One of the most tragic stories of the Tudor Period was the fate of Catherine Howard.
Catherine was Henry VIII’s fifth wife, and was between the age of 16 and 21 when she
was executed inside of the Tower of London.
Catherine had been accused of the shameful crime of adultery, and sleeping behind the
grotesque Tudor King’s back, with one of his closest friends and courtiers.
It was Archbishop Thomas Cranmer who was alerted to her indiscretions and there were two key
parts to the Queen’s crimes.
Catherine Howard as mentioned had been allegedly meeting up with Thomas Culpeper and been having
adulterous liaisons with him which were manufactured and set up by Jane Boleyn.
But also there was a huge amount of doubt cast on her relationship with another man,
Francis Dereham who it was believed she had previous relations with before marrying the
King, but also that she was betrothed to him.
With this, it would have invalidated the King’s marriage and made the King and Catherine’s
binding marriage a sham and nothing which stood in the eyes of the law.
But Catheirne would lose her head in the Tower of London, but there was one of her servants
and close ladies who actually was part of her downfall, and was one of the people who
can be mostly blamed for her horrific downfall.
But what is the story of Alice Wilkes, the woman who condemned Henry VIII’s wife to
execution?
Very little is known about Alice Wilkes and there are no known portraits of her.
She was mentioned as a woman who served inside of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk’s household
in Sussex and then at Lambeth.
It was inside this household where Catherine Howard was raised, and it was here where she
as a young girl was groomed by her music teacher Henry Mannox, and also began a relationship
with Francis Dereham.
Dereham worked as a secretary for the Dowager Duchess who was entrusted with Catherine’s
care and education.
It was mentioned that, ‘Malyn Tylney, Dorothy Baskerville, Margaret Tenet and Alice Wilkes,’
were there and it’s believed that Alice was a servant inside of Agnes Tylney’s household
whilst Catherine Howard was there.
With this, it’s believed that Alice was aware of Catherine Howard’s behaviour and
sexual antics as a young woman.
What Catherine got up to after the lights went out was probably spoken about with the
other girls in the care of Agnes Tylney, and also amongst the servants who gossiped in
the halls of the houses where they lived.
It wasn’t a huge secret, but when Agnes would found out she would be furious.
She found out that Francis Dereham had struck up a relationship with Catherine, and that
the pair would walk arm in arm together in the halls, and refer to each other as husband
as wife.
But Alice Wilkes the servant would then marry Anthony Restwold, who was also part of the
household, but it’s not known for certain when they married.
He would later become an MP for New Woodstock during the reign of Mary I, but he would also
have known about Catherine’s behaviour.
IT was clear that the future Queen was being influenced by some of the older girls who
allowed men into their sleeping quarters at night, and on some occasions the girls stole
food and wine, and then hosted parties in these rooms after dark.
Catherine was never cut out for being a Queen, as she was too immature and not cut from that
regal cloth.
Her relationship with Henry VIII was built upon the ‘skills’ Catherine possessed
in the bedroom as it was said she cured the king’s impotency, and Henry VIII claimed
he’d never known the like to any woman,’ and he shrouded her in gifts as he sought
to entice her.
Catherine would later marry the King on the 28th July 1540, and she was just a teenager
and Henry VIII was 49.
The marriage was made public a week or so later, but she was too young, naive and carefree.
She did not involve herself in matters of state, and as mentioned began to become involved
with Thomas Culpeper, the Kings favourite male courtier.
It was uncovered later that Catherine may have considered marrying Culpeper as she served
as a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves, and the pair met in secret and slept together
whilst she was married to the King.
But after rumours of this dominated court, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer investigated this,
and people who claimed to have witnessed her earlier sexual behaviour whilst she lived
with Agnes Howard were contacted.
Many tried to blackmail the young queen in return for their silence, and some of the
blackmailers were even appointed to her royal household.
John Lassels approached Cranmer and told him that his sister refused to become part of
Catheirne Howard’s royal household and she had witnessed the light ways of Queen Catherine
whilst they were living together at Lambeth.
With this, Cranmer interrogated Mary and she claimed that Catherine had sexual relations
whilst under the care of the duchess, before her relationship with the King.
But another woman who was summoned as a significant witness in the evidence against Catherine
Howard for adultery and treason was Alice Wilkes.
She would later testify that Catherine was ‘a married woman and wist what matrimony
meant and what belonged to that puffing and blowing,’ and she also claimed that she
heard from behind the bed curtains the antics of Catherine Howard and Francis Dereham.
Alice herself had some to court during Catherine’s time as Queen, so Catherine must have respected
her and enjoyed her company, and some accounts claim Alice Wilkes was a chamberer, but also
as a gentlewoman showing she was well respected and thought of inside the royal household.
But Catherine Howard would ultimately pay the bloody price for her actions.
By this point when the King was informed about his wife’s indiscretions, he was happy to
just have her killed and almost erased from history.
Culpeper and Dereham the men she slept with were executed for high treason with Culpeper
being beheaded by axe, and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Both of their heads were placed on London Bridge which Catherine passed under on her
way to the Tower of London following act of attainder which was passed against her.
She was punishable by death for the fact she had failed to disclose her past sexual history
to the King within 20 days of their marriage, and that she had incited someone to commit
adultery with her.
Also the matter of Catherine being pre-contracted to marry Dereham led to her being condemned
to death despite no trial happening.
But it was the words and accounts and testimonies of women such as Alice Wilkes who had a key
role in condemning Catherine Howard to death, and to sending her to the executioner’s
scaffold.
On the scaffold in the Tower of London, she kneeled on the hay and would have her head
taken cleanly off by the executioner in one swift blow from the axe.
She was spared no heirs and graces, and was then thrown into a pit inside the Chapel of
St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower and her remains were covered in quick lime to erase her from
history.
But the words of Alice Wilkes who had seen her behaviour and her relationships with Dereham
play out inside of Agnes Howard’s household were damning in themselves.
She knew what Catherine had been up to previously, and along with other witnesses she helped
to reinforce the need to execute the Queen in the eyes of Cranmer and Henry VIII.
The story of Catherine Howard is a tragic one, but Alice Wilkes is the forgotten woman
who helped to sentence a Queen to death.
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