Catherine Howard has been seen as a temptress, an abused child, an innocent, a whore. A review of primary resources aims to provide a more accurate depiction of an executed queen…
Young & Fair & Damned is a non fiction history book set in the sixteenth century with a focus on the life and times of Henry VIII’s fifth queen Catherine Howard.
Catherine Howard was only a teenager when she became queen of England, wife to the notorious king Henry VIII. Less than 2 years later she was beheaded just like her cousin Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife.
Unfortunately there is not much documented about Catherine at the time. This book does a good job of searching out primary sources of historical evidence to piece together details of Catherine’s life. I liked the parts of the book that focussed on Catherine and her experiences. There is a lot of supposition as is necessary due to the sparcity of documents and it is clear that each historian puts their own spin on evidence.
As is common with history books about a narrow subject, the author relies on wider information to fill the pages. The author acknowledges this and states his aim is to reveal the environment that created Catherine’s experience. So we have background information about Catherine’s family and other notable figures of the time. Foreign policy, economics and politics also feature heavily but their direct relevance to Catherine’s life is minimal.
I listened to the audio version of this book and thought the writing style flowed well.
Young & Damned & Fair is well researched but struggles to relate all of its material to its specific subject of Catherine Howard.
Book blurb:
Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this interpretation of the tragic life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, breaks new ground in our understanding of the very young woman who became queen at a time of unprecedented social and political tension and whose terrible errors in judgment quickly led her to the executioner’s block.
On the morning of July 28, 1540, as King Henry’s VIII’s former confidante Thomas Cromwell was being led to his execution, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of a country simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, the king’s fifth wife would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason.
The broad outlines of Catherine’s career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous accounts of her life, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, this compelling and authoritative biography will shed new light on Catherine Howard’s rise and downfall by reexamining her motives and showing her in her context, a milieu that goes beyond her family and the influential men of the court to include the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine’s entwined upstairs/downstairs worlds as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, the author offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the sixteenth century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine’s control that led to her execution—from diplomatic pressure and international politics to the long-festering resentments against the queen’s household at court.
Including a forgotten text of Catherine’s confession in her own words, color illustrations, family tree, map, and extensive notes, Young and Damned and Fair changes our understanding of one of history’s most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.
