Catherine Howard - Historiography

Historiography

Catherine is not regarded as particularly important in terms of long-lasting historical significance. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch of the University of Oxford compared her with her cousin, Anne Boleyn, in a 2004 review: "Katherine Howard, another royal wife to die on adultery charges, mattered only a little longer than it took Henry to cheer up after he had her beheaded; by contrast, Anne triggered the English Reformation."

Catherine has been the subject of two modern biographies, A Tudor Tragedy by Lacey Baldwin Smith (1967) and Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy by Joanna Denny (2006). Both are more or less sympathetic, although they disagree on various important points, involving Catherine's motivations, date of birth, and overall character. Treatments of her life have also been given in the five collective studies of Henry's queens which have appeared since the publication of Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1991), such as David Starkey's Six Wives (2004). Several of these writers have been highly critical of Catherine's conduct, if sympathetic to her eventual fate. Smith described Catherine's life as one of "hedonism" and characterized her as a "juvenile delinquent". Weir had much the same judgment, describing her as an "empty-headed wanton". The general trend, however, has been more generous, particularly in the works of Dame Antonia Fraser, Karen Lindsey, David Loades, and Joanna Denny.