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Beheaded II

Beheaded II

Released Tuesday, 12th May 2020
 3 people rated this episode
Beheaded II

Beheaded II

Beheaded II

Beheaded II

Tuesday, 12th May 2020
 3 people rated this episode
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

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0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild

0:05

from Aaronminkie. Listener discretion

0:07

is advised. On

0:11

November eighth, fifteen forty

0:14

one, Queen Catherine

0:16

Howard was brought to a small room

0:19

to sit opposite Thomas Cranmer,

0:22

Archbishop of Canterbury. The

0:24

Archbishop had assured King Henry

0:26

the Eighth a few days prior that his

0:28

interrogation would be harsh and merciless,

0:32

that he would import on the King's young bride

0:34

the severity of her crimes

0:37

and scare her into full honesty.

0:40

But when Cranmore saw the young girl, he

0:43

felt his resolve drain away. She

0:46

was weeping, already frantic

0:49

with grief and terror, her

0:51

bloodshot eyes darting around

0:53

the room as if an executioner's

0:55

blade could appear at any moment.

0:59

But she also looked so small,

1:01

so young. She was a

1:04

nineteen year old girl, and she was

1:06

in a chair that looked far too big

1:08

for her. Grandmar

1:10

really had all the information already

1:13

that his investigation really needed.

1:15

Only two weeks ago, the allegations

1:18

had just been a rumor, a single

1:20

rumor from a single source. The

1:23

claim was this, that the new queen

1:26

had been less than virginal

1:28

when she had married the king. Someone

1:31

had informed the archbishop that

1:33

in Catherine's home growing up, she

1:36

had not one but two affairs,

1:39

first with her music teacher and then

1:41

with her grandmother's secretary.

1:44

Did you or did you not? Cranmar

1:46

began, as soon as Catherine had caught

1:48

her breath, have a sexual

1:51

relationship with your music teacher,

1:54

Henry Mannox when you were living

1:56

with your grandmother, the dowager Duchess

1:59

in Lambeth. Catherine

2:01

wailed, no, sir, it

2:04

was a flirtation, that's all. He

2:06

never knew me, and the way a husband knows his

2:08

wife. I have only ever been

2:10

true to King Henry. And

2:13

what of a secretary? Some time later,

2:16

a man named Francis Derham?

2:19

Did you know him? Intimately? Catherine's

2:23

breath began to quicken

2:26

erratically. Cranmar noticed

2:28

her cheeks and dressed sleeves were

2:31

both wet with tears. Be

2:33

honest, child, Granmar said,

2:36

The Lord is merciful to those who

2:38

are honest. As almost

2:40

an afterthought, he added, I

2:43

have already spoken to both men. Catherine

2:47

didn't respond, and Cranmar

2:49

continued, you and Derham

2:51

called each other husband and wife. Did

2:54

you not, Catherine nodded,

2:57

Were you formally bound to

3:00

Earham? The archbishop continued,

3:02

still unable to quite locate the harsh

3:04

tone that he had rehearsed. Did

3:07

you lie with him?

3:09

Once more? Katherine nodded her head.

3:12

We did lie together two or

3:14

three times in my bed in

3:16

the maidens chamber when I lived in Lambeth.

3:19

But I never betrayed King Henry.

3:21

I never betrayed my husband or sinned

3:24

against him in any way. But

3:26

she had already said enough. She

3:29

had betrayed the king, betrayed

3:31

him by pretending to be a virgin in

3:33

a lie by omission, humiliated

3:36

the king by now letting the whole

3:38

world know that he had been fooled

3:40

by a teenager. Catherine

3:43

broke down in sobs. As

3:46

he left, the archbishop quietly

3:48

whispered to the guards that they should

3:51

remove any items from her chamber

3:53

that might allow her to commit suicide.

3:57

Katherine Howard and King Henry the Eighth

3:59

had only been married about sixteen

4:01

months, and now with her

4:03

past revealed, she knew

4:05

that her time as queen was over. With

4:08

Henry's history, she would be lucky

4:11

to make it out with her head for

4:13

a little while, it seemed as though she might. After

4:17

her interrogation, Catherine was

4:19

sent away from court to Sion

4:21

Abbey. It seemed as though

4:23

the King was going to show her mercy. Her

4:26

arrangement with Francis Dirham could

4:29

technically qualify as a pre contract,

4:31

which would mean her marriage to Henry was invalid,

4:34

getting him off the hook easy. Katherine

4:36

would have to give up her jewels and possessions

4:39

and live in exile, away from court

4:41

for the rest of her life. It looked

4:43

as though that was what was going to happen. It

4:46

looked that way for exactly three

4:49

days. Three days

4:51

after Katherine Howard's interrogation,

4:54

Francis Dirham revealed, under

4:56

torture something else about

4:58

Queen Catherine, something

5:01

that the King wouldn't be able

5:03

to look upon with mercy. From

5:06

that moment, Catherine's fate

5:09

was sealed. I'm

5:12

danishwartz and this is

5:14

noble blood. When

5:24

Catherine Howard, motherless girl,

5:27

was eight years old, she was sent

5:29

to live at the estate of her father's

5:31

stepmother, her stepgrandmother,

5:34

the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The

5:37

Dowager Duchess seemed to collect

5:39

wards she had about a dozen

5:42

or so girls under her care, mostly

5:45

the daughters of poorer relations, and

5:48

the idea was that under the dowager

5:50

Duchess's supervision, the girls

5:52

would learn the skills of court and aristocracy,

5:56

although in effect supervision

5:58

was a little lax. The

6:01

year Katherine Howard turned thirteen,

6:04

two major things happened. First,

6:08

her cousin Anne Boleyn was

6:10

beheaded for adultery

6:12

during her marriage to King Henry the eighth.

6:15

Second, Katherine Howard

6:18

began a flirtation with her music teacher,

6:20

a man named Henry Mannox,

6:23

who had been hired to teach the girls

6:25

how to play the Virginals.

6:29

Mannox was exactly the type

6:31

of man that Catherine would fall in love

6:33

with for the rest of her life. He

6:35

was every stereotype of a poetic

6:38

musician, moody, romantic,

6:41

wildly passionate. We

6:43

don't know how old Mannix was at the

6:45

time. He could have been a teenager

6:47

himself somewhere around nineteen,

6:51

or he could have been approaching forty.

6:54

Either way, it was not a

6:56

relationship that an extremely

6:58

young aristocratic men should

7:00

have been engaged in, especially

7:02

not in a world in which a woman's

7:05

sexual purity was her primary

7:07

currency. Catherine,

7:10

for her part, refused to let Mannox

7:12

go all the way. The relationship

7:15

occurred mainly in the hiding spots

7:18

around the estate grounds, where

7:20

they could kiss each other and whisper words

7:23

of love into each other's ears. That's

7:26

where the Dowager Duchess found them

7:28

kissing in an alcove near the chapel.

7:32

The Dowager Duchess slapped Katherine

7:34

twice and forbade the couple

7:36

from ever seeing each other again. The

7:39

warning didn't deter the pair. I

7:43

don't know why you're still seeing her, said

7:45

Mary Lassells one day to Mannix.

7:48

Mary Lassell's was another young woman

7:50

under the Dowager Duchess's lack supervision,

7:54

but lower ranked than Katherine, and

7:56

so she felt a sort of kinship with Mannox,

7:58

who was more or less irvant. She's

8:01

much too high born for you, Mary said,

8:04

she's never going to marry you. You know that,

8:06

right. Mannax sneered

8:09

and curled his lip. He took

8:11

a step closer to Mary Lassells

8:13

and told her that he already

8:15

knew Catherine Howard by her private

8:18

parts. And he

8:20

said, she's already promised

8:22

her maidenhead to me. For

8:25

Mary Lassell's word got

8:27

around and back to Katherine Howard

8:30

what Mannox had said. She

8:32

ended their relationship the next day in

8:35

the estates orchard. Mannox

8:38

pleaded that he was just so far in

8:40

love with her that he didn't know what he said,

8:43

but Catherine didn't care. Besides,

8:46

Mary Lassell's had been right. She

8:48

was too high born for him.

8:53

That's why teenage Catherine felt

8:55

as though she was a much better fit for

8:57

Francis Dearham, the Dowager,

9:00

just as Secretary Darrem

9:02

already had a reputation and

9:05

seduced a good percentage of the women at the

9:07

estate, including Katherine's

9:09

Owes secretary. In fact,

9:11

it was she who recommended dear Him

9:13

to Catherine, praising him so

9:16

highly that Katherine couldn't help

9:18

but be intrigued. It

9:20

was the type of whirlwind passion

9:23

that only a teenager can have. Within

9:26

months, they were calling each other husband

9:29

and wife, planning for an imaginary

9:31

future together. They sent

9:34

each other gifts and wrote each other

9:36

letters. Katherine,

9:38

still under her grandmother's custody,

9:40

didn't have the income to buy the dresses she

9:43

wanted, and so Dearham bought

9:45

her beautiful fabric and taught

9:47

her which dressmaker to go to. I'll

9:50

pay you back, I promise, Catherine

9:52

said. Dearham just smiled.

9:59

Though the girls the dowager Duchess's

10:01

estate slept in a single room,

10:04

the maiden's chamber, and though

10:06

the girls usually slept to a bed, there

10:08

were still ways for girls to entertain

10:11

male visitors. The

10:14

maidens chamber was locked every

10:16

night, to preserve the girl's virtue,

10:18

of course, but Catherine

10:21

had an answer for that. While

10:23

her friends giggled and encouraged her,

10:26

Katherine snuck into the dowager Duchess's

10:28

chamber while her stepgrandmother was sleeping

10:31

and stole the key, quickly making

10:33

a copy and replacing it. Men

10:35

snuck into the room. Then Katherine

10:38

wasn't the only one of the wards who had an illicit

10:41

boyfriend. The men brought with

10:43

them wine and strawberries and apples,

10:46

and the boys and girls would laugh and

10:48

talk or sneak off to beds together until

10:51

one or two in the morning. We

10:53

can be almost certain that Dearman

10:55

Katherine, who by this point had

10:57

been spending every moment together, were

11:00

having sex. Dearham

11:02

privately assured his friends that

11:05

he knew enough to ensure that Katherine

11:07

wouldn't get pregnant. Meanwhile,

11:11

Mannox, bitter music teacher, was

11:13

furious at Katherine and her new paramour.

11:17

In his neatest script, he wrote

11:19

a letter to the Dowager Duchess

11:21

informing her that if she were to come

11:23

to the maidens chamber an hour or so

11:26

after she normally went to bed, she

11:28

would see something she wouldn't like

11:30

very much, involving a certain

11:33

one of her secretaries. Mannix

11:36

anonymously left the note in

11:38

the Dowager Duchess's pew in the

11:41

chapel so she would find it. That

11:44

night, she stormed into the maidens

11:46

chamber to catch not Katherine

11:48

and Dearham, but a man named

11:51

Hastings, another one of her secretaries,

11:54

who had already been caught once flirting

11:56

with one of the other girls. Katherine

11:59

was in the here, but

12:03

Catherine knew who the note had been written

12:05

by, and she knew that it had been

12:07

intended for her, and Dearham agreed.

12:10

Puffing out his chest, Dearham

12:12

confronted Mannix, telling him

12:14

that his behavior made it appear as though he

12:17

never loved Catherine at all. Mannix

12:19

called him a cad. Two

12:22

jealous men dressing each other down

12:24

over their secret love affair. It

12:26

was like a scene from Gossip Girl, half a millennium

12:29

before its time. People

12:31

knew that Derrim and Catherine were having an affair

12:34

people other than the Dowager Duchess. But

12:37

people also liked Catherine. She was

12:39

a vivacious and funny and entertaining

12:42

Plus she was high ranking. They

12:44

had no reason to rad her out or risk

12:46

incurring the wrath of her grandmother for

12:48

being the ones to deliver the bad news.

12:52

But like almost all wildly

12:54

passionate love affairs, the one

12:56

between Derehm and Catherine became less

12:59

exciting. Catherine stopped

13:01

being entranced by Dearham when she

13:03

was presented with a new, gilded

13:05

opportunity. Her family

13:08

connections had secured her a position

13:10

as a lady in waiting for the new Queen

13:13

Anne of Cleaves, who would be arriving

13:16

to England later that fall. In

13:19

the same apple orchard where she had broken

13:21

up with Mannix, Katherine Howard

13:23

told Dearham that she was leaving. His

13:26

version of the story involves her weeping

13:29

with sorrow. Her version

13:31

is her losing her temper at his insistence

13:33

that they stayed together. It's

13:36

possible both of her. She cried,

13:38

and she lost her temper, and she

13:40

left Dereham, thinking that there was still a chance

13:42

they were going to end up together. But

13:45

there wasn't. She was just going.

13:53

Katherine had grown up thinking her house in

13:55

Lambeth was grand. She had

13:57

no idea what would await her at

13:59

the court of Henry the Eighth. So

14:02

many people, so many dances,

14:04

so much food, so much

14:06

to learn For the confident girl

14:09

who had only ever been the queen b of

14:11

the band of teenagers in the maidens

14:14

Chamber, she was paid

14:16

ten pounds a year. With her

14:18

first paycheck, she sent money

14:20

back to dear Him to repay him

14:22

for the fabric he had bought her. The

14:26

new Queen of England, Anne of Cleave's,

14:28

wasn't set to arrive for another few

14:30

months, so in the meantime the

14:32

new ladies got to know each other and

14:35

got to know the men of court. For

14:37

Catherine, that meant being instantly

14:40

drawn to a gentleman named

14:42

Thomas Culpepper. Culpepper

14:45

was tall and athletic, the

14:47

type of man that Henry kept around him

14:50

because he made him feel young again. Culpepper,

14:53

for his part, had an incredibly

14:56

checkered past. There was a

14:58

rumor about him being convicted of

15:00

raping a woman in the village and

15:02

murdering a villager who saw them,

15:05

only to get off without consequences

15:07

with a royal pardon. Catherine

15:09

knew none of that. She only

15:11

saw the handsome, charismatic

15:14

man that women seemed to gravitate

15:16

towards, like hummingbirds to a flower,

15:20

and Culpepper saw Catherine,

15:22

a stunningly gorgeous girl of sixteen.

15:26

Every contemporary description of Katherine

15:28

Howard has that in common, the

15:31

understanding that Catherine was

15:33

uniquely pretty. For

15:35

a few weeks, Culpepper and Catherine

15:38

engaged in a typical court flirtation.

15:42

Catherine would report back to her fellow

15:44

ladies in waiting, giggling, helping

15:46

to decipher everything that Culpepper

15:48

had said to her that day. Catherine

15:51

knew that her virtue at court would be essential

15:54

in ensuring that she make an advantageous

15:56

marriage, and so when Culpepper

15:59

started making sexual overtures

16:01

expecting her to come to bed, she

16:04

declined, even as he professed

16:06

his courtly love. If

16:08

he loved her, Catherine believed he would

16:10

understand. But Culpepper

16:13

wasn't a man accustomed to sexual

16:15

rejection or even delay.

16:18

With Catherine's refusal, he shrugged

16:21

and set his sights upon a new girl.

16:24

It was Catherine Howard's first time

16:27

getting her heart broken. The

16:29

other ladies in waiting saw

16:31

her spend days crying and

16:34

ripping up his letters. Luckily,

16:39

Catherine wouldn't have to wallow too long

16:41

in heartbreak. Almost immediately

16:44

after Anne of Cleave's arrived in England,

16:47

Henry the eighth decided that he didn't

16:49

care for her and set about trying

16:51

to arrange an end to their arranged

16:53

marriage. In the meantime,

16:56

the king began doting on his new brides,

16:59

very pretty, very young lady

17:01

in waiting, Katherine Howard. He

17:04

sent gifts and gave her land

17:07

everyone saw, including Anne of Cleaves,

17:10

but she hoped it was just an affair. It

17:13

wasn't. Henry secured

17:15

the annulment from Anne of Cleaves within a

17:17

few months and married Catherine

17:20

Howard so quickly afterward that

17:22

people assumed that she must be secretly

17:24

pregnant. In fact,

17:27

Henry was just absolutely besotted

17:30

with his new bride, who was just

17:32

sixteen or seventeen years old.

17:34

Henry was fifty. They

17:37

were married the very same day

17:39

that Henry's former minister, Thomas

17:42

Cromwell, was executed

17:44

for securing the disastrous marriage

17:46

to Anne of Cleaves. The

17:53

middle aged Henry was so amorous

17:55

to Catherine Howard that it almost embarrassed

17:58

the rest of court. He didn't

18:00

take his hands off of her in public, caressing

18:03

her almost constantly, to the point

18:05

where ambassadors noted that he had

18:08

never been this publicly affectionate

18:10

with any of his wives to this extent

18:12

before. Of course,

18:15

Henry believed that his young bride was a virgin

18:17

and that he was the only man she had

18:19

ever laid with. Catherine

18:22

was so young and so beautiful

18:24

that she made Henry feel as though he were back

18:26

in his prime, even as it became

18:29

exceedingly obvious that he was

18:31

not. Pain in his legs

18:33

from his long troublesome ulcers kept

18:35

getting worse. Henry had

18:38

difficulty with impotence in the bedroom,

18:40

even as he made his attraction to Catherine

18:43

increasingly obvious outside

18:45

the bedroom. Henry's

18:47

doctors advised him to spend time

18:49

away from his new bride so that he

18:51

could recuperate. In

18:54

the meantime, they put him on a weight loss regiment

18:56

and wrapped his injured leg in boiled

18:59

olive, lee eaves and murder. Henry's

19:02

ill health and generally mercurial

19:05

nature, combined with his shame

19:07

at his inability to perform in the bedroom,

19:10

meant that he spent most nights away

19:12

from Catherine. A

19:15

year into their marriage, Catherine

19:17

had no pregnancy to show for it. Catherine

19:20

knew full well what happened to queens

19:22

who didn't give Henry sons. As

19:25

her relationship with the King continued

19:28

to strain, Catherine began

19:30

to shut herself away, unhappy

19:32

and anxious, refusing

19:34

to go to dances. Uncertain

19:36

of her future position. That

19:39

summer strain or not, Katherine

19:42

was to accompany Henry on the Northern

19:44

Progress, a show of force

19:47

and majesty to the rebellious northern

19:49

parts of the country. Catherine,

19:52

as the beautiful young queen, was an

19:54

essential prop for the outing, to

19:56

make Henry look all the more vital and powerful

19:59

with her at side. But

20:01

Catherine took ill on the journey, spending

20:04

days and nights alone in her room.

20:07

When the King sent a servant to her chamber

20:09

one night, he found it bolted. The

20:12

queen's ladies fretted about her

20:14

listlessness, but they also whispered

20:17

about the way she gazed down from

20:19

her window at Thomas Culpepper,

20:22

the young handsome man in the

20:24

King's entourage, who had caught

20:27

her eye from the moment that she had arrived

20:29

at court. The way she

20:31

looked at him with her hand cupped

20:33

in her palm, it was almost

20:36

like love. When

20:38

the trip to the north of the country ended and

20:40

they all returned to Hampton Court on October

20:43

nine, Henry gave a speech giving

20:45

hearty thanks for his good life with Catherine

20:48

and his trust in their happy future together.

20:52

The very next day, everything

20:54

would fall apart. Do

20:59

you remember Mary Lassell's

21:02

the girl from Catherine's time with the

21:04

Dowager Duchess Away

21:07

from court, Mary Lassell's brother

21:09

John was reprimanding her for

21:11

not being able to secure a position

21:14

in the new Queen's household. Didn't

21:17

you two know each other? John scoffed

21:19

at her. Mary Lassell's

21:21

bristled at her brother's derision. Yes,

21:24

I knew her. I wouldn't even want

21:27

to be in that household under a queen

21:29

like her. I remember how she behaved

21:31

back when she was in Lambeth. John

21:34

paused and asked for more

21:36

details. Mary

21:38

Lassell's told him about Henry

21:40

Mannox and Francis Dearham.

21:43

Everybody knows the Queen wasn't so pure

21:45

when she married the King, Mary said.

21:49

John stopped in his tracks and demanded

21:51

that Mary tell him everything

21:53

she knew, and John Lassell's,

21:56

a devout Protestant reformer, went

21:59

to tell the arch Bishop, Thomas Cranmer.

22:03

Cranmer was in a delicate position.

22:06

On one hand, this was just a rumor and

22:09

he didn't want to incur Henry's wrath

22:11

over nothing. But on

22:13

the other hand, if he didn't tell

22:15

Henry and somehow word got out,

22:18

he would be responsible. And

22:20

so on November two, in

22:23

incredibly measured words, Granmar

22:26

put the delicate claims in writing

22:29

in a letter and left it on

22:31

Henry's seat in Chapel. Henry

22:35

was, of course outraged. He

22:38

didn't believe the rumors for a moment, but

22:40

still he demanded a full investigation.

22:44

Man X and Dearham both confessed.

22:48

On November six, without telling

22:50

Catherine Howard, Henry the Eighth

22:53

left Hampton Court and rode to

22:55

Greenwich. She would never

22:57

see him again. Once

22:59

Henry was done with a wife, you wanted

23:01

her out of sight at

23:07

Greenwich, Henry held a midnight

23:09

meeting that lasted for six hours,

23:12

in which he and his ministers decided

23:14

what to do. At one

23:16

point, Henry broke down in tears.

23:20

Why have I had such bad luck in

23:22

meeting these ill conditioned women, he

23:25

cried. He grabbed

23:27

a sword. Maybe I should just go

23:29

and kill her myself. However

23:31

much pleasure she had in her sins, it

23:33

won't be half as much as her torture in

23:35

death, Henry's men

23:37

subdued him. He really had

23:39

been in love, he thought, with his

23:42

beautiful young fifth wife.

23:45

The next day, Catherine knew

23:48

something was a mess. No one

23:50

had told her anything. The investigation had

23:52

been completely secret, but

23:54

Henry was gone and had left no word

23:57

about where he was. She

23:59

could scent something in the air. When

24:02

her musicians started to play, she silenced

24:05

them. It's no time for dancing,

24:07

she said. That night,

24:10

she was brought before Thomas Granmar, where

24:13

she confessed. Henry

24:16

showed mercy enough that Catherine

24:18

should be spared death and a real imprisonment

24:21

in favor of a life of exile

24:23

at Ccion House. But

24:25

then a November, under

24:29

torture, Francis Dirham said

24:31

something new. No, he

24:34

promised he had never slept with the Queen

24:36

while she was married to the king, but

24:38

everyone knew Thomas Culpepper

24:40

did. Now

24:43

there is no heart evidence to prove

24:45

that Thomas Culpepper and Catherine actually

24:48

slept together. She went

24:50

to the grave denying it, but

24:53

soon details began to

24:55

emerge. In the

24:57

spring after her wedding, feeling

25:00

distant from Henry and lonely at court,

25:03

Katherine and Thomas began exchanging

25:05

love letters. They

25:07

sent little gifts back and forth.

25:11

Their letters became more and more

25:13

emotional and personal.

25:16

I trust in you that you will always

25:19

be as you have promised me, Katherine

25:21

wrote. She signed the letter

25:24

yours as long as life endures,

25:27

and that summer Culpepper had been

25:30

in the large group of courtiers who accompanied

25:32

Henry and Catherine on the northern progress.

25:36

Had she really been sick when

25:38

she insisted on staying alone in her

25:40

room? Ladies were interrogated.

25:44

Jane Rochford confessed

25:46

that at one of the stops, Culpepper

25:49

used a secret door that led

25:52

up backstairs directly

25:54

to Queen Catherine's bed chamber. Other

25:57

ladies were interrogated about whether Catherine

26:00

and Culpepper we're having an affair.

26:03

I don't know for certain. One lady said,

26:06

I am inclined to believe the queen, except

26:10

except the Archbishop prompted,

26:14

except the way she looked at Culpepper

26:16

from her window. I would

26:18

have believed her if I hadn't

26:21

seen the way she gazed at him.

26:23

Catherine had been in love, and

26:26

she hadn't been able to hide it. Dearham

26:35

was hanged, quartered and disemboweled.

26:38

Culpepper, as a gentleman, was

26:41

simply beheaded. Meanwhile,

26:44

Catherine waited at Scion House, knowing

26:46

her fate would be arriving swiftly.

26:50

In January. An act of attainder

26:53

made it treason for a woman to marry

26:55

the king without plain declaration

26:57

of having previously lived in chase

27:00

life. That was it. The

27:03

final piece had been put into place to

27:05

ensure that Catherine would receive

27:07

the death that Henry wanted for her. Anne

27:11

Boleyn had been taken to the Tower of London

27:13

under full light of day. Catherine

27:16

had the privilege of arriving at night, although

27:19

when the guards arrived at Zion House to

27:21

take her to the barge, she collapsed

27:24

in a fit of panic. Lucky

27:27

it was dark during her boat ride

27:29

down the Thames or else she would

27:31

have seen the rotting heads of

27:33

Francis Dirham and Thomas

27:35

Culpepper leering down at

27:37

her from London Bridge. That

27:41

night, locked in the Tower of London,

27:44

she heard the gates playing shut and

27:47

the locks on the doors turn. She

27:50

was told that she would be killed two

27:52

days later. After

27:55

her final confession, Catherine

27:57

made a request that the guard take

27:59

a back. Couldn't refuse. She

28:03

asked for the block that she would be

28:05

be headed on to be brought to her

28:07

chamber so that she could practice.

28:11

Catherine wanted to at least die

28:13

with grace or as a little

28:15

humiliation as possible, and

28:18

she had heard stories of botched executions,

28:21

including the execution of Thomas Cromwell,

28:23

which it took four, five, even

28:26

as many as ten strokes for

28:28

the head to fully come off, and

28:32

so for hours on

28:34

her last day on earth, Catherine

28:38

Howard kneeled in her cell at

28:40

the Tower of London and raised

28:42

and lowered the pretty neck on

28:45

the black block. When

28:47

the time finally came and she

28:50

was escorted to the very spot where

28:52

her cousin Anne Boleyn had died

28:54

only six years earlier, Catherine

28:57

knew exactly what to do MH.

29:00

So she shook. She lowered her

29:03

head into the valley of the block with

29:05

well practiced ease, and

29:07

the executioner took her head

29:09

off with a single blow. She

29:13

had gone from orphan to lady to

29:15

queen. Two dead in

29:17

two years. Katherine

29:20

Howard hadn't yet reached her twenty

29:22

one birthday.

29:31

That's the very short, tragic

29:34

life of Catherine Howard. Stick

29:36

around after a brief sponsor break to hear

29:38

a little bit more about the consequences

29:40

of the investigation of Catherine's

29:42

infidelity.

29:53

Dearham Culpepper, Jane Rockford,

29:55

and of course Katherine lost

29:58

their lives in the aftermath of the investigation

30:01

of Catherine's affairs, But

30:03

there are two ladies whose fates

30:05

fascinate me. During

30:07

the course of the investigation, two

30:10

of Catherine's ladies were caught

30:12

gossiping idly about the king. What

30:15

kind of man is this king? I mean, how

30:17

many wives really have? The

30:19

two women were jailed for their

30:21

words, which just goes

30:24

to show. If I had been alive in Tudor,

30:26

England, with the way that I talked

30:28

casually to my friends about my research

30:30

for this podcast, things would

30:33

not have ended well for me. I

30:35

also want to offer a quick note about

30:38

Catherine Howard's age and her sexual

30:40

activity. It's troubling

30:43

it isn't quite possible to apply our

30:46

modern understanding of the age of consent

30:49

onto the behavior of historical figures

30:51

in the sixteenth century. Five

30:54

years ago, a girl was considered a woman

30:56

as soon as she began having her period, and

30:59

a teenager marrying a man twice

31:01

or even three times her age, far

31:03

from being seen as an active abuse

31:05

or pedophilia, was unfortunately

31:08

incredibly common. Still,

31:11

it's important to understand that these are real

31:14

people. Katherine was

31:16

a teenager, and her decision making

31:19

and experiences were those of someone

31:21

incredibly young. Personally,

31:24

I find it most helpful not to

31:26

make broad declarations about Katherine

31:29

as a villain or a victim,

31:32

but just to do my best to try

31:34

to understand her with the

31:36

most empathy I possibly can. Noble

31:42

Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and

31:44

Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky.

31:46

The show was written and hosted by Danis Schwartz

31:49

and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick,

31:51

Alex Williams, and Trevor Young.

31:54

Noble Blood is on social media at Noble

31:56

Blood tales, and you can learn more about

31:58

the show over at Noble blood Tails dot com.

32:01

For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

32:03

the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

32:06

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

32:09

M HM

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