Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England
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Thomas Culpeper
Sir Thomas Culpeper (ca. 1514 – 10 December 1541) was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a client of Thomas Cromwell. The brothers were known for collecting valuable items for the royal family during their time in court. He was distantly related to the Howard clan, who were immensely powerful at the time, and to Joyce Culpeper. They were particularly influential after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, and for a brief time under the reign of Anne Boleyn, who was one of their cousins.
Royal service
In 1535, Culpeper was acting as courtier for the Viscount Lisle and his wife. During that time he collected a number of items for them. In 1538, Honor presented Culpeper with a hawk. During that same year, Culpeper worked with Richard Cromwell to gain a hawk for King Henry VIII .
Culpeper was reportedly exceedingly attractive. He was described as 'a beautiful youth' and he was a great favourite of the king's. It was because of this favoritism that Culpeper had major influence with the King and was often bribed to use his influence on others’ behalf. He even used this influence on his own behalf. In 1539, Culpeper was accused of raping a park-keeper’s wife and then murdering a villager. Most likely due to his influence and favor with the King, he was given a royal pardon and not punished for his actions. Culpeper was given the honor of being keeper of the armory and Henry eventually made Culpeper gentleman to the King's Privy Chamber, giving him intimate access to the king, as the role involved dressing and undressing Henry and often sleeping in his bedchamber. He was part of the group of privileged courtiers who greeted Henry's German bride Anne of Cleves when she arrived in England for her marriage.
From the time of 1537-1541, Culpeper was given several gifts, including keeper of the manor at Penshurst Palace and property in Kent, Essex, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire.
Affair with Catherine Howard
Thomas Culpeper was first introduced into Catherine’s personal life in March of 1541, when King Henry VIII went on a trip to Dover and left Catherine behind at Greenwich. At this time Culpeper began asking favors of Catherine, who was distantly related to him. The private meetings between them are thought to have begun sometime around May of that same year. Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn or Lady Rochford, arranged the meetings between Culpeper and Catherine. On these occasions only she and another lady-in-waiting, Katherine Tilney, were allowed entrance to the queen’s chamber. On June 30 Catherine and King Henry VIII traveled north to York in hopes to meet James V of Scotland. They arrived at Lincoln on August 9, where Culpeper met Catherine for another secret meeting in her bed chamber. These meetings continued in Pontefract Castle, after the court arrived on August 23. It is believed that the infamous letter Katherine sent to Thomas was sent during these proceedings. In this letter she wishes to know how he is and is troubled that he is ill. Catherine also writes “I never longed so muche for [a] thynge as I do to se you and to speke wyth you, the wyche I trust shal be shortely now,” and “my trust ys allway in you that you wolbe as you have promysed me...”. These statements cause some audiences to believe that their affair was not one of passion and blinded by love, but rather centered towards Culpeper’s political agenda. With Henry in poor health and with only his very young son Edward to succeed him, being Catherine's favourite would undoubtedly have put Culpeper in a very strong political position. As a well-liked member of the king’s Privy Chamber, he maintained a close relationship with the king. If the promise Catherine mentioned was in reference to his possible knowledge about her previous sexual relationships, Culpeper was most likely using this as leverage to gain power and control over the queen herself. In her letter Catherine states that she longs to talk with Culpeper, and does not mention any desire to be intimate with him .
Stories of the queen's premarital indiscretions had meanwhile come to the attention of Thomas Cranmer, then Archbishop of Canterbury. During Cranmer's investigations, he came across rumours of an affair between the queen and Culpeper. Culpeper was arrested for questioning. Both he and the queen denied the allegations, but a love letter from Catherine to Culpeper found during a search of Culpeper's quarters, provided the evidence Cranmer was looking for. Whether the affair between Culpeper and the queen was ever consummated is still debated by historians, but the letter gives clear evidence of Catherine's feelings for Culpeper. Also in the love letter was a reference to Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford.
Downfall and execution
Culpeper was arrested on orders from the king. In December 1541, Culpeper was tried for treason alongside Francis Dereham, who was separately accused of sexual relations with the queen before her marriage to Henry. Catherine had not hidden the affair with Culpeper from members of her household, who now testified against her to protect themselves.
The queen was portrayed as having seduced Culpeper at Chenies Palace, although it could easily have been the other way around. With testimony given of private meetings at Hatfield House and during the royal progress to the north of England in the summer of 1541, his fate was sealed. Culpeper admitted after torture to having had sexual relations with Catherine. Both Culpeper and Dereham were found guilty and sentenced to death.
The means of death was to be particularly gruesome. They were both to be hanged, drawn and quartered. That is, to be hanged by the neck, disemboweled while still alive, posthumously beheaded and quartered. Both men pleaded for leniency; Culpeper, presumably because of his former closeness to the king, received a commuted sentence of simple beheading. Dereham received no such mercy.
Culpeper was executed along with Dereham at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, and their heads were put on display on London Bridge. Culpeper was buried at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate church in London. Queen Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Rochford were both subsequently executed on 13 February 1542.
Francis Dereham
Francis Dereham (died 10 December 1541) was the son of John (Thomas) Derham, of Crimplesham, and Isabell, daughter of John Paynell, of Boothby. He was a Tudor period courtier, most famous for his affair with Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England. This affair lasted until Catherine was made lady-in-waiting to Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves. Dereham was made a secretary at Hampton Court, an appointment possibly engineered by Agnes Tilney, Duchess of Norfolk, to silence him about Catherine's previous indiscretions. When their past relationship was brought to the attention of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer by a member of the dowager Duchess's household, he reported them to the King in a letter, provoking an investigation which resulted in the arrests of the dowager Duchess of Norfolk, her stepson Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Culpeper and Queen Catherine herself.
Affair and execution
Under interrogation, Dereham admitted a pre-marital relationship with Catherine, but claimed that they were never intimate after Catherine's marriage to the King. Furthermore, he claimed that he had been supplanted in her affections by Culpeper. Any incriminating documents are thought to have been burned by the dowager duchess of Norfolk, as it is documented that she raided Dereham's coffers and destroyed letters. However, Cranmer was faced with the rumours of a pre-contract of marriage between Dereham and Catherine, which was effectively as binding as marriage itself, especially if the couple sealed the agreement with sexual relations. If this was true (there is no evidence to either prove nor disprove the allegation), Catherine's marriage to Henry would have been unlawful. A supposed love letter from Catherine to Culpeper had been discovered, sealing her fate and all those implicated.
Dereham died a traitor's death at the Tyburn gallows, being hanged, drawn and quartered. Culpeper also died at Tyburn, but as he had been favoured by the King before his affair with Catherine, his sentence was commuted to beheading. Catherine was beheaded at the Tower of London on 13 February 1542. Agnes, dowager duchess of Norfolk was eventually released.
In a confession, in the form of a letter of 7 November 1541 to the King, Catherine wrote the following regarding her relationship with Dereham:
- …Francis Derehem by many persuasions procured me to his vicious purpose, and obtained first to lie upon my bed with his doublet and hose, and after within the bed, and finally he lay with me naked, and used me in such sort as a man doth his wife, many and sundry times, and our company ended almost a year before the King's Majesty was married to my Lady Anne of Cleves [Henry's preceding wife] and continued not past one quarter of a year, or a little above…
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License
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thomas Culpeper".
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