My original starting point with this series was not Catherine Howard, it was Elizabeth Tudor, who is my favourite historical person. In the early days of research, I had thought Catherine would be a minor character. Catherine Howard, however, was having none of it and stepped forward from the myriad historical women wandering around my head to make it clear that book one was all about her – The Catherine Howard Conspiracy. Who was I to argue? Queen Elizabeth would have to wait for book two.
As Catherine became the focus of my research, my protectiveness of this once-maligned young woman grew. It was not until I was immersed in her world though, that one thing struck me, a discovery which I have my main protagonist, Dr Perdita Rivers, highlight: Catherine Howard is always portrayed as being alone. However, as I learned more about the teenage queen, I found this was a problematic historical presentation of her.
The perpetual image of Catherine Howard is of a naïve orphan who was led astray. You can almost feel the moustache-twirling, Victorian-esque villain hovering just off the page waiting to lead the poor fainting damsel into disaster. These days we have a less pleasant term: grooming. It cannot be denied that the teenage Catherine was coerced into many difficult situations, the myth that she was alone and fending for herself is wrong. Around her were people trying to protect her but when the powerful Duke of Norfolk is your uncle and he has earmarked you as the next queen, there is very little anyone can do to help.
It is true that Catherine was an orphan. Her mother, Jocasta Culpeper died in 1528 and her father, Lord Edmund Howard, 11 years later in 1539, only eight months before Catherine was summoned to court to be a Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves. However, Catherine Howard was one of 11 children. Five of her siblings were full brothers and sisters: Henry Howard, Sir Charles Howard, Sir George Howard, Margaret Howard and Mary Howard. While five were half-siblings from her mother’s, first marriage to Sir Ralph Leigh: John Leigh, Ralph Leigh, Isabel Leigh, Joyce Leigh and Margaret Leigh.
Even more surprising are her step-siblings: Edmund Howard married twice more, giving Catherine two step-mothers. His second wife was Dorothy Troyes and after her death in 1530 he married Margaret Mundy. Both women were widows with children. Dorothy Troyes was mother to eight: Arthur, John, William, Richard, Francis, Agnes, Anne and another unnamed daughter, while Margaret had three children: Bernard, Juliana and Anna. A total of 11 step-siblings. Not quite the isolation suggested in most biographies.
It must also be remembered that Catherine was a Howard. This vast family had connections to most noble families so there was an abundance of first and second cousins, aunts and uncles, and an assortment of connections through multiple family marriages.
The reason I have chosen to highlight this point is because while I was considering how best to portray Catherine, the discovery of siblings gave me a clue to her personality. To be surrounded by so many relations destroys the Victorian suggestion of the vulnerable orphan, all alone, making her way in the world with no one to turn too.
With such a large family, particularly siblings, – people with whom you can always be yourself – there is usually someone to turn to in times of trouble. You may not always get on with your siblings but when times are hard, no matter how much you have squabbled there is usually someone who is willing to fight your corner.
Being part of a large family also teaches you skills which would have been invaluable at the Tudor court. You learn to develop a thick skin, you understand about power plays, you learn how to, both, stand out and blend in with the crowd depending on which is going to protect you from the most trouble, you learn how to defend yourself and you know when to back down and forgive.
While the broadness of the age range between the siblings suggests Catherine did not live with the entire 22 at any one time, she would certainly have spent a portion of her childhood with a varying crowd of brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, step-brothers and step-sisters. Life was probably noisy, chaotic and fun, even with the limitations placed on women in Tudor times.
When she became Henry VIII’s fifth queen, at least two of her sisters were with her as ladies-in-waiting: Lady Isabel Baynton née Leigh and Margaret Arundell née Howard. One of her brothers Charles Howard became engaged to Lady Margaret Douglas, the king’s niece. Charles was a member of the king’s bedchamber, while another brother, George, was also at court. It is likely more of the extended Howard, Leigh, Troyes and Mundy families were there, too. They may not have been in positions of power but would have enjoyed the reflected glory of Catherine’s reign.
Catherine’s tenure as queen was short but as disaster loomed, her family would not all have abandoned her. The evidence I found suggests the people questioned about Catherine’s behaviour were either those guaranteed to give a derogatory report or they were threatened into revealing sordid secrets, whether or not they were true. It is probable her sisters would have done their best to help, even if their power was limited. When Catherine was held at Syon Abbey, her sister Isabel Leigh, by then Lady Baynton was with her.
The joy of writing historical fiction is that I can take these facts and spin them around to create a differently interpreted version of events using emotional reaction to fill in the many gaps in the evidence against Catherine during her downfall. I can guess her reactions, I can imagine myself into Catherine’s world and try to see things from her perspective. It also helped that at the time of writing one of my nieces was 15 years old and I imagined her reaction to Catherine’s situation: a top show of bravado as she is thrown into a situation way above her capabilities, followed by extreme behaviour as a cover for her fear and doubt.
We will never know what really happened or what Catherine felt and how she managed to face her death with such courage. We can only guess from the documents that have been left behind, examine the clues and the reactions of the people around her. By putting her back into the context of her family, Catherine becomes more human, no longer the isolated child or abandoned orphan making her a figure or pity. I hope that in my re-imagining of her personality and her tale, that I have done her story justice.
Alexandra Walsh
# # #
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting