Katheryn Howard: Henry's Thorny Rose (Part four)
© Lyndal White
THE END
The end, when it came, was sudden. Urged on by the Protestant faction who wanted to eliminate the young Catholic Queen, Henry's arch henchman, Thomas Cranmer made a risky bid for her undoing. It began insidiously with the engagement of a new lady-in-waiting, Dorothy Lascelles, a roommate from her Lambeth days. Dorothy, pleased to be at Court, obviously had blackmail on her mind which very probably unnerved young Katheryn to the point of distraction. She secured herself a position in the Queen's household but once engaged Dorothy felt duty bound to disclose to her brother John the Queen's past indiscretions. John Lascelles, a fervent Protestant further saw it his duty to repeat these confidences to various mediums and such a juicy morsel of information was bound to reach the ears of Cranmer, who, drunk with past power, began delving into her past feverishly, determined to bring her down. His aim was to replace her with a Protestant Queen, a more pliable Protestant Queen. The almost immediate result was a letter delivered to Henry outlining the discovery
Henry was crushed and blinded with rage upon reading it, although his knee jerk reaction was of disbelief. But after some initial investigations the evidence was mounting against her and Henry, too enraged to confront her, left Hampton Court without so much as a backward glance. Katheryn, confined to her chambers must have been looking from the window, hoping for sign of salvation, her heart sinking as he rode away, realizing the fate that was in store for her.
Katheryn was not as fortunate as her cousin Anne, as Katheryn had to endure a longer imprisonment and the impending execution from which she knew there would be no escape. Under house arrest at Hampton in November, then moved to Syon House, the wait until February must have seemed interminable and yet she still must have hoped for a reprieve as the weeks dragged on.
The time line here is interesting but there are several factors to consider. Firstly Henry had no-one else waiting in the wings as he had with Jane Seymour therefore an unseemly rush to behead this young girl was not as vitally imperative, but secondly, and maybe more importantly, he must have feared the repercussions of the people who were now to witness the second execution of a Queen consort in less than six years. The reaction of the courts of Europe was another matter. After sending word to Frances he had been cruelly betrayed he as good as signed her death warrant. To back out would be to lose face and Henry would allow no woman to cuckold him.
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