She Wolves (31 page)
Throughout the progress, Catherine would wait until her household were in bed and then send Lady Rochford to let Culpeper into her chamber by the most private entrances. They would then spend part of the night together with only Lady Rochford there as any type of chaperone. Catherine met Culpeper like this throughout the journey and her servants came to suspect that something was amiss. A medieval queen had to be above suspicion of sexual impropriety to ensure the legitimacy of her children, and Catherine was playing a dangerous game. She had not become pregnant in over a year of marriage and it is possible that she reasoned that Henry could not give her a child. It is certainly possible that Catherine and Culpeper wished to conceive a royal heir themselves and so secure both of their positions at court.
35
Catherine remained oblivious to any danger when the progress returned to Windsor on 26 October 1541.
36
She was probably looking forward to returning to her life of pleasure in London and it is likely that she intended her affair with Culpeper to continue. As a Catholic queen, however, Catherine had many enemies. Soon after Henry and Catherine’s return from their progress, Archbishop Cranmer was approached by John Lassells, a religious reformer. Lassells’ sister, Mary Hall, had been raised with Catherine in the duchess’s household and reported to her brother that the queen had been ‘light of living’ and had had sexual relationships with both Francis Dereham and Henry Manox.
37
Cranmer was shocked at what he heard and, on 2 November, handed a letter containing Lassells’s revelations to Henry. Henry reacted with disbelief as he had no reason to doubt Catherine’s honesty and ordered an investigation to protect her reputation. He said nothing of the matter to Catherine, believing it to be entirely false, and he and Catherine continued for a week in the high spirits with which they had returned from their progress. Henry’s peace of mind was shattered, however, when both John Lassells and Mary Hall stood by their stories. Under pressure, Henry Manox also confessed to having caressed Catherine and Dereham to having known her carnally. Faced with this evidence, Henry was devastated, and burst into a fit of weeping, demanding a sword to slay her himself.
38
He was completely disillusioned with his seemingly pure young wife.
On 4 November 1541, guards burst into Catherine’s room at Hampton Court when she was practising her dance steps. Catherine would have been shocked and confused by this unexpected occurrence and her first though must have been that Henry had discovered about Culpeper. According to the French ambassador, ‘she was taken no kind of pastime but kept in her chamber, whereas, before, she did nothing but dance and rejoice, and now when the musicians come they are told that it is no more time to dance’.
39
For a girl as joyous and active as Catherine, the change from queen to prisoner must have been hard to bear and her thoughts probably turned quickly to her cousin, Anne Boleyn. There is a legend at Hampton Court that Catherine slipped her guard and ran down the corridor from her rooms to the palace chapel where Henry was hearing mass.
40
As she reached the door, she was grabbed by her guards and dragged screaming back to her rooms, ignored by her husband. If this ever occurred, it must have been on 6 November as Henry left the palace quietly that evening, never to be near her again. Catherine’s escape is part of the tragic legend that surrounds Catherine Howard and her ghost reputedly re-enacts her escape in the haunted gallery.
On 7 November Cranmer and Norfolk, Catherine’s uncle, came to interrogate her in her rooms.
41
They found her hysterical and were unable to make any progress with her. The next day, Cranmer returned to her alone, later describing her state as pitiable.
42
Cranmer explained to her that Henry knew of her relationships with Manox and Dereham and Catherine must have been greatly relieved that Culpeper’s name was not mentioned. In tears, she confessed to Cranmer of her relationships with Dereham and Manox although she denied any marriage contract with Dereham. Henry appears to have been planning nothing worse than divorce for Catherine at this time and Catherine’s grandmother, the duchess, also stated that she was not worried about her, pointing out that she could not be executed for her conduct before her marriage.
43
The duchess predicted that Catherine’s marriage would be annulled and her granddaughter sent back to her in disgrace. At that time the worst that could be proved against Catherine was that she had not been a virgin at the time of her wedding. Only Catherine, Culpepper and Lady Rochford knew that Catherine had committed a far worse crime against the king.
On 11 November, it was decided that Catherine would be taken to Syon House where she would be lodged modestly without any of the state of a queen.
44
On 13 November, Catherine’s household was officially discharged and the next day Catherine was taken to Syon with only four gentlewomen and two chamberers to serve her and keep her company.
45
The change in status must have been dramatic for Catherine and she always refused to admit that she was no longer queen. Her jewels were also confiscated and she was allowed only a modest wardrobe, including six French hoods with gold trim, but no jewels.
46
She probably thought that this would be the worst that would happen to her and envisaged her future as one of long and dull retirement.
However by 11 November, Thomas Culpeper’s name had begun to be mentioned in the investigations surrounding Catherine. A charge of adultery was a much more serious offence than that of premarital unchastity and Catherine must have been concerned that the king would find out about Culpeper in his investigations. Catherine was questioned regarding Culpeper and under pressure admitted that they had met and that she had given him presents but denied that they had consummated their relationship.
47
She placed the blame on Lady Rochford for encouraging her to meet with Culpeper. Lady Rochford, however, claimed that Catherine and Culpeper had committed adultery and blamed Catherine for forcing her to become involved. Culpeper also denied his guilt, claiming that ‘it was the queen who, through Lady Rochford, solicited him to meet her in private in Lincolnshire, when she herself told him that she was dying for his love’.
48
Catherine, Lady Rochford and Culpeper each blamed the others, hoping to save themselves and this suggests that Catherine and Culpeper’s relationship was not genuinely romantic.
Culpeper and Lady Rochford were quickly arrested and Lady Rochford reputedly went mad in prison.
49
Dereham and Culpeper were tried together in early December and, despite both denying their guilt, were condemned to death. The two men were executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1541. Culpeper’s sentence was commuted to beheading by a king who probably retained some vestige of affection for him. Dereham, however, suffered the full traitor’s death of being hanged drawn and quartered.
50
It seems likely that Henry retained an especial hatred for Dereham, seeing him as the corrupter of his pretty young bride.
51
Catherine’s feelings at these executions are not recorded. She may have been horrified at the deaths of these two men that she had loved. Equally, however, she may have blamed them as the cause of her own misfortunes. Soon after the executions, Catherine’s grandmother and uncle, Lord William Howard, were taken to the Tower for their complicity in Catherine’s youthful conduct.
52
Despite the deaths of Dereham and Culpeper, Catherine probably still hoped that she would escape with her life. By early 1542, it was rumoured that Henry intended to divorce Catherine and condemn her to life imprisonment.
53
Catherine’s hope was misplaced, however. On 16 January 1542, parliament opened in London and they condemned Catherine and Lady Rochford to death without trial.
54
On 10 February 1542, Catherine was taken from Syon by water to the Tower.
55
Catherine’s barge would have passed under the heads of Dereham and Culpeper on London Bridge and she must have shuddered at this sight of her lovers.
56
Catherine was terrified. Once inside the Tower, she gave herself up to weeping and tormenting herself.
57
On the evening of 12 February, she was told that she would die the next day.
58
Catherine calmed herself somewhat when she heard this news and asked for the block to be brought to her so that she could practice for the next morning.
59
Early on 13 February, Catherine and Lady Rochford were led out of the Tower together. Catherine was to be executed first. She was so weak that she could hardly speak and had to be helped up to the scaffold.
60
She does not appear to have made a long speech due to her extreme terror but confessed that she deserved to die before kneeling and placing her head on the block. Catherine was then beheaded with an axe, being followed by her accomplice, Lady Rochford, a few minutes later.
Catherine Howard was almost certainly under twenty when she died and may have been as young as sixteen or seventeen. Her life was short and extreme, just like that of her cousin and predecessor, Anne Boleyn. Catherine Howard was plucked out of obscurity by her marriage to the king and was completely unsuitable for her role as queen. Although she was certainly guilty of adultery and pre-marital misconduct, blame for her conduct lay at least in part with her family and the king for placing her in a situation for which she was quite unsuitable. Catherine Howard lived only a short life and left little legacy, her only lasting contribution being a law that made it illegal for a non-virgin to marry the king. However she was not the only Tudor queen to die as a teenager on the executioner’s block and her husband’s great-niece, Lady Jane Grey, also suffered the same fate primarily due to the ambitions of her family.
Aspiring to the Crown
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey is often portrayed as an innocent victim and martyr to her family’s ambition. To a large extent this is true and Jane failed to fully assert her independence during her short reign of nine days. However, there was more to Lady Jane Grey than passive acceptance. Jane certainly did not see herself as a mere passive figure in the events surrounding her usurpation of the throne. When faced with the temptation of the crown, Jane was unable to stop herself from accepting it and quickly became accustomed to ruling, even sending out troops against the rightful heir, Mary Tudor. Lady Jane Grey certainly recognised that she was guilty of treason and this was also the viewpoint taken by her contemporaries. Jane was very young and placed in a difficult, if not impossible situation. However, she was not without free will and the way in which she exercised this led her down a treasonous and ultimately fatal path. Nevertheless she should be considered more tragic than evil – it was her royal blood together with the actions of others that led to her downfall at the executioner’s block.
In October 1537, the only remaining male descendants of Henry VII were Henry VIII and his nephew, James V of Scotland. This was significant for Frances Brandon and her husband, Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset. That month they were preparing for the birth of their eldest child and would have been aware that should the child prove to be a boy, he would have high hopes of inheriting the crown of England. Frances Brandon was the eldest daughter of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and thus the niece of Henry VIII and she was already high in the line of succession. It must have been a disappointment, therefore, when, early in the month, the Marchioness gave birth to a girl at her estate at Bradgate.
1
The baby’s birth would have been further overshadowed when in that same month the queen, Jane Seymour, finally provided Henry VIII with his longed for son, Edward. The Dorsets’ daughter was quickly baptised Jane, after the queen, before her father hurried to London to attend the prince’s more significant christening. Left with her daughter at Bradgate, Frances Brandon must have been disappointed and this feeling would have increased with the births of two further daughters.
Lady Jane Grey spent her earliest years with her parents at Bradgate. As the niece of the king, Frances Brandon expected to live in some style and she raised her daughters like princesses.
2
To satisfy her mother’s ambitions, Jane was subjected to a rigorous formal education from the age of three or four with tutors engaged to teach her Greek, Latin, modern languages, music and Bible studies, as well as the more traditional female pursuit of needlework.
3
By the mid-sixteenth century the education of women had become fashionable and Jane thrived on her studies. She appears to have been something of a child prodigy, as the scholar, Roger Ascham found when he visited her in 1551. Ascham found Jane reading Plato in Greek and, when he questioned her as to why she was not out hunting with the rest of the household, she informed him that:
One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me, is that he sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster, for when I am in the presence either of father and mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure, or number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, yea, presently sometimes with pinches, nips, bobs, and other ways which I will not name for the honour I bear them; so without measure disordered, that I think myself in hell till the time come that I must go to Mr Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing, whilst I am with him; and when I am called from him I fall on weeping because whatsoever I do else but learning in full of great trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me.
4
Jane Grey had an unhappy childhood with her parents and used learning as a refuge. Jane’s conversation with Ascham, who was a near-stranger to her, also shows that she had no time for the faults that she perceived in her parents and in others.