Book Review: "Young and Damned and Fair" by Gareth Russell (Pt.2)

Gareth Russell does not hold back in painting Henry VIII as quite a jealous and horrific figure, even though there was an attempt at softening that in the way that maybe Hayley Nolan doesn't do in her book about Anne Boleyn. Court politics is one thing and the way in which we learn about Catherine is mainly through the politics of this very court. In comparison to the other women of Tudor England, including Jane Seymour and Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard is inexperienced, having only been in the court for a few months before marrying the King. Anne of Cleeves is upset at the prospect that her husband has been having an affair but can do nothing. This is where it all begins.

We are quite a way away from when Catherine states she is 'with child', but that doesn't mean we don't see all the pageantry of royalty put out by the queen herself. Catherine, upon these parties in which she was paraded around London with crowds and celebrations around, begged her husband for the release of some prisoners to showcase mercy in the same way Catherine of Aragon did, as did Anne Boleyn. Gareth Russell's writing about this part is interesting because whilst he admits that this is a form of 'media' for the queen, in order to make her act of mercy look as the Virgin Mary's did - he also acknowledges that Catherine Howard had actually been fighting for the release of certain individuals in private for a long while before these ceremonies. This is just one side to Catherine in which she is shown as actually pretty headstrong for such a young girl.

When it comes to religion, Gareth Russell goes through the fact that Henry VIII was a Christian, but what kind of Christian was left a bit here and there. There was the fact that the break from Rome had created the Church of England yes, but Henry still found himself to be the head of all theological study in the land. This meant that he may have flung the doors wide open to the study and translation of the Bible, but ultimately he had the final say. With this, Henry basically didn't really say exactly what the Church of England was, it was really only that he no longer needed to pay taxes to the Vatican. Gareth Russell tells us this because it is important to Catherine's identity in the court - she had to fall in line to any of the religious doctrines Henry VIII stated at whatever time.

As we move through these chapters we are met with Catherine Howard's young wrecklessness which leads to her secrecy surrounding meetings with Thomas Culpepper, a man from her past. Gareth Russell makes sure that we understand that Catherine's want for this kind of attention was not got from Henry VIII and so, this may be why she went back to these men. However, we also know that Catherine enjoyed the attention of especially the controversial Culpepper and so, was taking a huge risk in meeting him in secret. The other thing we are introduced to is the complicity of some of the people involved, such as some of her ladies who would hide keys so that certain people could get into certain rooms, others who would keep a watch out and fall asleep in the room where Catherine and Culpepper were meeting and finally, some who would even check various places in a home to see whether there were meeting spaces secret enough for Catherine's affair to happen.

Gareth Russell's writing is filled with court intrigue and tells us about the court in ways we never really knew. He looks at documentation and the other happenings around the queen, including Henry's horrific temper. It's a brilliant set of chapters and makes for an interesting mid-section to the story. We are knee-deep into Catherine's affair and her writings tell us some very obvious things about the way in which she sees herself as queen. She is a little brazen yes, but she also knows that she's being very risky. Truthfully, this book is not as great as his others but it is still really interesting to see where it goes.