Katharine Howard, whom the King took to wife is proved to have been not of pure and honest living before her marriage, and the fact that she has since taken to her service one Francis Dereham, the person with whom she "used that vicious life before," and has taken as chamberer a woman who was privy to her naughty life before, is proof of her will to return to her old abominable life. Also she has confederated with Lady Jane Rocheford, widow, late wife of Sir Geo. Boleyn, late Lord Rocheford, to "bring her vicious and abominable purpose to pass" with Thos. Culpeper, late one of the King's Privy Chamber, and has met Culpeper in "a secret and vile place," at 11 o'clock at night, and remained there with him until 3 a.m., with only that bawd, the lady Jane Rocheford." For these reasons, Culpeper and Dereham have been convicted and executed, and the Queen and lady Rocheford stand indicted.
The indictment of such as have lately suffered are hereby approved, and the said Queen and lady Rochford are, by authority of this Parliament, convicted and attainted of high treason, and shall suffer accordingly; and the said Queen, lady Rocheford, Culpeper, and Dereham shall forfeit to the crown all possessions which they held on 25 Aug.
The King and his regime continue the attainder charging several of Katharine's relatives with concealing the first treasons. Those he charged with participating in the Queen's crimes were forced to surrender all of their property to crown. The ends with a warning for Henry's future wives saying,
"...it is declared that the Royal assent given by commission shall be valid in all cases hereafter, that any lightness of the queen for the time being may be revealed to the King or his Council, and that an unchaste woman marrying the King shall be guilty of high treason..."*
There are a great many things that spark my interest about this bill; first of all it seems to focus primarily on Katharine's relationship with Dereham, not with Culpeper. She was not attainted for being unfaithful to Henry, instead for the "dissolute life" she lived before her rise to power. Surely the King would have been more concerned about the alleged infidelities of his Queen while she was married to him than about her past indiscretions? (Read them here) I cannot help but wonder whether this was purposefully done because Culpeper had long been in the King's favor, having served his as a groom for many years. Also of note is the way in which the Queen's "lovers" were executed. Francis was hanged, drawn and quartered while Culpeper's sentence was commuted to decapitation.
It would take several weeks for the bill to pass; there seemed to be some confusion amongst the members of Parliament about whether or not the charges actually constituted treason. The bill had a second reading on the 28th of January but did not receive assent until February 11. While the bill and subsequent evidence was weighed Katharine and Jane would wait in agonizing limbo, confused about their fate. The bill would become law on February 11 and the women would face the executioner's block just two days later.
*Taken from the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII
I think he was embarrassed and had to shame her; her reputation before her marriage was poor so he played it up to make her look worse. Typical manipulative Henry.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a possibility. Henry was spoiled and tyrannical. It still seems strange to me though that he was lenient at all with Culpeper seeing as he betrayed Henry personally, while Dereham had no loyalty or allegiance to Henry.
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