Catherine Howard - The Rose without a Thorn
Still, Henry was totally and utterly in love with Catherine. He called her "his rose without a thorn," and his displays of affection for her went way past what anyone had ever witnessed with his previous wives. In his eyes, she truly was his Queen. This might have led to her downfall at the end, because Henry had set her so high in his mind that any mistake on Catherine's part could only lead to a hard fall.
One of the mistakes that Catherine made were the people she brought into the royal household. She introduced not only women from the former Duchess's household - that knew of her less than innocent previous life, but she also brought back Francis Dereham and gave him the position of Private Secretary.
One of Catherine's enemies at court was Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. It wasn't difficult to make enemies in Henry's court and Catherine attracted Cranmer's disapproval because he was a Protestant, whereas Catherine was a Catholic. He resented any return to Catholicism and therefore he was prepared to do his best to get rid of her.
Catherine didn't really help herself either. She had been having more and more contact with a man named Sir Thomas Culpepper. There is no evidence to suggest that Catherine engaged in an affair with this man, but she most certainly fell in love with him and sought his company at odd hours and often alone. She had given Cranmer the ammunition that he needed to bring about her downfall.
Cranmer took the news to Henry and of course played it for all he was worth. He revealed her moments with Maddox and also with Dereham. Mary, Henry's sister had also informed him of Catherine's affair with Mannox and swore that Mannox knew of a blemish on Catherine's body.
Henry it appeared at first was in disbelief. His rose without a thorn, his supposedly innocent Queen had not only a rather shady past but seemed to be flaunting it at court now with the aid of Sir Culpepper. Henry sat in council with the evidence being placed before him while Dereham and Culpepper were placed in the Tower of London and submitted to torture. Naturally they confessed and both were ordered to be hanged but not to death - that was too good for them. Rather after being hanged for a while, they would be taken down, split open and then beheaded.
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