Thank you so much to my YouTube channel member Sarah Fellows for inspiring this video.
Sarah asked if there’s any evidence that Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, and Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, ever met. They were, after all, cousins.
I answer this question and explore the links between Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard in the video below. You can also read the transcript.
Transcript:
Thank you so much to channel member Sarah Fellows for the question that inspired today’s video. Sarah wanted to know whether there’s any evidence that Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, and Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, ever met. They were, after all, cousins.
The short answer to this question is “no”. Sadly, there is absolutely no evidence that the cousin queens met. But let me tell you a bit more about the links between them.
Anne Boleyn, who was married to King Henry VIII between January 1533 and her execution in May 1536, was the daughter of Elizabeth Boleyn (née Howard), who was, in turn, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney. Catherine Howard, who was married to the king between July 1540 and her execution in February 1542, was the daughter of Edmund Howard, third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, again by his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney. He was Elizabeth Boleyn’s older brother, making Anne and Catherine first cousins.
However, Anne was born in the first decade of the 16th century, with historians arguing over 1501 and 1507 as potential birthdates, whereas Catherine wasn’t born until 1522/1523, so there was quite an age gap between the cousins.
Anne was on the Continent between 1512 and late 1521, but she was certainly back in England by March 1522, so she may well have attended Catherine’s baptism, which likely took place at St Mary’s Lambeth, a church which would later be the resting place of Anne’s mother, Elizabeth. Anne had been appointed to serve Queen Catherine of Aragon, so would have crossed paths with Catherine’s father, Lord Edmund, who was brought up at court, having served as a page to King Henry VII.
By Catherine’s birth, Edmund was heavily in debt, and things just got worse and worse for him. I think historian Gareth Russell is quite kind to him when he refers to him as “hapless”. He seems to have been a bit of a walking disaster when it came to money. And it was actually Anne Boleyn, his niece and the king’s sweetheart, who stepped in to help him. In 1531, she was able to get Edmund the office of Comptroller of Calais, following the death of the previous office holder, Sir William Hussey. This was a huge help for Edmund. He left for Calais and his household in England was broken up, as Catherine’s mother was already dead. Catherine was only 8 or 9 at this point, so she was sent to live with her step-grandmother, Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who split her time between Lambeth and Horsham.
Catherine remained in the Dowager Duchess’s household until late 1539, when she was appointed to serve as a maid of honour to Anne of Cleves, who would marry the king on 6th January 1540. So Catherine wasn’t at court during her cousin Anne Boleyn’s time as queen. The Dowager Duchess is recorded as carrying Anne’s train at her coronation procession and was a godmother at Princess Elizabeth’s christening, but there is no record of her taking Catherine to either event. Perhaps Catherine was a spectator at Anne’s coronation procession, she would have been about ten at the time, so it’s quite possible she was taken, particularly as the dowager duchess was involved, but she would only have seen her cousin from afar.
There’s also no record of the dowager duchess taking her household to court for any other festivities, and Catherine’s father was in Calais the whole time that Anne was queen, so she wouldn’t have gone to court to see him. He returned to London for his sister Elizabeth Boleyn’s funeral, as he was chief mourner, and Catherine probably attended that, but that was in April 1538, nearly two years after Anne’s death. By the way, Edmund died a year later.
When Anne was executed in May 1536, Catherine would only have been about 13/14, and was safely away from court, but she must have overheard conversations about it. It was all shocking and her uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, presided over Anne’s trial. Who knows what Catherine thought of it all, though?
There ARE links between Anne and Catherine, for example,
- Their blood relationship
- The fact that Anne helped Catherine’s father and so caused Catherine to be sent to the dowager duchess’s household
- The fact that they both married King Henry VIII
- And that they were both condemned for high treason and executed, and share a resting place, the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London
But it is unlikely that they ever met. Well, not properly, anyway. Sorry!
