Figure 1 (on the left): “Doubts Raised Over Anne Boleyn Portraits.” Hever Castle, 24 Feb. 2015, www.hevercastle.co.uk/news/doubts-raised-over-anne-boleyn-portraits/. Figure 2 (on the right): “Unknown Woman, Formerly Known as Catherine Howard.” National Portrait Gallery, www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01146.
1 When the reign of King Henry VIII is taught in the classroom, many students will recall the popular rhyme used to identify and memorize the order of his six wives: “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived”. This presentation will narrow in on the two wives who were beheaded; Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, his second and fifth wives respectively. The primary focus falls onto Katherine Howard, who has not been analyzed to the extent that Anne Boleyn has been, despite the similarities between their circumstances.
Figure 3: Elton, Geoffrey R., and John S. Morrill. “Henry VIII.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 24 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Henry- VIII-king-of-England.
2 While history tends to focus on the tragedies of the two beheaded wives, the name Katherine Howard is not often mentioned farther than her basic story, along with her fate as one of the two women who were executed at the command of this famous tyrant. Yet Anne Boleyn is studied extensively and continues to be a figure that sparks interest despite the similarities between their fates. Anne Boleyn was viewed very negatively throughout her life and her relationship with King Henry VIII, but is portrayed in many books, movies, documentaries, and podcasts in both a positive and a negative light, adding new commentaries on her life in a consistent manner. Katherine Howard, however, was viewed in a rather negative light as well, yet new commentaries on her life and fate do not often emerge, and it is much less common to find her portrayed in a more positive light in popular culture. Katherine Howard was a Queen of England, yet there is so little information on her. It’s as though King Henry VIII erased her from history, and no one questioned it.
3 As perhaps the most famous of King Henry VIII’s six wives, Anne Boleyn holds a very controversial and prominent place in history. Going beyond what historians and popular culture outlets write and think about her, Anne’s fate is one that is shrouded in mystery, yet is extensively studied. The events themselves have been written again and again, but the question of her guilt is often just speculation.
Some historians characterize her as cruel, cunning and only with Henry for the title, and others characterize her as innocent, and manipulated into every situation that she ended up in. There is no question that Anne has been analyzed from every angle.
Katherine on the other hand, is seen by the majority of historians as naïve and vain, not caring about anything but the parties and riches she gained as queen. Her demise came about due to her own foolishness and vanity, and she is not analyzed beyond those traits in the majority of cases.
4 So, why is my research important to the field? Like I have mentioned, Katherine Howard has been studied a very little amount when compared to Anne Boleyn. Her story is one that is quite complex and fascinating, so why has no one tried to unravel it in order to make sense of her actions?
Because she was essentially erased and forgotten due to her offense against King Henry VIII, there is not much to be found about her life as queen, and because of her gender it has always been easy for historians to accept that she was nothing more than a vain, naïve young girl who had not a thought in her ahead besides her own pleasure.
I believe that Katherine was much more than that, and at the very least deserves to be studied as Anne Boleyn has been in order to gain a better perspective on Katherine’s overall character.
Katherine Howard’s life and legacy also speaks volumes about the way women have been treated and studied throughout history. A powerful man made her an inconsequential figure because of her actions, and that lack of importance has been accepted by a large number of historians as a result. Women were only ever seen as
5 important and needing to be studied if a powerful man deemed them to be so. No matter what Katherine may or may not have done, she was the Queen of England and deserves to be seen as such.
5 Throughout this project, I utilized as many primary sources in the form of letters and chronicles as I could, in order to get a firsthand idea of the way these women were viewed during their lives.
I then read through accounts and analyses written by historians, to put together how they have been seen from their deaths, to present day.
The most unique part of my research, however, was the use of different media sources.
I decided to dive into sources of media and popular culture in order to analyze how the public views Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard to this day. I looked at sources such as the show ‘The Tudors’, the book and movie ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, and various history podcasts in order to gather some insight on how people who were not historians talked about and portrayed these characters. By doing this, I got valuable insight on their reputations in our modern day world that, when added on to all the other sources I analyzed, formed a particularly interesting new point of view.
6 While the reputation of Anne Boleyn has remained relevant and ever changing, the reputation of Katherine Howard has been largely overlooked due to the circumstances behind the two executions, and the way they are both portrayed throughout history by the media, as well as historians.
7 So, a little bit of background information on Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard in order to better understand who these two women were.
Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, and was Henry VIII”s second wife. Henry fell in love with Anne while he was still married to Katharine of Aragon, and he split from the Catholic church in order to divorce Katharine and marry Anne. They married on January 25th of 1533, and Anne had a daughter, Elizabeth, shortly after. Once Anne proved to be unable to give Henry a male heir, there were multiple charges of adultery brought against her, and she was executed on May 19th of 1536.
Katherine Howard was Anne Boleyn’s cousin, and was born into the very powerful Howard family, who had a great amount of influence in English court. She was brought to court when she was seventeen, where she caught the eye of the much older English king. Henry VIII married Katherine on the 28th of July in 1540, and he was extremely happy with his young bride, until she began an affair with a young man named Thomas Culpepper. Due to her adultery, she was guilty of treason and was executed on February 13th, in 1542.
8 Throughout her relationship with Henry, she is documented to be rather volatile of temper and she never bothered to hold her tongue, a very dangerous attribute for a Queen at the time. Despite the negativity of Anne’s inclination to speak her mind, it is also understood by many historians that Anne’s anger and harsh words came from a place of deep insecurity and fear of what would happen to her should the King tire of her presence. She was not the docile, demure woman that Katharine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife was, a shortcoming that could easily be her death. She was calculating and ambitious, but Anne Boleyn was always aware of the dangers of her position
During her lifetime, the people of England looked at Anne with contempt, proclaiming her a whore who stole the King away from a kind and godly woman who the people believed to be the rightful queen. Anne’s coronation was a cold affair, and the people of England were quick to spread rumors and condemn her when she was accused of adultery.
Despite the myriad of opinions on the life and character of Anne Boleyn, it is a fairly universal belief that the family she was born into played a huge role in her rise and
9 fall. Her father, Thomas Boleyn, consolidated power through loyalty to the monarchy, and is thought to have been the biggest career influence on Anne, continually pushing her towards education and opportunity. Thomas Boleyn supported and encouraged his daughter to no end when it came to her relationship with the King, especially when it meant that he would receive more power for himself. There are varying opinions about the extent of which Thomas Boleyn pushed Anne towards the King, but it is certain that he was rather excited at the prospect of being the father of the Queen of England, and the grandfather to the potential next King of England if everything turned out as the Boleyn’s hoped they would. Her uncle, Thomas Howard, was also a large influence on her life at court, often uniting with Anne’s father and brother to discuss how they might use Anne as an influence to Henry, although it is widely debated whether or not Anne was part of these plans.
9 Much like the opinions of the historians, the majority of media outlets lean more towards portraying Anne as a victim, even as they portray her cold and calculating nature
Anne’s temper comes up in every portrayal of her, with intense fights and passionate makeups being a very common theme in her relationship with the King.
The portrayals of Anne tend to teeter on the edge of historically accurate and creative liberty, often blending them together so expertly that everything seems to be the truth. Anne is typically always portrayed as ambitious, and her general story is always told with relative accuracy, with the little details teetering on the edge of fact and fiction in each portrayal in different ways. Some portrayals show Anne as a pawn, yet others show her as a key player in the games of court. There are so many sources available to study Anne, and it seems as though many media outlets that sought to portray her did their research well enough to give Anne’s story justice. When they are contrasted, it muddles the truth, specifically of Anne’s actual nature, since there are a comparable number of portrayals of her as a victim and her as manipulative and calculating, and altogether deserving of her fate. Anne has been discussed rather extensively by historians and by different media outlets, and the negative speculation
10 is just common enough to insert doubt about Anne’s life and character.
10 Much like Anne, Katherine Howard’s family tends to play quite a large role in her rise, although there is quite a bit of disagreement as to the extent of which they pushed her towards the King. It is certain that Katherine was placed in the household of the current Queen of England, Anne of Cleves, by her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, but the disagreement comes during the discussion of why she was placed there in the first place. The Howards had already proved themselves to be a very ambitious family, and historian Lacey Baldwin Smith believes that she was placed there to further her family’s influence and once she was there she was chosen by political figures as the next object of affection for the King. On the other hand, Antonia Fraser believes that the Howards likely knew of Katherine’s past, and did not deliberately place her in front of the King, nor push her into a relationship with him since “she was not an ideal candidate for Queen”. Historians lack sufficient evidence to make concrete claims as to whether or not Katherine’s family intended on placing Katherine in front of the King to become the next Queen, but the debate is always present.
What almost all historians do agree on about Katherine Howard, however, is her vanity and immaturity. Katherine’s youth captivated and rejuvenated the King, and he spoiled her like no other much to Katherine’s delight. She reveled in the gifts and the attention, often banqueting and dancing and enjoying the splendors of court night
11 after night.
11 Due to her pleasure seeking nature, it was quite believable when she was accused of adultery with Thomas Culpepper. Her reputation and character most likely would have been enough to condemn her, but with a love letter written from Katherine to Thomas Culpepper, there was no escaping her fate.
The question of Katherine’s guilt is a possible factor for the lack of comparison between Katherine’s situation and Anne’s, since Anne’s case is seen by the majority of historians as simply being the King’s way of getting rid of her. Anne was most likely not guilty, while Katherine almost certainly was.
Figure 4: The National Archives. “The National Archives: Research and Learning: Treasures from The National Archives: Catherine Howard.” The National Archives | Treasures from The National Archives. The National Archives, June 28, 2004. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=13.
12 A staple in the portrayals of Katherine Howard is the perplexing truth of her inviting people from her past to come be a part of her household at court.
Katherine had a questionable past, and had engaged in sexual activity with two different men, something that would have gotten her in major trouble if she were found out by the King. Yet she invited an old friend who knew everything about her past to join her household, as well as one of the men with whom she had had an affair.
There is disagreement here on whether or not Katherine invited them both to court due to her own naiveté and kindness, or whether she was blackmailed into offering them positions, at the risk that they would tell the King everything about her past. The latter is the more likely scenario, since she would have been well aware of the danger that having Joan Bulmer and Francis Dereham in her household would cause.
Katherine’s affair with Culpepper is another commonality of the media portrayals. She is almost always portrayed as having a sexual relationship with Culpepper, and even when he is described in a very negative light, their relationship is always seen to be romantic and a tale of star-crossed lovers.
13 The portrayals of Katherine Howard are fewer and farther between than those of Anne Boleyn, and they all tend to stick to the same basic themes of Katherine being naïve and vain, entering a situation she was not equipped to handle, and dying because of immature mistakes she made in youth. Because of the general lack of sources, particularly a lack of primary sources, it is quite difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. Katherine is painted in the same light in the majority of historical pieces and media portrayals.
13 Despite the admittedly much shorter period of time that Katherine Howard was in the story than Anne, there is no reason to have barely any record of her save for one single letter written by her to Thomas Culpepper. She was a Queen of England, just like the other 5 wives, yet she is ignored to a much greater extent. Katherine is an enigma to historians, with a general lack of agreement by scholars on her motives and character. She is often brushed off as silly and vain, but it can be argued that Katherine knew exactly what she was doing when she caught the attention of the King, and despite playing the games of court admittedly very poorly, she still took part in them, and effectively proved herself to be just as calculating as Anne Boleyn had been. Katherine Howard was an ambitious woman who ended up in a position that she could not get out of, and ultimately the cost was her head. She made many mistakes during her time at court, but it would also be a mistake to brush her off as a silly child who accidentally stumbled her way into a crown.
14 Through analyzing popular culture and media along with existing historiography, it is clear to see the differences with which Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard are discussed. By providing Katherine with the same level of scrutiny, and by drawing conclusions based on the variety of opinions and available sources, an analysis on her life and motivations can emerge and begin an important conversation about her, as well as the implications her situation has on the way women are viewed and recorded throughout the rest of history. As a Queen of England, the lack of information available on Katherine Howard is cause for great intrigue, and through this research some light can be shed on the reasons why. Unfortunately, not much can be done about the lack of primary sources available to study Katherine, but there is still much to gain from studying her extensively, and continuing to analyze the information that is known about her.
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