Person of the Month

Katheryn Howard was a very junior member of one of the most distinguished families in Tudor England. She came to court as a maid-of-honour to serve Henry VIII’s fourth queen, but soon caught the king’s eye. Unhappy in his marriage, Henry courted Katheryn and married her within weeks of his annulment. Katheryn performed her public role well, and was praised for her looks, her grace and her charm – but she was hiding too many secrets in a world where spies and tale-bearers were around every corner.

Katheryn spent her childhood in and around London in the various Howard properties, then enjoyed the usual Tudor palaces. Alone of Henry’s queens, she progressed into the North – a land ravaged by the brutal suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace. It was during this trip that she sowed the seeds of her own destruction.

During her youth, and in her first months at Henry VIII’s court, Katheryn was surrounded by the retinues of gentlewomen, maids-of-honour and ladies-in-waiting that accompanied great ladies such as her Howard aunts and grandmother. Whilst Katheryn has not attracted the interest of some of her predecessors, there is a wide selection of both fact and fiction available.

Katheryn has been the subject of two biographies in recent years. Here, we review that by Gareth Russell.