Book Review: "Young and Damned and Fair" by Gareth Russell (Pt.3)

It's probably been said by me too many times at this point, but I think that Cahterine Howard's story is perhaps one of the saddest of all of the Tudor Women because she was not only so young, but she was also the most inexperienced when it came to court life. Women like Jane Seymour had been ladies of the court since the time of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn had also been a lady of the court at that time. As for Anne of Cleeves, she was a princess in her home country and thus, had tons of experience with the court as did Catherine Parr - the final queen. Catherine Howard had perhaps 6-8 months of court life before becoming infatuated with the king and so, her wrecklessness towards her own standpoint was almost predictable. Gareth Russell writes her story as a woman who still wants to experience things before she gets bogged down in the role of Queen of England and yet, her actions and her husband's temper means she will never actually get there.

We are met with an affair, the one that was covered in the previous section - Catherine Howard has become enamoured with a former lover: Thomas Culpepper. We are also met with the prospect that Henry's health is failing him and he could really die at any moment. So what we are then met with is the possibility that Thomas Culpepper is of unsound character. Why? Well he is a) infatuated in an affair with the Queen of England and b) met with the possibility the king is going to die. The amount of status he could gain by marrying a widowed queen is unreal and he knew that this was done basically everywhere. Queens throughout history who have been widowed have normally married men they were having affairs with that were far, far below their social standing. This would put the man in question in the position of having money, land and title.

Gareth Russell makes sure that we understand that Catherine Howard was not the 'damsel in distress' we seem to think she was but rather she was a little bit more naive and yet, complicit, in her own downfall. There were things she could've done to avoid getting into trouble but then her husband's temper probably would've ended her with the same result: beheading. Catherine was witty, clever and beautiful with a seemingly working knowledge of how to get her ladies to do her bidding without question, though many seem to have had their suspicions. I love the way the author describes this as being part and parcel of court life. If you wanted to be an especially favoured lady, you would have to go along with whatever the Queen asked of you and that was that. Russell describes some eyebrows being raised and some suspicion into what kind of activities the Queen was getting involved in but none had the guts to question her lest they fall from favour and don't earn better positions later on.

Of course the end of the book is sad. Catherine's story of being dragged through the gallery of Hampton Court palace and back to her rooms after it was found that she was having an affair. She is described as being frightened and then almost stoic - asking for the chopping block so that she may practice laying down upon it. She was 19 or 20 years' old and therefore, probably rightfully terrified. She had barely lived any of her life and she just wanted to live a bit more. She made one misstep in her life (I don't think that kissing as a teenager in a church is a misstep) and was punished ruthlessly for it. Many sources written by men list her as a promiscuous figure (1 - this is not true, she was not by any accounts that way, 2) if she was it wouldn't matter in the slightest, 3) she was a literal child until maybe a year before her death so someone's hard drive needs checking) but she was so much more than that as were her family members. I love this book as it doesn't ignore Catherine as a person.

This has been quite the wild ride!