Today in 1541 Henry and Katherine Howard left home for a royal progress to the North, to meet Henry’s nephew, King James V of Scotland, at York in September.
Henry also wanted “to emphasise the extent of his defeat of the Pilgrims [from the Pilgrimage of Grace] and the Percy interest, and to humiliate utterly all but the most clearly loyal elements”. Unfortunately, while the trip was a success in showing Yorkshire that Henry was in charge, James stood Henry up, and this is also the trip where Katherine and Thomas Culpepper took their relationship to the next level, as it were.
Apparently they were nearly discovered in one of their trysts when Anthony Denny came to Katherine’s room thinking the King was there. Henry wasn’t there, and Katherine’s door was locked because she was busy with Thomas Culpepper. So all in all, not a very good trip from Henry’s perspective – he gets stood up by his nephew, and his wife spends the trip cheating on him.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Tudor Summit: Claire Ridgway on Katherine Howard
James Boulton on Tudor Queens
From my shop:
Katherine Howard Portrait Bracelet
Ps. All products are made on-demand and can take a few weeks to ship.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.