker 2: accustomed to sexual rejection or even delay. With Catherine's refusal,
Speaker 2: he shrugged and set his sights upon a new girl.
Speaker 2: It was Catherine Howard's first time getting her heart broken.
Speaker 2: The other ladies in waiting saw her her spend days
Speaker 2: crying and ripping up his letters. Luckily, Catherine wouldn't have
Speaker 2: to wallow too long in heartbreak. Almost immediately after Anne
Speaker 2: of Cleaves arrived in England, Henry the eighth decided that
Speaker 2: he didn't care for her and set about trying to
Speaker 2: arrange an end to their arranged marriage. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: the king began doting on his new brides, very pretty,
Speaker 2: very young lady in waiting Katherine Howard. He sent gifts
Speaker 2: and gave her land. Everyone saw, including Anne, of Cleaves,
Speaker 2: but she hoped it was just an affair. It wasn't.
Speaker 2: Henry secured the annulment from Anne of Cleaves within a
Speaker 2: few months and married Catherine Howard so quickly afterward that
Speaker 2: people assumed that she must be secretly pregnant. In fact,
Speaker 2: Henry was just absolutely besought it with his new bride,
Speaker 2: who was just sixteen or seventeen years old. Henry was fifty.
Speaker 2: They were married the very same day that Henry's former minister,
Speaker 2: Thomas Cromwell was executed for securing the disastrous marriage to
Speaker 2: Anne of Cleves. The middle aged Henry was so amorous
Speaker 2: to Catherine Howard that it almost embarrassed the rest of court.
Speaker 2: He didn't take his hands off of her in public,
Speaker 2: caressing her almost constantly, to the point where ambassadors noted
Speaker 2: that he had never been this publicly affectionate with any
Speaker 2: of his wives to this extent before. Of course, Henry
Speaker 2: believed that his young bride was a virgin and that
Speaker 2: he was the only man she had ever laid with.
Speaker 2: Catherine was so young and so beautiful that she made
Speaker 2: Henry feel as though he were back in his prime,
Speaker 2: even as it became exceedingly obvious that he was not
Speaker 2: pain in his legs from his long troublesome ulcers kept
Speaker 2: getting worse. Henry had difficulty with impotence in the bedroom,
Speaker 2: even as he made his attraction to Catherine increasingly obvious
Speaker 2: outside the bedroom. Henry's doctors advised him to spend time
Speaker 2: away from his new bride so that he could recuperate.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, they put him on a weight loss
Speaker 2: regimen and wrapped his injured leg in boiled olive leaves
Speaker 2: and mirth. Henry's ill health and generally mercurial nature, combined
Speaker 2: with his shame at his inability to perform in the bedroom,
Speaker 2: meant that he spent most nights away from Catherine. A
Speaker 2: year into their marriage, Catherine had no pregnancy to show
Speaker 2: for it. Catherine knew full well what happened to queens
Speaker 2: who didn't give Henry sons. As her relationship with the
Speaker 2: king continued to strain, Catherine began to shut herself away,
Speaker 2: unhappy and anxious, refusing to go to dances. Uncertain of
Speaker 2: her future position. That summer, strain or not, Catherine was
Speaker 2: to accompany Henry on the Northern Progress, a show of
Speaker 2: force and majesty to the rebellious northern parts of the country. Catherine,
Speaker 2: as the beautiful young Queen, was an essential prop for
Speaker 2: the outing, to make Henry look all the more vital
Speaker 2: and powerful with her at his side. But Catherine took
Speaker 2: ill on the journey, spending days and nights alone in
Speaker 2: her room. When the King sent a servant to her
Speaker 2: chamber one night, he found it bolted. The queen's ladies
Speaker 2: fretted about her listlessness, but they also whispered about the
Speaker 2: way she gazed down from her window at Thomas Culpeper,
Speaker 2: the young handsome man in the King's entourage, who had
Speaker 2: caught her eye from the moment that she had arrived
Speaker 2: at court. The way she looked at him with her
Speaker 2: hand cupped in her palm, it was almost like love.
Speaker 2: When the trip to the north of the country ended
Speaker 2: and they all returned to Hampton Court on October twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: Henry gave a speech giving hearty thanks for his good
Speaker 2: life with Catherine and his trust in their happy future together.
Speaker 2: The very next day everything would fall apart. Do you
Speaker 2: remember Mary Lassal's the girl from Catherine's time with the
Speaker 2: Dowager Duchess Away from court. Mary Lassell's brother John was
Speaker 2: reprimanding her for not being able to secure a position
Speaker 2: in the new queen's household. Didn't you two know each other?
Speaker 2: John scoffed at her. Mary Lassal's bristled at her brother's derision. Yes,
Speaker 2: I knew her. I wouldn't even want to be in
Speaker 2: that household under a queen like her. I remember how
Speaker 2: she behaved back when she was in the Lambeth. John
Speaker 2: paused and asked for more details. Mary Lassal's told him
Speaker 2: about Henry Mannox and Francis Dearhan. Everybody knows the queen
Speaker 2: wasn't so pure when she married the king, Mary said.
Speaker 2: John stopped in his tracks and demanded that Mary tell
Speaker 2: him everything she knew, and John Lassal's, a devout Protestant reformer,
Speaker 2: went to tell the Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was in
Speaker 2: a delicate position. On one hand, this was just a rumor,
Speaker 2: and he didn't want to incur Henry's wrath over nothing.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, if he didn't tell Henry
Speaker 2: and somehow word got out, he would be responsible. And
Speaker 2: so on November two, in incredibly measured words, Cranmer put
Speaker 2: the delicate claims in writing in a letter and left
Speaker 2: it on Henry's seat in chapel. Henry was, of course outraged.
Speaker 2: He didn't believe the rumors for a moment, but still
Speaker 2: he demanded a full investigation. Mannix and Dereham both confessed.
Speaker 2: On November sixth, Without telling Catherine, Howard Henry the Eighth
Speaker 2: left Hampton Court and rode to Greenwich. She would never
Speaker 2: see him again. Once Henry was done with a wife,
Speaker 2: he wanted her out of sight. At Greenwich, Henry held
Speaker 2: a midnight meeting that lasted for six hours, in which
Speaker 2: he and his ministers decided what to do. At one point,
Speaker 2: Henry broke down in tears. Why have I had such
Speaker 2: bad luck in meeting these ill conditioned women, he cried.
Speaker 2: He grabbed a sword. Maybe I should just go and
Speaker 2: kill her myself. However much play measure she had in
Speaker 2: her sins, it won't be half as much as her
Speaker 2: torture in death. Henry's men subdued him. He really had
Speaker 2: been in love, he thought, with his beautiful young fifth wife.
Speaker 2: The next day, Catherine knew something was a mess. No
Speaker 2: one had told her anything. The investigation had been completely secret,
Speaker 2: but Henry was gone and had left no word about
Speaker 2: where he was. She could sense something in the air.
Speaker 2: When her musicians started to play, she silenced them. It's
Speaker 2: no time for dancing, she said. That night she was
Speaker 2: brought before Thomas Grandmar where she confessed. Henry showed mercy
Speaker 2: enough that Catherine should be spared death and a real
Speaker 2: imprisonment in favor of a life of exile at Cyan House.
Speaker 2: But then, on November eleventh, under torture, Francis Dieham said
Speaker 2: something knew. No, he promised he had never slept with
Speaker 2: the Queen while she was married to the king, but
Speaker 2: everyone knew Thomas Culpeper did. Now there is no part
Speaker 2: evidence to prove that Thomas Culpeper and Catherine actually slept together.
Speaker 2: She went to the grave denying it, but soon details
Speaker 2: began to emerge. In the spring after her wedding, feeling
Speaker 2: distant from Henry and lonely at court, Catherine and Thomas
Speaker 2: began exchanging love letters. They sent little gifts back and forth.
Speaker 2: Their letters became more and more emotional and personal. I
Speaker 2: trust in you that you will always be as you
Speaker 2: have promised me, Catherine wrote. She signed the letter yours
Speaker 2: as long as life endures, and that summer Culpeper had
Speaker 2: been in the large group of courtiers accompanied Henry and
Speaker 2: Catherine on the northern progress. Had she really been sick
Speaker 2: when she insisted on staying alone in her room? Ladies
Speaker 2: were interrogated. Jane Rockford confessed that at one of the stops,
Speaker 2: Culpeper used a secret door that led up backstairs directly
Speaker 2: to Queen Catherine's bedchamber. Other ladies were interrogated about whether
Speaker 2: Katherine and Culpeper were having an affair. I don't know
Speaker 2: for certain, when lady said, I am inclined to believe
Speaker 2: the Queen except accept the Archbishop prompted, except the way
Speaker 2: she looked at Culpeper from her window. I would have
Speaker 2: believed her if I hadn't seen the way she gazed
Speaker 2: at him. Catherine had been in love, and she hadn't
Speaker 2: been able to hide it. Derham was hanged, quartered and disemboweled. Culpepper,
Speaker 2: as a gentleman, was simply beheaded. Meanwhile, Catherine waited at
Speaker 2: Sion House, knowing her fate would be arriving swiftly. In January.
Speaker 2: An act of attainder made it treason for a woman
Speaker 2: to marry the king without plain declaration of having previously
Speaker 2: lived an unchased life. That was it. The final peace
Speaker 2: had been put into place to ensure that Catherine would
Speaker 2: receive the death that Henry wanted for her. Anne Boleyn
Speaker 2: had been taken to the Tower of London under full
Speaker 2: light of day. Katherine had the privilege of arriving at night,
Speaker 2: although when the guards arrived at Sion House to take
Speaker 2: her to the barge, she collapsed in a fit of panic.
Speaker 2: Lucky it was dark during her boat ride down the Thames,
Speaker 2: or else she would have seen the rotting heads of
Speaker 2: Francis Dieham and Thomas Culpeper leering down at her from
Speaker 2: London Bridge. That night, locked in the Tower of London,
Speaker 2: she heard the gates clang shut and the locks on
Speaker 2: the doors turn. She was told that she would be
Speaker 2: killed two days later. After her final confession, Catherine made
Speaker 2: a request that the guard taken aback couldn't refuse. She
Speaker 2: asked for the block that she would be beheaded on
Speaker 2: to be brought to her chamber so that she could practice.
Speaker 2: Catherine wanted to at least die with grace or as
Speaker 2: little humiliation as possible, and she had heard stories of
Speaker 2: botched executions, including the execution of Thomas Cromwell, on which
Speaker 2: it took four or five, even as many as ten
Speaker 2: strokes for the head to fully come off, and so
Speaker 2: for hours. On her last day on earth, Katherine Howard
Speaker 2: kneeled in her cell at the Tower of London and
Speaker 2: raised and lowered her pretty neck on the black block.
Speaker 2: When the time finally came and she was escorted to
Speaker 2: the very spot where her cousin Anne Boleyn had died
Speaker 2: only six years earlier, Catherine knew exactly what to do.
Speaker 2: Though she shook, she lowered her head into the valley
Speaker 2: of the block with well practiced ease, and the executioner
Speaker 2: took her head off with a single blow. She had
Speaker 2: gone from orphan to lady, to queen to dead in
Speaker 2: two years. Catherine Howard hadn't yet reached her twenty first birthday.
Speaker 2: That's the very short, tragic life of Catherine Howard. Stick
Speaker 2: around after a brief sponsor break to hear a little
Speaker 2: bit more about the consequences of the investigation of Catherine's infidelity.
Speaker 2: Dearham Culpepper, Jane Rockford, and of course Katherine lost their
Speaker 2: lives in the aftermath of the investigation of Catherine's affairs,
Speaker 2: but there are two ladies whose fates fascinate me. During
Speaker 2: the course of the investigation, two of Catherine's ladies were
Speaker 2: caught gossiping idly about the king. What kind of man
Speaker 2: is this king?
Speaker 1: I mean, how many wives will he have?
Speaker 2: The two women were jailed for their words, which just
Speaker 2: goes to show if I had been alive in Tutor, England,
Speaker 2: with the way that I talk casually to my friends
Speaker 2: about my research for this podcast, things would not have
Speaker 2: ended well for me. I also want to offer a
Speaker 2: quick note about Catherine Howard's age and her sexual activity.
Speaker 2: It's troubling it isn't quite possible to apply our modern
Speaker 2: understanding of the age of consent onto the behavior of
Speaker 2: historical figures. In the sixteenth century, five hundred years ago,
Speaker 2: a girl was considered a woman as soon as she
Speaker 2: began having her period, and a teenager marrying a man
Speaker 2: twice or even three times her age, far from being
Speaker 2: seen as an active abuse or pedophilia, was unfortunately incredibly common. Still,
Speaker 2: it's important to understand that these are real people, that
Speaker 2: Catherine was a teenager, and her decision making and experiences
Speaker 2: were those of someone incredibly young. Personally, I find it
Speaker 2: most helpful. Not to make broad declarations about Catherine as
Speaker 2: a villain or a victim, but just to do my
Speaker 2: best to try to understand her with the most empathy
Speaker 2: I possibly can.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by
Speaker 1: me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick,
Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is
Speaker 1: edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima
Speaker 1: Ill Kali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.