No Other Will Than His: The Story of King Henry VIII’s Fifth Wife

While with Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII had been infatuated with one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting. Just 19 days after the annulment between Anne and Henry, Henry and this lady-in-waiting would get married. Henry would call her his ‘rose without a thorn,’ but it would be revealed that she had, not only a scandalous past, but present as well.

Henry’s fifth wife was Katherine Howard, the youngest child of 10. She was born circa 1523. Her parents were Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, she was also the first cousin of Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, and second cousin to his third wife, Jane Seymour.

When Katherine was young, her mother, Joyce Culpeper, passed to an unknown illness. Due to this loss, Katherine was raised by her father’s stepmother, Agnes Tilney. Agnes superintended Katherine’s education, typical for young women from noble households.

Katherine was typically an attractive young woman, this was known through her relationships as a child, typically with older men.

When Katherine was 12, her music teacher, Henry Manox, took sexual advantage of her. When Agnes, Katherine’s Dowager Duchess, found the two, she hit Katherine, even though it was her fault for not protecting Katherine.

Around the age of 14, Katherine became sexually involved with Francis Dereham, the secretary to Agnes Tilney. Unlike her relationship with Henry Manox, there was no doubt that they were in a full-blown sexual liaison: even addressing each other as husband and wife. According to one of Katherine’s roommates, there were ‘panting and puffing’ in the communal bedchamber and they were ‘hanging together by the belly like sparrows.’ Later statements made by Katherine suggested that she knew how to ‘meddle’ with a man without conceiving a child.

In March of 1539, Katherine’s uncle, Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, secured her a position as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves.

It is said that Katherine first met Henry in December of 1539, when he travelled to Greenwich to await Anne’s arrival. After Henry’s first encounter with Anne of Cleves, it is said that Thomas likely chose this moment to push Katherine into Henry’s eyes.

By June of 1540, Henry’s interest in Katherine was known to everyone. Anne of Cleves complained that Henry was attracted to Katherine and one observer noted that Henry had ‘crept too near another lady.’ Henry believed that if he was with Katherine, he would recapture his lost youth.

On  July 12, 1540, Henry would annul his marriage to Anne.

Katherine, 17, and Henry, 49, would be married on July 28, 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey and on August 8, Katherine would be acknowledged as Queen at Hampton Court Palace.

Katherine appeared gracious as Queen. Her first Christmas, she even greeted Anne of Cleves, the Queen before her, warmly. At Greenwich in 1541, following the convention for royal consorts, Katherine persuaded Henry to show mercy to some prisoners, resulting in them being released or having their sentences reduced. This action benefited her family.

However, Katherine soon showed behavior unexpected of a Tudor Queen, and wife.

A few months after becoming Queen, Francis Dereham, Katherine’s previous lover, arrived at court and began pestering her for office. Bragging to councillors that she favored him more than Henry.

Around the same time Francis appeared in court, Katherine began to receive requests to meet Thomas Culpeper, a Gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber.

Thomas Culpeper was related to Katherine’s mother, and was known to be a ‘sexual predator,’ even being accused of rape and murder, escaping punishment due to his relationship to Henry.

On June 28, 1541, shortly before Henry’s 50th birthday, Katherine and Thomas began an affair. When Katherine accompanied Henry on his summer progress, Thomas went with them. On this trip, Katherine and Thomas would conduct multiple illicit meetings.

During the same summer, Katherine would write a letter to Thomas that would be later used as evidence for her execution. That letter read:

Master Culpepper,

I heartily recommend me unto you, praying you to send me word how that you do. It was showed me that you was sick, the which thing troubled me very much till such time that I hear from you praying you to send me word how that you do, for I never longed so much for a thing as I do to see you and to speak with you, the which I trust shall be shortly now. That which doth comfort me very much when I think of it, and when I think again that you shall depart from me again it makes my heart die to think what fortune I have that I cannot be always in your company. It my trust is always in you that you will be as you have promised me, and in that hope I trust upon still, praying you that you will come when my Lady Rochford is here for then I shall be best at leisure to be at your commandment, thanking you for that you have promised me to be so good unto that poor fellow my man which is one of the griefs that I do feel to depart from him for then I do know no one that I dare trust to send to you, and therefore I pray you take him to be with you that I may sometime hear from you one thing. I pray you to give me a horse for my man for I had much ado to get one and therefore I pray send me one by him and in so doing I am as I said afore, and thus I take my leave of you, trusting to see you shortly again and I would you was with me now that you might see what pain I take in writing to you.

Yours as long as life endures,

Katherine.

One thing I had forgotten and that is to instruct my man to tarry here with me still for he says whatsomever you bid him he will do it.

In October of 1541, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was informed of Katherine’s premarital liaison by a former member of the household of her childhood home. Thomas Cranmer was given the task of breaking the news to Henry.

At first Henry reacted in disbelief, ordering an immediate inquiry which proved the allegations, and even uncovered more.

On November 8, 1541, Katherine confessed that Francis used her ‘in such sort as a man doth use his wife many and sundry times,’ and she also admitted that her and Henry Manox had sexual encounters. Later she would confess to her affair with Thomas Culpeper.

After finding out the truth of Katherine’s past, Henry fell into a deep depression of which he never fully recovered.

On November 14, 1541, Katherine moved to the former monastery of Syon, and would be deprived of her title as Queen eight days later.

On February 10, 1542, Katherine would be taken to the Tower of London. While awaiting her execution she spent hours, particularly the night before her death, practicing how to position herself for the axe.

At 9am on February 13, 1542, Katherine Howard would be executed on Tower Green at the Tower of London. So weak that she had to be supported onto the scaffold, she gathered enough strength to confess that her sentence was justified. Her final words were believed to be:

I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper.

Moments later, the axe fell onto the 18-year-old Katherine Howard’s neck.

Sources:

Anderson, M. T., et al. Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All. EMBER, 2020.

Catherine Howard | Hampton Court Palace | Historic Royal Palaces, www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/catherine-howard/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026. 

“Catherine Howard.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Howard. 

“Francis Dereham.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Dereham. 

The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Catherine Howard. in Her Own Words | PBS, www.thirteen.org/wnet/sixwives/inherwords/ch_words2.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026. 

The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Meet the Wives. Catherine Howard | PBS, www.thirteen.org/wnet/sixwives/meet/ch_handbook_fate2.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026. 

“Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Feb. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Howard,_3rd_Duke_of_Norfolk.