On this date, 480 years ago, Catherine Howard was beheaded for high treason. Although the fifth wife of Henry VIII was not likely foremost in the minds of the Founders, her story is a good example of why we don't allow acts of attainder or ex post facto laws.
Catherine was accused of having an affair with Thomas Culpeper, one of the king's grooms, and of having been precontracted for marriage to Francis Dereham (which, at the time, was effectively the same as marriage, and meant they could have lawfully consummated their relationship before Henry ever met her). She denied the charges, and said that Dereham had raped her. Culpeper was beheaded for his trouble, and Dereham was hanged, drawn, and quartered. But Catherine never even received a trial.
Instead, Parliament passed a law making it high treason for a queen to not disclose to the king within 20 days of their marriage her entire sexual history, and made it retroactive. Whether precontracted or raped, it no longer mattered. By act of Parliament, Catherine was now condemned to die a traitor, according to, not a judge, but the legislature, and by a law that didn't even exist when she supposedly committed the acts she was to die for.
The night before she was to die, she asked a block be brought to her cell, so she could practice how to properly lay her head on it. Although popular fiction says that she proclaimed her love for Culpeper on the scaffold, contemporary accounts say that she simply made the traditional speech that she was deserving of death for her many sins, and proclaimed that the king had always been gracious to her. She was then beheaded, as was Lady Rocheford, Anne Boleyn's brother's widow, who was Catherine's lady-in-waiting, and accused of helping her engage in the affair with Culpeper. They were buried in an unmarked grave. Catherine was maybe 20 years old, at most.
Catherine was accused of having an affair with Thomas Culpeper, one of the king's grooms, and of having been precontracted for marriage to Francis Dereham (which, at the time, was effectively the same as marriage, and meant they could have lawfully consummated their relationship before Henry ever met her). She denied the charges, and said that Dereham had raped her. Culpeper was beheaded for his trouble, and Dereham was hanged, drawn, and quartered. But Catherine never even received a trial.
Instead, Parliament passed a law making it high treason for a queen to not disclose to the king within 20 days of their marriage her entire sexual history, and made it retroactive. Whether precontracted or raped, it no longer mattered. By act of Parliament, Catherine was now condemned to die a traitor, according to, not a judge, but the legislature, and by a law that didn't even exist when she supposedly committed the acts she was to die for.
The night before she was to die, she asked a block be brought to her cell, so she could practice how to properly lay her head on it. Although popular fiction says that she proclaimed her love for Culpeper on the scaffold, contemporary accounts say that she simply made the traditional speech that she was deserving of death for her many sins, and proclaimed that the king had always been gracious to her. She was then beheaded, as was Lady Rocheford, Anne Boleyn's brother's widow, who was Catherine's lady-in-waiting, and accused of helping her engage in the affair with Culpeper. They were buried in an unmarked grave. Catherine was maybe 20 years old, at most.
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