You’ve probably figured out by now that I have an interest in Tudor history, and today is a doozy. On the same day that Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, he also had his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, executed on charges of treason.
Thomas Cromwell was of low birth, being the son of a hostelry owner, but he rose to great heights under the patronage of first Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and then Henry himself. He was even granted a peerage not long before his sudden fall from favor. Katherine Howard was a daughter of the powerful Howard family and a cousin of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. She lived in obscurity until called to court to serve Anne of Cleves, Henry’s fourth wife. (Yes, it gets convoluted.) Her likely adultery with Henry’s groom, Thomas Culpepper, sealed her doom, and pair were both executed on treason charges.
In honor of these two consequential figures, one at the start of her rise, one at the end of his fall, here are two books about each of them–one each of fiction and non-fiction.
