On this day in 1542, Queen Katheryn Howard was executed.
Katheryn Howard’s Rise
Born into the powerful Howard family, Katheryn Howard was a cousin of Anne Boleyn and a member of the ambitious noble house that had already produced one queen of England. She was raised in the household of her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, where she received little formal education but was exposed to courtly life from a young age.
At around fifteen or sixteen, Katheryn joined the court of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, as a lady-in-waiting. Her youth, charm, and beauty quickly caught the attention of the aging and increasingly ill Henry. Enamored by her, he had his marriage to Anne annulled in July 1540 and wed Katheryn just weeks later. She became his fifth queen, showered with gifts and attention. However, her reign would be tragically short-lived.
The Downfall of a Queen
By late 1541, rumors of Katheryn’s past relationships before her marriage to the king began to surface. Evidence was presented that she had been involved with Francis Dereham during her time in the Dowager Duchess’s household. Worse still, it was alleged that, as queen, she had engaged in an affair with Henry’s trusted courtier, Thomas Culpeper.
In November 1541, the accusations reached Henry VIII. The king, initially reluctant to believe the charges, was devastated when evidence – including a letter from Katheryn to Culpeper – was uncovered. The queen was stripped of her title, placed under house arrest, and later taken to Syon Abbey to await her fate.
Imprisonment in the Tower
On 10th February 1542, Katheryn was taken by barge to the Tower of London via Traitors’ Gate. As she was rowed through the gate, she would have seen the rotting heads of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham displayed on London Bridge – grim reminders of the scandal that had sealed her fate.
Two days later, on 12th February, she was informed that she would be executed at nine o’clock the following morning.
One of the most heartbreaking details of Katheryn’s final hours is the report that she requested the execution block be brought to her so she could practice placing her head upon it.1 It is harrowing to imagine a young woman of around nineteen, terrified and alone, rehearsing her own death.
The Execution of Katheryn Howard
On the morning of 13th February 1542, Katheryn was led to the scaffold on Tower Green. She delivered the customary final speech, confessing her sins and seeking mercy. According to Eustace Chapuys, she was executed on the same spot where her cousin, Queen Anne Boleyn, had been beheaded six years earlier.
Just as she had practiced, she knelt and placed her head on the block. With a single stroke of the axe, her life was ended.
The Execution of Lady Rochford
Katheryn Howard was not the only woman to die on 13th February 1542. Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford – widow of George Boleyn and former sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn – was also executed. Having served as one of Katheryn’s ladies-in-waiting, Jane had been accused of facilitating the queen’s secret meetings with Thomas Culpeper. Arrested and interrogated, she reportedly suffered a mental breakdown.
At the time, it was illegal to execute someone deemed insane, but Henry VIII was determined to see her punished. Parliament passed a special act allowing for the execution of the mad, clearing the way for Jane’s beheading.
On the morning of the 13th of February, she was led to the scaffold first before the axe fell. Katheryn followed moments later.
Both women were buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, alongside Anne Boleyn and other victims of Henry’s reign.
Katheryn Howard’s Legacy
Katheryn Howard’s story is often overshadowed by her cousin Anne Boleyn, but her tragic fate remains one of the most haunting episodes of Henry VIII’s reign. A young woman caught in the dangerous politics of the Tudor court, she has been variously portrayed as a naive victim, a reckless flirt, and a pawn of her ambitious family.
Today, Katheryn is remembered as a queen who met a cruel and untimely end. Her ghost is said to haunt the corridors of Hampton Court Palace, where she supposedly ran screaming for Henry’s mercy after her arrest. Whether fact or legend, her story continues to capture the imagination and serves as a reminder of the deadly stakes of Tudor politics.
May they both rest in eternal peace 🕊️
- ‘Henry VIII: February 1542, 16-28’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 17, 1542. Edited by James Gairdner, R H Brodie (London, 1900), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol17/pp46-62. ↩︎
