Catherine Howard

St. Leger, his successor in office, carried out the suppression of the monasteries, and by judicious distribution of the spoils, managed to procure for the home government a certain respite from Irish troubles.

The king, within a few days of his release from Anne of Cleves, married Catherine Howard, another niece of the Duke of Norfolk, a fascinating girl of nineteen, for whose perfections he was strongly inclined to have a special service of thanksgiving drawn up.

The poor creature had, however, young as she was, dishonoured herself before marriage, and now felt obliged as queen to give appointments about her person by way of hush-money to the very men who ought to have kept farthest from her.

All her terrible secrets soon came out, and to Cranmer was entrusted the commission of telling Henry how he had been deceived.

Its larger endowments, however, were due not to him but to Queen Mary.

In the same spirit, Henry left to the citizens of London the ancient priory of St. Bartholomew to be a hospital for the poor.

Within a few days of the death of Catherine Howard, the king married Catherine Parr, the widow of the Lord Latimer, who had been engaged in the pilgrimage of grace and pardoned after it.

This lady was a most kind stepmother to all his children and a first-rate nurse to himself.

In the autumn of 1541, he brought his fifth wife home.

Her name was Catherine Howard, and she was a teenager.

The king was 50.

He was sick, he was enormous, and he had six years left to live, but he was in love with her.

Thomas Cromwell, the minister who had helped Henry break with Rome and transform royal government, was suddenly got rid of.

Catherine Howard brought youth and excitement back into the king's life and then went to the scaffold.

Even Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth and final wife, came frighteningly close to arrest.

Meanwhile, the king himself was deteriorating.

[laughs]

Henry has also cast a fantasy to someone else in the meantime.

So at least by Easter 1540, he's noticed another young woman at court by the name of Catherine Howard.

Catherine arrives initially to be one of the ladies around Anne of Cleves.

Rude.

Catherine Howard, beheaded.

Catherine Parr, survived.

Great job.

Sad.

Speaking of executed wives, we're going to move to Catherine Howard.

So Catherine also gave Elizabeth jewelry and she made an effort to include her in family occasions.

Do you think whatever relationship they shared had been maybe overshadowed by Catherine's downfall and execution?

But she did make an effort, you know, and it's really striking that she was young.

We don't know when exactly she was born, but she must have been in her late teens or early 20s when she died.

So it means that she was very very young and everything that she was doing was new to her, you know So taking care of the children That was new but she made an effort and what better way to impress a little girl than to give her some sort of a trinket or a jewelry and she gave that to Elizabeth and I think that you know in Elizabeth's later accounts we have an account of a I think it was a necklace and that she probably received from Catherine Howard.

So that's really touching that she kept that until her old age.

1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, executed Earl Rivers and Sir Thomas Vaughan here to secure his path to the throne.

1541, Queen Catherine Howard allegedly initiated her treasonous affair with Sir Thomas Culpepper within these walls leading directly to her execution.

1649, Oliver Cromwell ordered the total demolition of the castle following brutal Civil War sieges.

Adjacent to the castle grounds stood Pontefract Priory, a Cluniac monastery dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540.

It wasn't his fault.

So when he had... decided that someone was going to be destroyed, whether it was Thomas Cromwell, whether it was Anne Boleyn, whether it was Catherine Howard, once the decision has been made, it's up to others to carry it out.

And he has nothing more to do with that person.

He totally cuts off contact with them and leaves it in the hands of the people that are doing the killing, I guess.

But you do come across in the records people like Elizabeth I's coordination, for example, supposedly shouting, remember King Harry, as it was looking back with rose-tinted goggles.

One thing I think is probably fair to say, though, is if you look at Henry VIII, we see Henry VIII as a monster in modern day.

And we look at the people he executed, famously two wives, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, people like Thomas Cromwell, various religious figures, major religious figures, some major secular figures who were very interested in religion.

But these are politicians or religious.