Catherine Howard’s letter to her lover Culpepper
1541
On 28 July 1540, an ageing King Henry VIII married his fifth bride, the 19-year-old Catherine Howard. He declared her his ‘rose without thorn’ and was apparently infatuated with her. Yet less than two years later, the marriage was over and the young Queen had met her fate on the scaffold.
Catherine was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, the second Duke of Norfolk’s youngest son. Although members of a noble family, Catherine’s parents were far from wealthy, and Catherine was sent to live in the household of her grandmother, the dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Her father could not afford her upbringing, but in her grandmother’s household Catherine lived comfortably (although by all accounts not under close supervision).
As Catherine grew into a young woman, there were tales of numerous indiscretions with admirers. Certainly there had been some sort of flirtation with her music teacher Henry Mannox, followed by a more serious relationship with Frances Dereham. But by 1539 Catherine’s affection for Dereham had waned, and she had met and fallen in love with Thomas Culpepper, a gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber.
Catherine arrived at court as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves in early 1540, and quickly caught the eye and heart of the King. By July of the same year, Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves had been annulled and he had wed Catherine, making her his fifth wife. Henry was thrilled with his new bride, and although Catherine too seemed content, all was not quite as it appeared. Just months after her wedding, Catherine penned her infamous letter to Culpepper. In it, she writes of her great concern for Thomas following a bout of illness, and of her desire to see him and to speak with him. She laments that it ‘makes my heart die to think what fortune I have that I cannot be always in your company’, and signs the letter ‘Yours as long as life endures, Kathryn’.
This letter is all the more poignant as it was subsequently used as evidence of Catherine’s treason against the King. Rumours about Catherine’s behaviour as a young woman in her grandmother’s household had led to investigations about her life before marriage, and eventually turned to her life as the wife of the King. Catherine’s supposed ‘relationship’ with Culpepper was subsequently revealed, and her affectionate letter full of her love for Thomas helped to seal both of their fates.
Henry was the most powerful man in England. He had previously executed his second wife, Anne Boleyn, for adultery, and divorced two further wives. Catherine’s letter to Culpepper had put her in a precarious position and led to not only the end of her marriage to the King of England, but also the end of her short life: Culpepper was executed in December 1541 and Catherine in February 1542.
Master Coulpeper, I hertely recomend me unto youe praying you to sende me worde how that you doo. Yt was showed me that you was sike, the wyche thynge trobled me very muche tell suche tyme that I here from you praying you to send me worde how that you do. For I never longed so muche for [a] thynge as I do to se you and to speke wyth you, the wyche I trust shal be shortely now, the wyche dothe comforthe me verie much whan I thynk of ett and wan I thynke agan that you shall departe from me agayne ytt makes my harte to dye to thynke what fortune I have that I cannot be always yn your company. Y[e]t my trust ys allway in you that you wolbe as you have promysed me and in that hope I truste upon styll, prayng you than that you wyll com whan my lade Rochforthe ys here, for then I shalbe beste at leaysoure to be at your commarendmant. Thaynkyng you for that you have promysed me to be so good unto that pore felowe my man, whyche is on of the grefes that I do felle to departe from hym for than I do know noone that I dare truste to sende to you and therfor I pray you take hym to be wyth you that I may sumtym here from you one thynge. I pray you to gyve me a horse for my man for I hyd muche a do to gat one and thefer I pray sende me one by hym and yn so doying I am as I sade afor, and thus I take my leve of you trusting to se you s[h]orttele agane and I wode you was wythe me now that yoo maitte se what pane I take yn wryte[n]g to you.
Yours as long as
lyffe endures
Katheryn
One thyng I had forgotten and
that hys to
instruct my man to tare here wyt[h] me still, for he sas wat so mever you bed hym he wel do et and [...]
