How does Henry VIII’s fifth wife fit in among the rest? Katherine Howard has the reputation of having been a young and pretty hussy, and dumb as a box of rocks. But he was smitten with her right away, the old scamp, and married her in July of 1540.

There were loads of activities that summer to celebrate the new girl on the block (who seemed to have already been around the block a few times, but that’s another quickie). Every day she was lavished with sumptuous dresses and jewelry, and spent lots of time dancing around. Paris Hilton for the 16th century, if you will.

All her dancing and prancing and coquettish ways eventually did her in, as she was accused of adultery (probably true) and lost that pretty head a year and a half after all those grand wedding celebrations. But because I love to root for the underdog, I have to give Queen Vixen a break:

Although she came from a noble family, her wing of the clan fell on hard times, She grew up poor and was raised by her step-grandmother in a kind of group home for poor little noble kids. So her lack of education and refinement can be forgiven, and it wasn’t her fault that Henry zeroed in on her attractiveness and youth (did I mention she was just a teenager at the time?).

She also had a joyful disposition and was sweet to others. She felt for the prisoners her husband had locked away in the Tower of London, and even managed to get two of them released. A third prisoner, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was not so lucky, though Catherine herself paid for the elderly woman to be warmly and appropriately dressed in her damp, cold cell.  

There’s more to this floozy than meets the eye, so I’ll be posting several more quickies with Kitty in the next week or so. If you have not already, please stop by the Tudor Tutor fanpage on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter, to get the ”latest” from the Tudor period as it is posted.