The New Murrey and Blue blog

“….the Howards found themselves on the wrong side of the royal favour – supporting Richard III during the Battle of Bosworth field. Gareth Russell takes us through how the Howards became, under Henry VII, basically obedient dogs….”

The above is an extract from a detailed review (https://tinyurl.com/3drykvsk) of “Young and Damned and Fair” by Gareth Russell (Pt.1), (see linkat bottom) a biography of Catherine Howard (https://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/catherinehoward.htm). And how true the extract is. From the heights of honour, service and trust accorded to the Howards by Richard III, (see https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp85693/john-howard-1st-duke-of-norfolk) they suddenly found themselves under the cold, mistrustful, suspicious gaze of Henry VII. They clawed their way back into royal favour, and under the reign of Henry VIII produced that king’s unfortunate fifth wife, Catherine Howard. As the Howards had already donated Henry’s ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn, whom he’d also beheaded, it’s quite amazing that the family actually survived into subsequent reigns!

Catherine is often portrayed as a silly teenaged flirt who paid the price of crossing Henry, that notorious collector of unhappy wives. Catherine’s screaming, struggling, panic-stricken attempt to flee when she realised the fate awaiting her, is perhaps the most famous scene associated with her. But there was more to Catherine than just being immature and empty-headed , and this new biography promises to be an enlightening read.

To read the review to which I refer, go to https://tinyurl.com/3drykvsk . And to purchase the book at Amazon go to https://tinyurl.com/jjthye62.