It is common knowledge in most historical circles that Catherine Howard, fifth wife
to Henry VIII, died on the 13th of February 1542.
She had been charged with treason after she was accused of sleeping with men behind Henry
VIII’s back, and also having agreed to marry someone else before she took the King’s
hand in marriage.
This would invalidate the King’s marriage if this would have gone ahead, but Catherine
Howard would lose her head inside the Tower of London, with a common axeman taking her
head off her shoulders, on the hay covered scaffold.
Historian’s estimate that she was executed at a very young age, and was either between
16 and 21 when she was brutally killed.
But there was a way that Catherine Howard could have been saved, but this was another
tragic part of her story.
In July 1540, Henry VIII annulled his terribly fourth marriage to the German princess Anne
of Cleves.
It was claimed that they had not consummated the marriage, and following this he was captivated
by a young girl, a girl much younger than he in Catherine Howard.
He would marry her, and her exact age remains unknown, but it’s known that she was very
young when she married the 50 year old Tudor King.
People believed that she was in her teens, and that she ‘was no more than 15,’ at
the time of her marriage.
Charles De Mauriac, a French ambassador to Henry VIII’s court believed that she was
18 when she was married to the King, and those at court said she was ‘more graceful and
beautiful than any lady in the court,’ and was ‘rather graceful than beautiful of short
stature.’
She had previously been a maid of honour to Anne of Cleves, and she caught the King’s
attention, and their private wedding occurred very quickly after the annulment of the King’s
fourth marriage.
Henry VIII may have rushed to marry Catherine as she may have been expecting his child.
There hasn’t been much said about Catherine’s pregnancy early in her marriage to Henry VIII,
but there is good evidence that states that she was.
In September 1540, the Venetian Ambassador stated that, ‘The New Queen Catherine is
said for certain to be preganant,’ and three months later the French Ambassador said that
Katherine was grosse, which was a French term to describe a pregnant woman.
There was no need for these ambassadors to be untruthful, so it’s likely that Catherine
Howard the teenage queen was pregnant and with child.
It was said that, ‘this Queen is thought to be with child, which would be a very great
joy to this King, who it seems believes it and intends if it be found true, to have her
crowned at Whitsuntide.’
Catherine Howard herself would never be crowned Queen, but Henry was probably preparing court
for her coronation especially as she would be pregnant.
Eustace Chapuys the Imperial ambassador would claim in November 1541 that Catherine was
‘some presumption that she was in the family way,’ in the previously lent as in she was
with child.
However following this, there were not many other references made about Catherine Howard’s
pregnancy.
It could have just been a rumour, but these ambassadors would have seen her with their
own eyes.
It is strange that 3 other ambassadors described her as pregnant and this is not a coincidence,
and it’s believed that she was expecting a child from September 1540 to April 1541,
and the rumours persisted for 7 months.
However by Spring 1541, it’s clear that Catherine must have suffered either a miscarriage
or a stillbirth, as by this point she had been meeting with Thomas Culpepper, one of
the King’s closest friends and courtiers, and that the pair were engaged in a secret
affair behind the King’s back.
Many claimed that she had been unfaithful, and had previously been involved in sexual
behaviour, but then allegations came to the forefront about Catherine Howard’s infidelity,
and also that she may have been pre-contracted to marry another man Francis Dereham.
Catherine would be stripped of her title as Queen on the 23rd November 1541, a year after
she was rumoured to be pregnant, and then she was imprisoned inside of Syon Abbey.
Her story ended with her being led to the executioner’s block inside of the Tower
of London for her crimes, but if she would have been pregnant and given birth to a child,
especially a son for Henry VIII then it’s likely that her treatment would have been
incredibly different.
Say she would have successfully given birth to a son, then she would have been shrouded
in gifts, lavish presents and her husband the King would have been over the moon.
There had been many questions about his ability to create a child, and his virility, and if
he could have impregnated his much younger fifth wife, then this would have seen as a
huge achievement by him.
Many would talk that he was impotent, but to conceive a child with Catherine Howard
would have been a huge thing for the older and grotesque King.
Also if Catherine would have given birth to a child, then it’s likely that she would
have possibly stayed on the straight and narrow, and would not have rubbed shoulders with men
such as Culpepper, as she would have been a mother to an heir to the throne.
With this, a child could very much have saved her, and could have had a huge impact on her
survival.
But she would become the executed fifth wife of the notorious Tudor King, and following
the axeman taking her head off in one swift blow, she was then buried inside of the Chapel
of St Peter ad Vincula, and her body was covered in quicklime to almost erase her from history.
With this, she was literally wiped off the face of the earth, and today she is considered
the tragic fifth wife of the evil Tudor Monarch.
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