SAME PUNISHMENT, DIFFERENT CRIMES?

Less than six years later, Henry executed Catherine Howard. How closely did her fate match Anne Boleyn’s?

In theory, Anne Boleyn’s execution had created a precedent for the lawful killing of an anointed queen. The various protocols were tested again less than six years later when, in February 1542, Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was sent to her death. Like Anne, her crime was adultery. But unlike Anne, her guilt was beyond question. Henry ordered that Catherine’s execution should take place on Tower Green. As before, it was scheduled for early in the morning. Just like Anne’s, the event was postponed – not to clear the Tower of would-be supporters, but to give the near-hysterical Catherine the chance to compose herself. This is where the similarities ended. There was no Calais swordsman this time; Catherine was instead dispatched with an axe. Neither is there any record of sober and discreet clothing being ordered for the executioner. And, whereas Anne had been told of the arrangements made for her execution, Catherine was kept in the dark. Eustace Chapuys reported how on the eve of her execution, the queen “asked to have the block brought in to her, that she might know how to place herself”. On the day scheduled for the execution, the gates of the Tower had evidently been secured, as there was just a small gathering to witness Catherine’s death. After the axe had fallen, her body was draped in a black cloak and taken for burial in the same chapel as Anne had been laid to rest. This had nothing to do with protocol – St Peter ad Vincula was the resting place for other victims of Henry VIII’s regime, including the erstwhile favourite Thomas Cromwell. If Catherine’s execution did not follow the model that had been created for Anne, then why had the king gone to so much trouble in the first place? The unavoidable conclusion is that the various concessions he made for Anne were in part to ease his conscience. Although he gave a convincing show of believing his second wife to be a traitor and adulteress, it is likely that deep down he knew her to be innocent. Anne’s only crime had been her failure to give Henry the son he so desired.