Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard was Queen Consort - and fifth wife - to Henry VIII for just 16 months before he had her executed for treason for committing adultery. Since Victorian times, historians have labelled her as lewd and promiscuous, but there was an altogether more complex young woman behind the rumours. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Gareth Russell, author of Young and Damned and Fair, a riveting account of Catherine's tragic marriage to an unstable King, and the tragedy of her life in a dangerous hothouse where the odds were stacked against her.