Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard (1520/1525? - February 13, 1542) was the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII of England 1540-1542, sometimes known as "the rose without a thorn." She was born between 1520 and 1525, maybe 1521, probably in London, the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and granddaughter of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. She married Henry VIII on July 28, 1540, at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, having caught his eye even before his divorce from Anne of Cleves was arranged.

Catherine Howard in artwork

Painters continued to include Jane Seymour in pictures of King Henry VIII years after she was dead, because Henry continued to look back on her with favour as the one wife who gave him a son; most of them copied the portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger because it was the only full-sized picture available. In the opposite situation, after Catherine Howard was executed, even the Howard family removed her picture from their family portrait gallery, because Henry never forgave her for her perfidy. Nobody dared make another portrait of her after she was dead.

Related Topics:
Jane Seymour - Henry VIII - Hans Holbein the Younger

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For centuries, a picture by Hans Holbein was believed to be of Catherine, and some authorities said it is the only portrait of her that exists. Some historians now doubt that the woman in the picture is Catherine. Recently historian Antonia Fraser has persuasively argued that the above portrait is one of Jane Seymour's sister, Elizabeth Cromwell. The woman bears a remarkable resemblance to Jane (especially around the chin) and she is wearing the clothes of a widow, which Catherine never had occasion to wear but Elizabeth Seymour-Cromwell did. Furthemore, the age of the sitter is given as twenty-one. However, Catherine never reached her twenty-first birthday. Even if we accept the earliest possible date for her birth 1520/1521, Catherine would not have turned twenty-one until late 1541 or 1542 by which time she was either imprisoned or dead. If we accept the more likely date for her birth as being 1525 then its possible that Catherine did not even reach her seventeenth birthday. There is therefore no possibility that the portrait of the lady in blue is Queen Catherine Howard.

Related Topics:
Hans Holbein - Elizabeth Seymour - 1520 - 1521 - 1541 - 1542 - 1525

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There is another picture of Catherine, a water-colour miniature (below, right); it has been dated (from details about how she is dressed and how the miniature is made) to the short period when Catherine was queen.

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In it she is wearing the jewels remarkably similar to those Jane Seymour was wearing in her official portrait; these were jewels the records show belonged to the crown, not to any queen personally, and there is no record of their having been removed from the treasury and given to anyone else. The only other possibility is that the portrait shows Henry's Scottish niece, Lady Margaret Douglas, the mother-in-law of Mary Queen of Scots. So, whilst it is almost certain that the above portrait is not Catherine Howard, but rather Henry's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Seymour-Cromwell, the miniature shown above right is (possibly) Henry's unlucky fifth queen.

Related Topics:
Jane Seymour - Mary Queen of Scots - Elizabeth Seymour

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