Person    | Female  Born 1520  Died 13/2/1542

Catherine Howard

As lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves Catherine attracted Henry's ever-roving eye.  Anne was dumped (via the annulment method) and the obese, 49-year old Henry married the 20-year old Catherine.  She failed to find him a satisfactory lover and began an affair with Thomas Culpeper, her distant cousin, using her lady in waiting Jane Boleyn as a go-between.  Discovery led to execution for all involved. Culpeper was beheaded at Tyburn, Catherine on Tower Green with Jane following close behind.

Her first name is sometimes spelt Katheryn or Katherine.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Catherine Howard

Commemorated ati

Tower of London execution site

Catling wrote the poem as well as creating the sculpture. Doesn't that cushio...

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Tower of London execution site - c.1910

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes m...

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Tower scaffold - 1946

See Anne Boleyn's plaque for when/how this plaque was displayed.

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Other Subjects

Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick

Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick

His father, George Duke of Clarence, was executed for treason by being drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine, if we believe Shakespeare.  Edward was a potential claimant to the English throne and so imp...

Person, Execution, Royalty

1 memorial
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Closely related to the royal family but Henry VIII took against Henry and his father, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.  They were imprisoned and Henry was beheaded at Tower Hill.  His father sur...

Person, Execution, Poetry

1 memorial
Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell

Born Putney. Executed on Tower Hill by order of Henry VIII, while Henry married Katherine Howard, wife number 5. Oliver Cromwell is descended from one of Thomas's sisters, whose husband changed hi...

Person, Execution, Politics & Administration

5 memorials
George Searles

George Searles

Burnt at the stake in Bow (or possibly Stratford) for his Protestant beliefs.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater

James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater

Jacobite.  Either 'Radcliffe' or 'Radclyffe'. Illegitimate grandson of Charles II on his mother's side. A very wealthy Northumbrian nobleman, brought up in France. Captured at the Battle of Preston...

Person, Execution, Politics & Administration, France

1 memorial