As promised, I'll continue with the Tudors theme as I pay tribute to two more of Henry's wives. Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves. Two completely different women, both destined to to have a major impact on the others life.
Anne came first. After the death of his beloved wife Jane Seymour due to postnatal complications in 1537, Henry was strongly opposed to taking another wife. Jane was, after all the only woman to give him the son he so desperately needed and he was still grieving for her 3 years later. However, he was under alot of pressure from his chief advisor Thomas Cromwell to marry again - this time for political purposes. The Duke of Cleves held alot of power in Europe and he was also a devout Lutheran (of course Thomas Cromwell was also Lutheran) and so Anne was offered to Henry to seal the deal.
Henry sent master Holbein to Cleves to paint Anne's likeness and upon seeing the picture the King was said to have been besotted. However, when he finally saw her in person he took an immediate dislike, and now Anne will be forever known in Tudor history as "the Flanders mare" - do we truly believe that Anne was as ugly as she was portrayed? Did master Holbein have any motive at all to paint her falsely? Indeed if Holbein had painted Anne as a pretty, bonny lady as her portrait seems and in truth she had been alot less, would the artist have kept his head? I think not! My guess (we do not have an exact timeline) is that Henry had already met Catherine Howard by then......
Secondly we have young Catherine. By young, I mean very young. We don't have an exact date of birth for her as after her indiscretions against the King, he had almost every surviving document pertaining to her destroyed. However most historians put her at around 19 at the time of her death, which would make Catherine 17 at the time she married Henry. She was beautiful, flirtatious, playful and by all accounts not very clever. She wasn't interested in religion or politics. All she wanted was lovely gowns, trinkets and mink. She loved to look pretty and dance the night away with the young men of the court.
Catherine was a maid in waiting for Anne of Cleves. While Anne was very slowly making her way to England to marry Henry, eagerly anticipating the day she would be made Queen, Catherine and a large retinue of other ladies and gentlemen were waiting for her at Hampton court. It is here that I believe Henry set his greedy eyes on the young maid. Anne eventually made it to English shores and was married in January 1540, only for the marriage to be annulled and a divorce granted in July 1540. She was given Anne Boleyns childhood home of Hever castle and a large pension to stay quiet, and three weeks later Henry was married to his young "rose without a thorn"
Now we get to the scandal of the story. Considering that by now Henry was old, very fat and with a leg wound that stank of rotting flesh - Catherine did well to bed him as often as he liked with no complaint. She made him laugh and made him feel young again. That is until Catherine's "other life" was discovered. Before Catherine came to court she had taken a lover named Frances Dereham - they had promised to marry but obviously the King had made her a better offer. This was not the worst of it. Catherine had been having a long time affair with a gentleman of the privy chamber named Thomas Culpeper. One letter still survives and in it she writes that her eyes desire to see him above all things and signs off "yours as long as life endures."
Henry was distraught. The rest, as they say, is history. Both Frances Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were executed at tower hill - strange that the man she was actually sleeping with got the lesser punishment of beheading while poor Frances was hung, drawn and quartered. Not pretty at all. 13th February 1542 the young queen was executed at tower green and buried beside her aunt Anne Boleyn in the chapel royal at the church of saint peter ad vincula (saint peter in chains) within the tower of London. I think Anne of Cleves had a lucky escape don't you?!
Attached are some pictures of the two Queens, Henry as he would have looked when he married them and the chapel royal. Catherine and Anne Boleyn are laid to rest under the pulpit/altar at the back of the church. When I visited here last year, I left my onyx and gold ring for them.
I hope you have enjoyed your history lesson for today. Charlie.x
