I've read several fiction and non-fiction accounts of Katherine Howard's rise and fall, and have always been glad to come to the end of her wretched story. Were these two people on crack? Who the heck thought that carrying on an adulterous sexual affair under the nose of their rampantly paranoid sovereign was a smart move? Does this monumental lapse of self-control (not to mention good judgement) completely cement the fact that sex IS the most driving force in the universe? However, the fact of her nit-wittery can be firmly laid at the foot of her royal bed, beside the equally stupid figure of Thomas Culpepper. The fact of her youth is more an indictment against fat, salacious King Henry then herself. The fact that she was uneducated was completely out of her control. Katherine Howard was little more then a uneducated, teenage nitwit. She lacked the royal dignity of Katherine of Aragon, the wit and sophistication of her cousin Anne Boleyn, the quiet calculation of Jane Seymour, the sweet (yet canny) acceptance of Anne of Cleves, and the mature calm of Katherine Parr. Katherine Howard has always been my least favorite of the wives of Henry VIII.
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