WEBVTT - Beheaded II (From the Archive) 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:05.200 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:11.120 and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener discretion advised Danish Sports Here. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.400 I am still on maternity leave and so we're continuing 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.600 the archival series on the six Wives of Henry the Eighth. 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:24.040 Today's episode is focused on Katherine Howard, the teenager that 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.600 King Henry the Eighth fell in love with, who ultimately 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:32.640 spoiler alert, lost her head. But was she actually guilty 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:40.360 of what the king accused her of enjoy. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:45.360 On November eighth, fifteen forty one, Queen Katherine Howard was 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.680 brought to a small room to sit opposite Thomas Cranmer, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:55.040 Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop had assured King Henry the 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.360 Eighth a few days prior that his interrogation would be 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.280 harsh and merciless, that he would import on the King's 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.200 young bride the severity of her crimes and scare her 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.960 into full honesty. But when Cranmer saw the young girl, 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.959 he felt his resolve drain away. She was weeping, already 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:21.680 frantic with grief and terror, her bloodshot eyes darting around 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.600 the room as if an executioner's blade could appear at 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:30.839 any moment. But she also looked so small, so young. 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.399 She was a nineteen year old girl, and she was 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.080 in a chair that looked far too big for her. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.400 Cranmer really had all the information already that his investigation 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.760 really needed. Only two weeks ago, the allegations had just 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.480 been a rumor, a single rumor from a single source. 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.840 The claim was this that the new Queen had been 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.520 less than virginal when she had married the king. Some 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.880 one had informed the archbishop that in Catherine's home growing up, 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.000 she had not one but two affairs, first with her 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.920 music teacher and then with her grandmother's secretary. Did you 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.600 or did you not? Cranmar began as soon as Catherine 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.880 had caught her breath, have a sexual relationship with your 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.560 music teacher, Henry Mannox when you were living with your grandmother, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:32.360 the dowager Duchess in Lambeth. Katherine wailed, no, sir, it 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.720 was a flirtation, that's all. He never knew me in 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.480 the way a husband knows his wife. I have only 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:43.440 ever been true to King Henry. And what of a secretary. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.400 Some time later, a man named Francis Diurham. Did you 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:56.600 know him intimately? Catherine's breath began to quicken erratically. Cranmer 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:01.280 noticed her cheeks and dressed sleeves were both wet with tears. 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.600 Be honest, child, Cranmar said, The Lord is merciful to 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.640 those who are honest. As almost an afterthought, he added, 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:16.200 I have already spoken to both men. Catherine didn't respond, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.240 and Cranmar continued, you and Dearham called each other husband 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:27.240 and wife? Did you not? Catherine nodded, Were you formally 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:32.000 bound to Denham? The archbishop continued, still unable to quite 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.680 locate the harsh tone that he had rehearsed. Did you 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:40.680 lie with him? Once more? Catherine nodded her head. We 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.240 did lie together two or three times in my bed 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:48.040 in the maiden's chamber when I lived in Lambeth. But 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.720 I never betrayed King Henry. I never betrayed my husband 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.280 or sinned against him in any way. But she had 0:03:55.320 --> 0:04:00.000 already said enough. She had betrayed the king, betrayed him 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.200 by pretending to be a virgin in a lie by omission, 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.600 humiliated the king by now letting the whole world know 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.080 that he had been fooled by a teenager. Catherine broke 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:17.680 down in sobs. As he left, the archbishop quietly whispered 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.640 to the guards that they should remove any items from 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.880 her chamber that might allow her to commit suicide. Catherine 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.720 Howard and King Henry the Eighth had only been married 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:33.440 about sixteen months, and now with her past revealed, she 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:38.120 knew that her time as queen was over. With Henry's history, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.400 she would be lucky to make it out with her 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.080 head for a little while. It seemed as though she might. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.960 After her interrogation, Catherine was sent away from court to 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.920 Sion Abbey. It seemed as though the King was going 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.360 to show her mercy. Her arrangement with Frantis Dearham could 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.960 technically qualify as a pre contract, would mean her marriage 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.720 to Henry was invalid, getting him off the hook easy. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.320 Catherine would have to give up her jewels and possessions 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.880 and live in exile, away from court for the rest 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.560 of her life. It looked as though that was what 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.680 was going to happen. It looked that way for exactly 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:23.680 three days. Three days after Catherine Howard's interrogation, Frantis Dearham revealed, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:29.680 under torture something else about Queen Catherine, something that the 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:35.000 King wouldn't be able to look upon with mercy. From 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:41.960 that moment, Catherine's fate was sealed. I'm Danish Schwartz and 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:55.440 this is noble blood. When Katherine Howard, motherless girl, was 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.279 eight years old, she was sent to live at the 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:03.120 estate of her father's stepmother, her step grandmother, the Dowager 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:08.600 Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess seemed to collect wards. 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.039 She had about a dozen or so girls under her care, 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:17.320 mostly the daughters of poorer relations, and the idea was 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.360 that under the Dowager Duchess's supervision, the girls would learn 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.480 the skills of court and aristocracy, although in effect supervision 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:32.240 was a little lax. The year Katherine Howard turned thirteen, 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:38.680 two major things happened. First, her cousin Anne Boleyn was 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.560 beheaded for adultery during her marriage to King Henry the 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:48.520 eighth Second, Katherine Howard began a flirtation with her music teacher, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:53.000 a man named Henry Mannox, who had been hired to 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:58.080 teach the girls how to play the Virginals. Mannox was 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.400 exactly the type of man Catherine would fall in love 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.480 with for the rest of her life. He was every 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:11.800 stereotype of a poetic musician, moody, romantic, wildly passionate. We 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.840 don't know how old Mannix was at the time. He 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.440 could have been a teenager himself somewhere around nineteen, or 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.760 he could have been approaching forty. Either way, it was 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.679 not a relationship that an extremely young aristocratic woman should 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.520 have been engaged in, especially not in a world in 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:38.280 which a woman's sexual purity was her primary currency. Catherine, 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.040 for her part, refused to let Mannox go all the way. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.160 The relationship occurred mainly in the hiding spots around the 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.800 estate grounds, where they could kiss each other and whisper 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.680 words of love into each other's ears. That's where the 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.480 Dowager Duchess found them kissing in an alcove near the chapel. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.960 The Dowager Duchess slapped Catherine twice and forbade the couple 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.360 from ever seeing each other again. The warning didn't deter 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.880 the pair. I don't know why you're still seeing her, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.800 said Mary Lassal's one day to Mannox. Mary Lassles was 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:22.320 another young woman under the Dowager Duchess's lack supervision, but 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.640 lower ranked than Katherine, and so she felt a sort 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.560 of kinship with Mannox, who was more or less a servant. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.120 She's much too high born for you, Mary said, she's 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.960 never going to marry you. You know that right. Mannox 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.520 sneered and curled his lip. He took a step closer 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:44.360 to Mary Lassal's and told her that he already knew 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:49.760 Catherine Howard by her private parts. And he said, she's 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:54.559 already promised her maiden had to me. From Mary Lassal's 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.920 word got around and back to Catherine Howard what Mannix 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:03.280 had said. She ended their relationship. The next day in 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.800 the estate's orchard. Mannix pleaded that he was just so 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.120 far in love with her that he didn't know what 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:15.240 he said, but Catherine didn't care. Besides, Mary Lassell's had 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:21.600 been right. She was too high born for him. That's 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.680 why teenage Catherine felt as though she was a much 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:31.079 better fit for Francis Dearham, the Dowager Duchess's secretary. Durham 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.880 already had a reputation and seduced a good percentage of 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.920 the women at the estate, including Catherine's own secretary. In fact, 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.960 it was she who recommended Dearham to Catherine, praising him 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:49.040 so highly that Catherine couldn't help but be intrigued. It 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.959 was the type of whirlwind passion that only a teenager 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.280 can have. Within months, they were calling each other husband 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:02.360 and wife, planning for an imaginary future together. They sent 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:07.120 each other gifts and wrote each other letters. Katherine, still 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.560 under her grandmother's custody, didn't have the income to buy 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.240 the dresses she wanted, and so Dearham bought her beautiful 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.640 fabric and taught her which dressmaker to go to. I'll 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:23.400 pay you back, I promise, Catherine said. Durham just smiled. 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.800 Though the girls at the dowager Duchess's estate slept in 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.720 a single room, the maiden's chamber, and though the girls 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.040 usually slept to a bed, there were still ways for 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:44.320 girls to entertain male visitors. The maiden's chamber was locked 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.440 every night, to preserve the girl's virtue, of course, but 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.680 Catherine had an answer for that. While her friends giggled 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:57.200 and encouraged her, Catherine snuck into the dowager Duchess's chamber 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.200 while her stepgrandmother was sleeping and stole the key, quickly 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.160 making a copy and replacing it. Men snuck into the room. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.679 Then Katherine wasn't the only one of the Wards who 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:13.479 had an illicit boyfriend. The men brought with them wine, strawberries, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.319 and d apples, and the boys and girls would laugh 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.520 and talk or sneak off to beds together until one 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.040 or two in the morning. We can be almost certain 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.200 that Dearham and Katherine, who by this point had been 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:32.200 spending every moment together, were having sex. Durham privately assured 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.640 his friends that he knew enough to ensure that Katherine 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:42.600 wouldn't get pregnant. Meanwhile, Mannox, bitter music teacher, was furious 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.880 at Katherine and her new paramore. In his neatest script, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.720 he wrote a letter to the Dowager Duchess informing her 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.120 that if she were to come to the Maiden's chamber 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.959 an hour or so after she normally went to bed, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.520 she would see something she wouldn't like very much, involving 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:06.400 a certain one of her secretaries. Mannix anonymously left the 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.319 note in the Dowager Duchess's pew in the chapel so 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.280 she would find it. That night, she stormed into the 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:18.880 Maiden's chamber to catch not Catherine and Dearham, but a 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.679 man named Hastings, another one of her secretaries, who had 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.880 already been caught once flirting with one of the other girls. 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:32.560 Catherine was in the clear, but Catherine knew who the 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.280 note had been written by, and she knew that it 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.440 had been intended for her, and Dearham agreed. Puffing out 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.920 his chest. Dearham confronted Mannox, telling him that his behavior 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.760 made it appear as though he'd never loved Catherine at all. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.880 Mannox called him a cab. Two jealous men dressing each 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.200 other down over their secret love affair. It was like 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.360 a scene from Gossip Girl, half a millennium before its time. 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.280 People knew that Dearham and Catherine were having an affair 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.360 people other than the Dowager Duchess. But people also liked Catherine. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.320 She was vivacious and funny and entertaining. Plus she was 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.560 high ranking. They had no reason to rat her out 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.319 or risk incurring the wrath of her grandmother for being 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.880 the ones to deliver the bad news. But like almost 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.880 all wildly passionate love affairs, the one between Dearham and 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:31.160 Catherine became less exciting. Catherine stopped being entranced by Dearham 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:36.040 when she was presented with a new gilded opportunity. Her 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.840 family connections had secured her a position as a lady 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.400 in waiting for the new Queen Anne of Cleaves, who 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.440 would be arriving to England later that fall. In the 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.400 same apple orchard where she had broken up with Mannix, 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.440 Katherine Howard told Dearham that she was leaving. His version 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.440 of the story involves her weeping with sorrow. Her version 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.400 is her losing her temper at his insistence that they 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:07.080 stay together. It's possible both occurred. She cried, and she 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.080 lost her temper, and she left Dearham, thinking that there 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.200 was still a chance they were going to end up together. 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:22.520 But there wasn't. She was just going. Catherine had grown 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.840 up thinking her house in Lambeth was grand. She had 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.760 no idea what would await her at the court of 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.760 Henry the Eighth. So many people, so many dances, so 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.240 much food, so much to learn for the confident girl 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.000 who had only ever been the queen Bee of the 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.280 band of teenagers in the maidens Chamber. She was paid 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.400 ten pounds a year. With her first paycheck, she sent 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.600 money back to Dearham to repay him for the fabric 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.920 he had bought her. The new Queen of England, Anne 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.240 of Cleaves wasn't set to arrive for another few months. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.560 In the meantime, the new ladies got to know each 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.360 other and got to know the men of court. For Katherine, 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:11.920 that meant being instantly drawn to a gentleman named Thomas Culpeper. 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.800 Culpeper was tall and athletic, the type of man that 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.800 Henry kept around him because he made him feel young again. Culpeper, 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.120 for his part, had an incredibly checkered past. There was 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.440 a rumor about him being convicted of raping a woman 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.200 in the village and murdering a villager who saw them, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.520 only to get off without consequences with a royal pardon. 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.239 Catherine knew none of that. She only saw the handsome, 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:46.800 charismatic man that women seemed to gravitate towards, like hummingbirds 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:52.520 to a flower, and Culpeper saw Katherine a stunningly gorgeous 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:57.920 girl of sixteen. Every contemporary description of Catherine Howard has 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.920 that in common, the understanding that Catherine was uniquely pretty. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.720 For a few weeks, Culpeper and Catherine engaged in a 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:12.640 typical court flirtation. Catherine would report back to her fellow 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:17.160 ladies in waiting, giggling helping to decipher everything that Culpeper 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.520 had said to her that day. Catherine knew that her 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.680 virtue at court would be essential in ensuring that she 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.040 make an advantageous marriage, and so when Culpeper started making 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.880 sexual overtures expecting her to come to bed, she declined, 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.360 even as he professed his courtly love. If he loved her, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.480 Catherine believed he would understand, but Culpeper wasn't a man 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:48.080 accustomed to sexual rejection or even delay. With Catherine's refusal, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.640 he shrugged and set his sights upon a new girl. 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.840 It was Catherine Howard's first time getting her heart broken. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.120 The other ladies in waiting saw her her spend days 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:08.679 crying and ripping up his letters. Luckily, Catherine wouldn't have 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.320 to wallow too long in heartbreak. Almost immediately after Anne 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.919 of Cleaves arrived in England, Henry the eighth decided that 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.679 he didn't care for her and set about trying to 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.359 arrange an end to their arranged marriage. In the meantime, 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.280 the king began doting on his new brides, very pretty, 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.920 very young lady in waiting Katherine Howard. He sent gifts 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.120 and gave her land. Everyone saw, including Anne, of Cleaves, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.080 but she hoped it was just an affair. It wasn't. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.680 Henry secured the annulment from Anne of Cleaves within a 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:50.720 few months and married Catherine Howard so quickly afterward that 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:55.359 people assumed that she must be secretly pregnant. In fact, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.280 Henry was just absolutely besought it with his new bride, 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:04.240 who was just sixteen or seventeen years old. Henry was fifty. 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.480 They were married the very same day that Henry's former minister, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:14.879 Thomas Cromwell was executed for securing the disastrous marriage to 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:23.920 Anne of Cleves. The middle aged Henry was so amorous 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.320 to Catherine Howard that it almost embarrassed the rest of court. 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.440 He didn't take his hands off of her in public, 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.399 caressing her almost constantly, to the point where ambassadors noted 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.160 that he had never been this publicly affectionate with any 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.640 of his wives to this extent before. Of course, Henry 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.199 believed that his young bride was a virgin and that 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.640 he was the only man she had ever laid with. 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.240 Catherine was so young and so beautiful that she made 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.560 Henry feel as though he were back in his prime, 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.480 even as it became exceedingly obvious that he was not 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.000 pain in his legs from his long troublesome ulcers kept 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:08.520 getting worse. Henry had difficulty with impotence in the bedroom, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.960 even as he made his attraction to Catherine increasingly obvious 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.880 outside the bedroom. Henry's doctors advised him to spend time 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.920 away from his new bride so that he could recuperate. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.119 In the meantime, they put him on a weight loss 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.600 regimen and wrapped his injured leg in boiled olive leaves 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:34.840 and mirth. Henry's ill health and generally mercurial nature, combined 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.240 with his shame at his inability to perform in the bedroom, 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.199 meant that he spent most nights away from Catherine. A 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.800 year into their marriage, Catherine had no pregnancy to show 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.560 for it. Catherine knew full well what happened to queens 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:55.119 who didn't give Henry sons. As her relationship with the 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.720 king continued to strain, Catherine began to shut herself away, 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.199 unhappy and anxious, refusing to go to dances. Uncertain of 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:10.520 her future position. That summer, strain or not, Catherine was 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.719 to accompany Henry on the Northern Progress, a show of 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:20.119 force and majesty to the rebellious northern parts of the country. Catherine, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.520 as the beautiful young Queen, was an essential prop for 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.520 the outing, to make Henry look all the more vital 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:30.600 and powerful with her at his side. But Catherine took 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.040 ill on the journey, spending days and nights alone in 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.600 her room. When the King sent a servant to her 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:42.120 chamber one night, he found it bolted. The queen's ladies 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.239 fretted about her listlessness, but they also whispered about the 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.320 way she gazed down from her window at Thomas Culpeper, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.960 the young handsome man in the King's entourage, who had 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.600 caught her eye from the moment that she had arrived 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.120 at court. The way she looked at him with her 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.760 hand cupped in her palm, it was almost like love. 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.720 When the trip to the north of the country ended 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.919 and they all returned to Hampton Court on October twenty ninth, 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.359 Henry gave a speech giving hearty thanks for his good 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.000 life with Catherine and his trust in their happy future together. 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:28.040 The very next day everything would fall apart. Do you 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.679 remember Mary Lassal's the girl from Catherine's time with the 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:38.639 Dowager Duchess Away from court. Mary Lassell's brother John was 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.080 reprimanding her for not being able to secure a position 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.520 in the new queen's household. Didn't you two know each other? 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:52.760 John scoffed at her. Mary Lassal's bristled at her brother's derision. Yes, 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:55.639 I knew her. I wouldn't even want to be in 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.160 that household under a queen like her. I remember how 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.359 she behaved back when she was in the Lambeth. John 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:08.280 paused and asked for more details. Mary Lassal's told him 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.080 about Henry Mannox and Francis Dearhan. Everybody knows the queen 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.240 wasn't so pure when she married the king, Mary said. 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:21.080 John stopped in his tracks and demanded that Mary tell 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:26.560 him everything she knew, and John Lassal's, a devout Protestant reformer, 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:32.639 went to tell the Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was in 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:37.040 a delicate position. On one hand, this was just a rumor, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.119 and he didn't want to incur Henry's wrath over nothing. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.360 But on the other hand, if he didn't tell Henry 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:49.040 and somehow word got out, he would be responsible. And 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:55.120 so on November two, in incredibly measured words, Cranmer put 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:59.120 the delicate claims in writing in a letter and left 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:05.360 it on Henry's seat in chapel. Henry was, of course outraged. 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.479 He didn't believe the rumors for a moment, but still 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:15.080 he demanded a full investigation. Mannix and Dereham both confessed. 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:21.360 On November sixth, Without telling Catherine, Howard Henry the Eighth 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.600 left Hampton Court and rode to Greenwich. She would never 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.199 see him again. Once Henry was done with a wife, 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:37.119 he wanted her out of sight. At Greenwich, Henry held 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:40.800 a midnight meeting that lasted for six hours, in which 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:45.800 he and his ministers decided what to do. At one point, 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.680 Henry broke down in tears. Why have I had such 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.600 bad luck in meeting these ill conditioned women, he cried. 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:57.560 He grabbed a sword. Maybe I should just go and 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:00.800 kill her myself. However much play measure she had in 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:03.160 her sins, it won't be half as much as her 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:08.080 torture in death. Henry's men subdued him. He really had 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:13.760 been in love, he thought, with his beautiful young fifth wife. 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:18.320 The next day, Catherine knew something was a mess. No 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.000 one had told her anything. The investigation had been completely secret, 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:25.520 but Henry was gone and had left no word about 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:29.520 where he was. She could sense something in the air. 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:34.680 When her musicians started to play, she silenced them. It's 0:24:34.720 --> 0:24:39.159 no time for dancing, she said. That night she was 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:44.840 brought before Thomas Grandmar where she confessed. Henry showed mercy 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.160 enough that Catherine should be spared death and a real 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:52.639 imprisonment in favor of a life of exile at Cyan House. 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:59.720 But then, on November eleventh, under torture, Francis Dieham said 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:03.919 something knew. No, he promised he had never slept with 0:25:03.960 --> 0:25:06.600 the Queen while she was married to the king, but 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:12.840 everyone knew Thomas Culpeper did. Now there is no part 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:17.399 evidence to prove that Thomas Culpeper and Catherine actually slept together. 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.720 She went to the grave denying it, but soon details 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:28.040 began to emerge. In the spring after her wedding, feeling 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:32.600 distant from Henry and lonely at court, Catherine and Thomas 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:38.400 began exchanging love letters. They sent little gifts back and forth. 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:45.000 Their letters became more and more emotional and personal. I 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:47.919 trust in you that you will always be as you 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:53.080 have promised me, Catherine wrote. She signed the letter yours 0:25:53.160 --> 0:25:57.959 as long as life endures, and that summer Culpeper had 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:01.240 been in the large group of courtiers accompanied Henry and 0:26:01.359 --> 0:26:06.040 Catherine on the northern progress. Had she really been sick 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:10.640 when she insisted on staying alone in her room? Ladies 0:26:10.680 --> 0:26:16.360 were interrogated. Jane Rockford confessed that at one of the stops, 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:22.600 Culpeper used a secret door that led up backstairs directly 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:28.080 to Queen Catherine's bedchamber. Other ladies were interrogated about whether 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:32.760 Katherine and Culpeper were having an affair. I don't know 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:36.320 for certain, when lady said, I am inclined to believe 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:43.440 the Queen except accept the Archbishop prompted, except the way 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:47.239 she looked at Culpeper from her window. I would have 0:26:47.280 --> 0:26:50.480 believed her if I hadn't seen the way she gazed 0:26:50.520 --> 0:26:54.800 at him. Catherine had been in love, and she hadn't 0:26:54.840 --> 0:27:07.560 been able to hide it. Derham was hanged, quartered and disemboweled. Culpepper, 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:13.520 as a gentleman, was simply beheaded. Meanwhile, Catherine waited at 0:27:13.640 --> 0:27:20.040 Sion House, knowing her fate would be arriving swiftly. In January. 0:27:20.119 --> 0:27:23.000 An act of attainder made it treason for a woman 0:27:23.080 --> 0:27:27.320 to marry the king without plain declaration of having previously 0:27:27.400 --> 0:27:32.000 lived an unchased life. That was it. The final peace 0:27:32.040 --> 0:27:35.320 had been put into place to ensure that Catherine would 0:27:35.400 --> 0:27:39.800 receive the death that Henry wanted for her. Anne Boleyn 0:27:39.960 --> 0:27:42.640 had been taken to the Tower of London under full 0:27:42.760 --> 0:27:46.920 light of day. Katherine had the privilege of arriving at night, 0:27:47.680 --> 0:27:50.280 although when the guards arrived at Sion House to take 0:27:50.320 --> 0:27:53.960 her to the barge, she collapsed in a fit of panic. 0:27:55.160 --> 0:27:58.240 Lucky it was dark during her boat ride down the Thames, 0:27:59.040 --> 0:28:01.760 or else she would have seen the rotting heads of 0:28:01.840 --> 0:28:07.160 Francis Dieham and Thomas Culpeper leering down at her from 0:28:07.200 --> 0:28:12.240 London Bridge. That night, locked in the Tower of London, 0:28:12.560 --> 0:28:16.240 she heard the gates clang shut and the locks on 0:28:16.280 --> 0:28:20.399 the doors turn. She was told that she would be 0:28:20.480 --> 0:28:26.120 killed two days later. After her final confession, Catherine made 0:28:26.119 --> 0:28:31.280 a request that the guard taken aback couldn't refuse. She 0:28:31.480 --> 0:28:34.280 asked for the block that she would be beheaded on 0:28:34.840 --> 0:28:39.360 to be brought to her chamber so that she could practice. 0:28:39.520 --> 0:28:43.600 Catherine wanted to at least die with grace or as 0:28:43.680 --> 0:28:47.680 little humiliation as possible, and she had heard stories of 0:28:47.720 --> 0:28:52.440 botched executions, including the execution of Thomas Cromwell, on which 0:28:52.440 --> 0:28:55.560 it took four or five, even as many as ten 0:28:55.840 --> 0:29:01.160 strokes for the head to fully come off, and so 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:07.160 for hours. On her last day on earth, Katherine Howard 0:29:07.240 --> 0:29:10.360 kneeled in her cell at the Tower of London and 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:14.240 raised and lowered her pretty neck on the black block. 0:29:15.840 --> 0:29:19.200 When the time finally came and she was escorted to 0:29:19.280 --> 0:29:22.640 the very spot where her cousin Anne Boleyn had died 0:29:23.000 --> 0:29:27.560 only six years earlier, Catherine knew exactly what to do. 0:29:29.200 --> 0:29:32.479 Though she shook, she lowered her head into the valley 0:29:32.520 --> 0:29:36.880 of the block with well practiced ease, and the executioner 0:29:37.280 --> 0:29:41.400 took her head off with a single blow. She had 0:29:41.440 --> 0:29:45.720 gone from orphan to lady, to queen to dead in 0:29:45.800 --> 0:29:51.720