- After 4 failed marriages Henry VIII married Katherine Howard
- She had a guilty secret
- Final wife Katherine Parr more obedient but not all she seemed
- 1539 Henry VIII aged 48, first 3 wives dead
- Henry stuck in a loveless marriage with Anne of Cleves – called her fat and ugly, he was so disgusted he couldn’t have sex with her
- Big problem for Henry and the Tudor dynasty
- The king only had one son, and child deaths were common
- Just months into his marriage to Anne Henry began to look around for her replacement but didn’t look far
- 1539 aged 17 Katherine Howard arrived at the Tudor court – came from a rich and powerful noble family
- Henry fell in love at first sight
- Katherine was everything Anne wasn’t – made him feel manly
- Henry saw Katherine as virginal “blushing rose without a thorn”
- Within months of arriving at court it is believed Katherine became Henry’s lover
- Spring 1540 Henry was seen making regular trips day and night to Katherine’s house, and planned to wed her
- Anne had to go – just 6 months after the wedding Henry left Anne
- Used her previous engagement to a French nobleman to annul the marriage – she was paid off and sent away
- 28 July 1540 Henry and Katherine married, just 2 weeks after the annulment of Henry’s previous marriage
- Being queen was everything Katherine dreamed it would be
- Henry showered Katherine with jewels and showed her off at banquets and hunting expeditions
- Henry in love and lust, drunk with desire – sexual problems disappeared
- Newlyweds had a 10 day private honeymoon
- “Caresses her more than he did the others”
- Henry believed he finally found his perfect wife
- Didn’t stop to question how a supposed virgin knew her way so well around the bedroom
- Rumours soon began to spread and secrets about her past were whispered
- 2 November 1541 Henry VIII arrived in the private chapel at Hampton Court for mass and discovered a letter on his seat
- The letter was written by Cranmer and claimed Katherine wasn’t an innocent virgin, but had a dark past
- Chesworth House in Sussex 1532 aged 11 or 12 Katherine was sent to live in the household of the dowager Duchess of Norfolk
- Learnt what it took to be successful at court
- Alleged that while Katherine lived there men would visit the dormitory at night
- It was said she engaged in illicit sex
- Henry refused to believe the allegations at first
- Henry ordered it investigated in secret, believing someone was against Katherine
- Henry notoriously bad-tempered, but possibly refused to believe after Anne Boleyn that another of his wives was tempted in that way
- Cranmer knew of immoral living at Chesworth
- There was a witness – Margaret Bennett – brought in for questioning
- Saw Katherine with a young gentleman called Francis Dereham, and they undressed each other
- Katherine admitted to knowing how to meddle with a man and not conceive a child
- Katherine wasn’t a virgin when she married the king
- Women needed to disclose their full sexual history – if the queen fell pregnant there should be no doubt as to the father
- Cranmer had to tell Henry the truth about Katherine’s past
- Henry was devastated and broke down in tears
- Katherine had no idea that she had been discovered until 7 November 1541 Cranmer confronted her
- Katherine denied it, but offered her mercy to get a confession
- Admitted to youthful mistakes of sleeping with Dereham
- Katherine wrote a full confession asking for mercy from the king to avoid the executioner’s block
- Henry thawed on reading Katherine’s words – would spare her life
- Katherine was sent to the nunnery at Syon
- Henry relieved – he loved Katherine and couldn’t bear to lose her
- Henry believed the incidents took place before he knew her but Cranmer wasn’t satisfied – he didn’t believe the affair was a thing of the past
- Dereham was arrested and taken to the Tower, tortured to confess
- Dereham denied he was still having sex with Katherine, but claimed that someone else was
- Thomas Culpeper was reported to have replaced Dereham in Katherine’s affections – trusted advisor of Henry VIII and gentleman of the privy chamber
- Culpeper’s rooms were searched for evidence of an affair
- They found a letter from Katherine to Culpeper “it makes my heart to die … that I cannot be always in your company”
- Signed “yours as long as life endures, Katherine”
- The letter was as good as a death warrant – being unfaithful could be considered high treason
- Possible that they weren’t having a sexual affair, but he was someone she was close to and could talk to
- Culpeper arrested and denied having had sex with Katherine
- “I intended and meant to do ill with the queen and likewise the queen did with me” – Culpeper’s admission of wanting to have sex with the queen
- Partial admission of guilt sealed his own fate
- 1 December 1541 Culpeper and Dereham found guilty of treason
- Katherine was denied the opportunity to defend herself and was condemned to death by an act of parliament
- On the evening before she was due to be executed the block was taken to her
- Katherine had requested it to make a good impression on the scaffold
- She wanted to die with dignity so practiced how to lay herself
- At 7am on 13 February 1542 Katherine walked to the scaffold in the Tower of London – with her dying words achieved dignity
- “Worthy and just punishment”, “amend your ungodly lives”
- Katherine forgave the executioner and paid him a gold sovereign
- Henry didn’t watch the execution – Katherine was the latest in a long line of betrayals
- Henry was free to marry again but didn’t have his next wife waiting in the wings
- Henry had a bad reputation, unlikely to find a wife willing
- Late 1542 Katherine Parr joined Princess Mary’s household
- Katherine was bright and attractive, twice widowed by older men
- Financially independent, didn’t have to marry for security, but could marry for love, to Thomas Seymour
- The two were planning to marry until the king intervened
- Mature, intelligent, beautiful, experienced, self-assured and caring
- Henry looking for a nursemaid? Wanted an equal
- Katherine of Aragon was her godmother – looking back to his first marriage
- Katherine echoed the queen he’d chosen right at the beginning
- Spring 1543 the king asked Katherine to marry him
- For Katherine it was a disaster as she loved Thomas Seymour
- Had no ambition to be queen – proposal from the queen was the equivalent of a royal command
- Turned to god for an answer
- 12 July 1543 Henry and Katherine were married privately at Hampton Court
- Why would Katherine marry Henry when she loved Thomas Seymour?
- Katherine wasn’t marrying for love or the crown – she believed god wanted her to be queen for a reason
- In order to divorce Katherine of Aragon Henry split the English church from Rome and started the reformation
- Henry hesitated before it was complete – caught between Catholic and protestant
- Katherine was a devout protestant and wanted him to finish reformation
- Katherine wrote and published 2 original books, kept at Sudeley Castle
- Prayers and Meditations – first work to be written by a woman and published in her own name
- Lamentation of a Sinner – spiritual autobiography
- Attacked the superstitious Catholic church “persecutor of the gospel”
- Katherine believed it was her god-given mission to rid England of Catholicism
- Henry didn’t know of Katherine’s religious convictions
- Extreme reformers were considered heretics for which the punishment was death
- Katherine had to keep her beliefs secret at first
- The marriage was a great success – Katherine had experience looking after temperamental old men
- Marriage reinvigorated Henry
- 1544 Henry VIII attacked France and left Katherine as regent
- Henry trusted Katherine obviously
- Was the trust misplaced?
- With Henry away Katherine became emboldened and held prayer meetings in her private rooms, spreading the gospel
- Stephen Gardiner was a close advisor of the king and hated Katherine and her protestant ideas
- To return England to Rome Katherine needed to be destroyed
- Summer 1546 Henry returned from France and Katherine saw her opportunity
- Katherine pressed Henry to finish his reformation, but she had gone too far – didn’t want to be pushed into further reform
- Age when words could be treasonous
- Perhaps Katherine thought she could sway the king
- Katherine was overheard by Gardiner
- Henry VIII “to be taught by my wife”, Gardiner manipulated Henry by invoking Henry’s paranoia
- Katherine faced losing her head and didn’t suspect a thing
- Henry decided Katherine should be arrested
- Before the arrest Katherine received a tip-off, knew what happened to previous wives when they went to the Tower
- Katherine had warning and could decide what to do
- She decided to deny her faith and live rather than die a martyr
- Her life depended on what she said to Henry
- Henry set a trap for Katherine and expected her to walk into it
- Katherine claimed she wasn’t instructing the king, but wanted to hear the king’s opinion of the truth
- Katherine denied her beliefs and escaped with her life
- Katherine was Henry’s final wife, but knew him best of all – he wanted obedience
- Religious reform was Katherine’s life, but she knew she couldn’t carry it out if she went to the executioner’s block; she chose to live
- Katherine’s words had a powerful effect on the king who had been betrayed so many times by wives, friends and advisors
- Henry believed Katherine had been true to him all along
- Believed he’d chosen the right woman to marry
- 28 January 1547 Henry VIII died after 3 ½ years of marriage to Katherine Parr, aged 55
- 4 months after Henry’s death Katherine married Thomas Seymour
- She finally married for love, and Katherine suddenly and unexpectedly fell pregnant
- August 1548 she gave birth to a daughter named Mary
- Within days of the birth Katherine fell ill with a fever and worsened
- 6 days later she died
- Known as the queen who survived Henry but only outlived him by 18 months
- Her tomb is at Sudeley, no happy ending for Henry’s final queen
- Henry’s death ended a 38 year quest to find the perfect queen and a longed for son and heir
- Henry had been a young and passionate lover and changed to a bitter and sick tyrant, haunted by betrayal
- All thanks to his six extraordinary queens, all very different
- The queens created Henry by pursuing, rejecting and creating them
- English history made by Henry, and Henry made by his six queens.
Tudor Blogger 
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