History’s Most Complicated Wives

Catherine Howard caught the eye of Henry VIII in 1540, when she was a teenager, and he was nearing 50, battling health issues. He called her his “rose without a thorn,” but her past soon surfaced. Before the marriage, she had relationships with Francis Dereham and possibly Thomas Culpeper. When these secrets came to light in 1541, she was accused of adultery and treason. Catherine was executed in February 1542 at the Tower of London.