One of the most tragic wives of King Henry VIII was Catherine Howard.
She was just a teenager when she married the grotesque and large Tudor Monarch who was
around 30 years older than her.
She was a young woman who had been treated terribly by a number of men throughout her
life, and she met a brutal and bloody end.
On the 13th February 1542, she made her way from her apartments in the Tower of London
to the scaffold on Tower Hill.
There an executioner stood armed with an axe, and in one swift blow the head of Catherine
Howard the Queen was taken clean off.
She had been implicated in cheating on Henry VIII, and along with two other men was executed.
But one of those men executed for his involvement with her was Thomas Culpepper, one of the
closest friends of King Henry VIII.
But who is this man who slept with the King’s wife?
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of Thomas Culpepper.
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Thomas Culpepper was born in 1514, and was the second son of Alexander Culpepper and
his second wife Constance Harper.
His older brother would later go on to work for Thomas Cromwell, and his brother was known
for being someone who was responsible for collecting valuable items and luxuries for
the King and the royal family whilst they were at court.
He was related to the Howards at the time, and was then a distance cousin of Joyce Culpepper
the mother of Catherine Howard, the Queen he would later have an alleged affair with.
But following the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, and during the reign of Queen Anne Boleyn
Henry VIII’s second wife, Thomas Culpepper found himself gaining significant amounts
of favour at the royal court.
He purchased an estate named Higham Park near to Canterbury in 1534, and he then was a courtier
for Viscount Lisle and his wife, and with this he was given a number of gifts including
a hawk, but then he helped to get a hawk for King Henry VIII.
With this he was invited into the royal court, and he was seen as a very handsome young man,
and was a favourite of the King.
It’s believed that Culpepper had a significant amount of power with the King, as Henry VIII
was close with him.
For example, in 1539 he was able to practically ignore a scandal that gripped his family,
as he was accused of assaulting the wife of a park keeper and then murdering a villager.
There were murmurs that his brother was the one who did this, but following this his elder
brother who was also named Thomas was given a knighthood, and then through the King a
pardon for this shocking crime was given.
This shows that Henry VIII was so fond of Culpepper that he could make any crimes that
would carry the death penalty disappear for him.
Culpepper was then given the title of the Keeper of the Royal Armoury, and he was then
made a gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber.
This gave him even more access to the King, as he would help dress and undress the King,
and Culpepper often chatted with him late into the night and slept in the King’s bedchamber
after speaking.
To reinforce his positive relationship with the King, Henry VIII dispatched Culpepper
to go and greet his future fourth wife Anne of Cleves when she landed in England to prepare
for her marriage.
This did not go well as Anne shunned the King, and didn’t realise who he was when she met
him, and Henry VIII then spoke out terribly about her looks.
But following this he was then given Penhurst Palace and further land from the King.
At this time, it was clear that the King was very fond of Thomas Culpepper and the two
were very good friends, but as Henry VIII was betrothed to Catherine Howard a very young
girl compared to him, the young Catherine then took a shine to Thomas Culpepper.
This was in 1540, in the same year that Catherine was made the Queen Consort of England.
However quickly things turned, and Catherine saw more in the young Thomas Culpepper than
she did the King, her aging and unpredictable husband.
With this, Catherine’s lady in waiting Lady Rochford Jane Boleyn, then helped to organise
illicit meetings between Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpepper.
The pair would meet together late into the night and they would spend lots of time together.
It was this affair that caused both of their executions.
Culpepper being so respected and liked by the King was trusted and had access to the
Queen’s apartments and he then came in contact with her ladies also.
In March 1541, Henry VIII was away on a.
Trip to Dover and Catherine Howard then was left behind at Greenwich palace.
At this time, Culpepper asked Catherine for a number of favours and they then met together
around this time and had private meetings and presumably relations in these chambers.
Lady Rochford arranged these, and when the Queen was seeing Culpepper and only one other
lady in waiting Katherine Tilney were allowed access to Catherine’s room.
On the 20th June 1541, Catheirne and the King travelled to York to meet the Scottish King,
and they arrived in Lincoln on the 9th August.
It was here where Culpepper met Catherine once again for a secret meeting in her bed
chamber, and this continued on the journey for example at Pontefract Castle.
It was then believed a latter was sent from Catherine to Culpepper in which she wrote
how worried she was that she was ill, and she stated, ‘I never longed so much for
a time as I do to see you and to speak with you, the which I trust shall be shortly now,
and my trust is always in you that you will as you have promised me.’
With this it is believed that Catherine Howard was genuinely in love with Thomas Culpepper,
and it placed him in a strong position.
At this time the King was hugely overweight and burdened with poor health, and if the
King died then Culpepper would have been a contender to have reigned for the young boy
King Edward VI.
He also was trusted by Henry VIII and they were good friends, and he even used his position
with the King to exert control over Catheirne Howard.
She finished her letter with, ‘Yours as long as life endures,’ showing that she
wanted to be with him.
However then news of the affair between the Queen and Culpepper attracted the attention
of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer.
He heard the rumours, and Culpepper was then held under arrest.
The pair denied their affair but the letter was found and this was seen as evidence for
the affair.
With this, there was also a reference to Jane Boleyn and then Henry VIII had ordered Culpepper’s
arrest.
In December 1541 he was tried for adultery along with Francis Dereham, a man who was
accused also of adultery with the Queen before she married the King.
Catherine had not made any attempt really to hide the affair she had with Culpepper
and members of her household to save themselves testified against her.
The Queen was seen as a woman who seduced Culpepper and then a number of these private
meetings were discovered.
But under torture it’s believed that Culpepper admitted his relations with the Queen.
With this he was sentenced to death and Culpepper was initially to be sentenced to be hanged
drawn and quartered.
He appealed to Henry VIII, and because of his friendship with the King, Henry did spare
him being hanged, drawn and quartered and instead he was beheaded by an axeman.
He was taken from his place of imprisonment to Tyburn on the 10th December 1541.
He made his way to the scaffold and there he was met by the executioner, he was a man
considered one of the most disgusting traitors for sleeping with the King’s Queen.
He was quickly beheaded by the axe, but then shockingly his head was placed on a spike
above London Bridge to act as a strong reminder to the people of London not to cross the King.
He endured a much quicker death than Francis Dereham did, as he was spared the long ordeal
of being hanged, drawn and quartered.
It was said that as Catherine Howard was taken to the Tower of London for her imprisonment
and execution that she passed under the head of Thomas Culpepper and her other lover.
She was brutally executed by axeman in the same manner on the 13th February 1542, as
was Lady Rochford the woman who it was deemed facilitated the relationship.
It was a bloody end for four people embroiled in a scandal centered around sleeping with
the King’s wife.
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