Henry VIII was a monarch in Tudor England, reigning from 1509 to 1547. Famed for his six wives, King Henry was a pioneer in the English reformation, where he created the Church of England, a sort of response to the growing discontent with the Catholic Church. Henry had a knack for marriage; when one wife did not suffice, he would find a way to rid himself of her. However in modern pop culture and scholarship, most people remember the wives more than Henry. Catherine of Aragon is remembered as a courageous, strong woman who never backed down. Anne Boleyn is remembered as an incredibly intelligent, ambitious woman, who paid the price for false charges. Jane Seymour is remembered as meek and mild but cautious. Anne of Cleves is remembered as a brave woman who, despite being dealt an unlucky hand, was able to rise up and become one of the richest women in Tudor England. Catherine Parr, wife 6, is remembered as a brilliant writer who outlived Henry. What about wife 5? History remembers Catherine Howard as a hedonistic empty headed teenager. Yet, looking deeper, it is clear that Catherine Howard was none of this. History has an apparent misunderstanding of Catherine Howard, rather than being a hedonistic empty headed teenager, Catherine Howard was a child groomed and abused during the course of her short life.

Modern media forms have differing interpretations and representations of Catherine Howard. The Tudors was a historical drama airing on Showtime, created by Micheal Hirst, that ran from 2007 to 2010. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII, the show covers Henry’s adult life from his dissatisfaction with Catherine of Aragon, all the way to his death in 1547. The season 3 finale introduces Catherine Howard, played by Tamzin Merchant. The show introduces her at 17, right when she is to be married off to King Henry. Season 4 Episode 5 of the Tudors entitled Bottom of the Pot covers Catherine’s investigation, arrest, and execution. The episode also features Francis Dereham  and Thomas Culpeper charged and executed for their offenses to the king. Dereham, being the man who worked as Agnes Tilney’s, the Dowager Duchess, secretary, took advantage of a 14 year old Catherine Howard, and later blackmailed Catherine for a job as her private secretary. Thomas Culpeper was a favored courtier in King Henry’s council. Both men being significantly older than Catherine and holding positions of power. The Tudors has Catherine say, “I have come here to die. I die a queen, but I’d rather die the wife of Culpeper”(Hirst, 2:47-3:02). Historically, Catherine Howard’s last words were not recorded; The Tudors takes it upon itself to assume her words.  This quote breaks down Catherine’s life into a sphere of male centricity, she dies married to man she never loved yet desires to be with a man who never loved her. Thomas Culpeper deeply lusted over Catherine since she arrived at court at 15 and he took advantage of her feelings for him. The Tudors takes Catherine Howard, a girl who endured sexual abuse from ages 13-17 and glorifies her affair with Culpeper instead of showing what truly happened. The Tudors turned what was an inappropriate, exploitative relationship into a forbidden romance narrative. The show never portrays Catherine as Catherine. The Tudors paints a caricature of who people believe Catherine to be, a young girl who died due to the consequences of her own foolishness and lust. When in actuality she was a girl who had a kind heart yet a youthful naivety to her, which ultimately would be her downfall. 

Where the Tudors fail, Six succeeds. Six is a Broadway musical written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss in 2016, premiering in 2017 on the West End in London. The Broadway tour began on October 3rd 2021. The musical sees the Queens as modern pop stars, competing for who had the worst life, all culminating in an ending where the Queens realize they are more than what history remembers them as. Samantha Pauly plays Catherine Howard in the musical and is given the longest song of the whole musical. The 4 verses of the song discuss the 4 relations of Catherine’s life: Henry Mannox, Francis Dereham, King Henry VIII and Thomas Culpeper. All the verses, up to the fourth, show an understanding, from Catherine, that these relations are sexual. When the song gets to Culpeper’s verse, Catherine sings about how the relationship between the two is purely platonic, “This guy finally is what I want, the friend I need. Just friends, no chemistry. I get him and he gets me. And there’s nothing more to it. He just cares so much, he’s devoted. He says we have a connection. I thought this time was different. Why did I think he’d be different”(Marlow and Moss, 5:25-5:58)? This quote has Catherine acknowledge the loneliness of her life, how she’s never truly had a friend. For her whole life, she’s been neglected, pushed away, and treated like an object. For once in her life, Catherine feels like she has found someone who enjoys her company, someone who enjoys her for her, not for her body. The quote ends with Catherine realizing Culpeper is like every other man in her life, using her for her body. Contrastingly, the Tudors has Catherine say to Lady Rochford, Jane Boleyn, in season 4 episode 4, “tell him there is a way into my chamber. Tell him to come tomorrow when the king is asleep”(Hirst, 1:30:35- 1:30:41). While historically inaccurate, this quote makes Catherine out to be the mastermind of the affair. The Tudors makes it seem like Catherine is in complete control of the affair, making Catherine completely culpable for the blame, the reason why they are both beheaded in the end. The Tudors goes out of its way to grant mercy to  Culpeper in a way, making Catherine the initiator. Having Catherine summon Culpeper switches the power dynamic, it makes Catherine out to be predatory, driven by lust. This completely takes away from Catherine’s actual story in history. Culpeper and Catherine never consummated their affair, yet the Tudors puts them in the position that they did consummate the affair, thus creating more guilt on Catherine’s part, having her knowingly consummate a relationship with Culpeper. This portrayal puts her on contradictory ground, she’s the mastermind of the Culpeper affair yet she’s also naive and childlike. Unlike the Tudors, Six takes a nuanced approach to Catherine’s affair with Culpepper. Six looks at the affair as Catherine, a lonely mistreated girl who was thrust into a position of power with no allies, befriending a person she thinks understands her only to be betrayed and beheaded. Six doesn’t look at Catherine as an unintelligent, hypersexual teenager. Six looks at Catherine as a victim of circumstance, someone who had to pay the price for those around her failing to protect her. Six humanizes Catherine in a world where she has been dehumanized for the past 500 years. The Tudors perpetuates the beliefs that Catherine Howard was hedonistic and empty headed, only caring about pleasure and material possessions. The Tudors upheld this misunderstanding of Catherine Howard, while simultaneously adding to it. Portraying Catherine and Thomas as forbidden lovers, two young people longing to be together, takes away Catherine’s story and frames her as a consenting party in a romantic affair. Six dismantles this story the Tudors maintains, having Catherine portrayed as a victim who only ever wanted someone who understands her, repairs this historical misunderstanding.

Since the mid 18th century, poets, writers, archivists, and historians have all tried to discern what is the truth and what is false regarding Henry VIII and his wives; however, Tudor era propaganda stands the test of time portraying the wives in an unfavorable light, leaving them susceptible to unsympathetic depictions. “Jewel of Womanhood: A Feminist Reinterpretation of Queen Katherine Howard” written by Holly K. Kizewski is a dissertation recounting the life of Katherine Howard from a modern, feminist lens. Kizewski argues that Catherine is consistently reduced to just her sexuality. Using that argument, Kizewski further interprets Catherine, drawing on her personality rather than the circumstances that befell her. Writing, “Katherine’s sexuality has been used as a means to judge other aspects of her character, illustrating the continuing discomfort with female sexuality in our society. While many scholars criticize Katherine based on her sexual activity, they also condemn her personality and behavior in other ways. She has been deemed vain, greedy, and stupid, often without merit or based on minimal evidence. In fact, if she had been chaste, Katherine would likely be respected as a great queen consort in providing support and happiness for the aging king”(Kizewski, 100). This quote encapsulates modern views of Catherine Howard, using her past of being abused and groomed to judge her character. Making the assumption that had Catherine not been sexually active, then she would’ve been a respected companion to the King, takes away from the suffering she endured. Modern culture glosses over this abuse and trauma Catherine endured from ages 13-15, before marrying the king. Pop culture has a tendency to treat Catherine Howard overly harshly, assuming she wanted or even initiated the abuse forced upon her. If people are not assuming her to be the instigator of the sexual relations with these older men, then they are assuming she was too foolish to say no to such conduct. These interpretations fail to take into consideration that Catherine was very young during this time and the men in her life should not have been touching her as they did. They fail to take into account that Catherine had no one to protect her, her siblings were married off or at court and her father, Lord Edmund Howard, did not have the financial resources to care for her and all her siblings. People don’t account for the fact that she was young, beautiful, and heavily neglected by the ones supposed to care for her.

There is a clear misunderstanding of who Catherine Howard was, among pop culture and the broader historical world. Catherine was a young girl of very little education, pushed into a world where her predecessors were court savvy and respected, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Anne of Cleaves, all women who are remembered as intelligent in one way or another. Their representations live on in history as women who knew what they were doing, women who were playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers. They are granted leniency in their endeavors, the same cannot be said for Catherine Howard. History remembers Howard for the situations forced upon her, for the men who took advantage of her, and for their perception of who she was. Catherine Howard is remembered not for her kindness, generosity, or charm. Acknowledging Catherine as a lustful teenager disregards all she was and fits her into a narrative where the men who abused her are granted a sense of forgiveness and she is to take the fault of all that came about to her. The problem of the misunderstanding is not just the misunderstanding itself, it’s the way it is continuously perpetuated. Nearly every piece of media documenting Henry VIII’s wives keeps up the beliefs that Catherine was some ditzy, lascivious teenager. This misinterpretation of her character is what further fuels historic misunderstandings, it is a never ending cycle. However, acknowledging these misunderstandings and misinterpretations stops the cycle. Creating media and writings where Catherine is not portrayed as such, repairs her image in history. No one will ever truly know who Catherine was, but using her past circumstances and abuse fuels misogynistic arguments from 500 years ago where women are always at fault for men’s abuse of them. Which, in essence, is a misunderstanding.   

                                                Works cited 

Kizewski, Holly K. “Jewel of Womanhood: A Feminist Reinterpretation of Queen Katherine Howard.” (2014).

Hirst, Michael. “Catherine Howard death || The Tudors 2007-2010.” Youtube, uploaded by anonymous, 13 February 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWc5Lqqb6Q

Hirst, Michael. “All Catherine Howard Scenes [S04] [2080p +Logoless].” YouTube, uploaded by adriana, 29, August, 2025, https://youtu.be/TvMqJmSRNXA?si=Lj7YjKbBGalPeRQH

Marlow, Toby, and Lucy Moss, composer. “All you wanna do.” Six, performed by Samantha Pauly, SIX cast, 2022