Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpepper Executed for Treason as Kathryn Howard’s Lovers

Francis Dereham was a member of Agnes Tilney’s staff. Tilney was the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, and step-grandmother to Kathryn Howard. Since the young Howard girl was living with her step-grandmother, the two had the chance to meet. However, Dereham was definitely not her first interest. Kathryn had already shown an interest in her music teacher, Henry Mannox.

It was her relationships with Mannox and Dereham that caused the initial search into her background. Henry VIII believed that his fifth wife was a virgin when he married her, but it turned out that at least one other man had carnal knowledge of her—Francis Dereham. Doing the right thing, Dereham admitted to the treason, but he made it clear that there was a promise of them being husband and wife. Dereham had left for Ireland for business, but he promised Kathryn that he would marry her upon his return. They had already called each other husband and wife.

When Dereham did return, Kathryn Howard was already married to the King of England. He was not going to tell the King about the pre-contract! Unfortunately for him, Kathryn denied the pre-contract but did admit to calling him her husband and lying with him. Had she admitted to the pre-contract, all their lives may have been saved.

Rumours spread that she wanted to rekindle her romance with the man, and that was her reason for making him her personal secretary. There is no proof of this, and it is possible that she simply wanted to care for her friends. The Tudors shows Dereham blackmailing the Queen, but this is unlikely. While she would have had a long way to fall, he would have also fallen by sharing the news of their previous relationship with the King of England.

Thomas Culpepper seemed to get away with everything at first. However, Dereham opened his mouth and explained to those questioning—and possibly torturing—him that he was no longer an interest for the Queen. Culpepper had surpassed him in that position. Eyes turned on the member of the King’s Privy Chamber, and he was arrested.

Culpepper admitted that he planned to do “ill things with the Queen” and that she wanted to do the same. He never elaborated on those ill things, but it was certainly treason. Many historians believe that he found someone who could help him gain power after the King’s death. A dowager queen was a wealthy woman. Of course, even thinking about the King’s death was treason.

Some historians believe that Culpepper may have conspired to rape the queen. They believe that he was the Thomas Culpepper who raped the game keeper’s wife and murdered the man who caught him. However, that may have been his older brother, also called Thomas.

To try and weaken the blow, Culpepper dragged one more person into the plot; Jane Boleyn. Jane had previously been under interrogation five years ago when her husband was accused of incest with Anne Boleyn. She lost everything when he was executed, but Thomas Cromwell found her a place in Jane Seymour’s household, where she remained until her execution on February 13, 1542.

Both men were convicted and sentenced to the death of a traitor, and both petitioned to have their sentenced reduced to beheading. Only Culpepper was given that right, but there is nothing to explain why. The Tudors has Henry VIII state that Dereham would die a traitor’s death because he knew Kathryn intimately first. Henry was a jealous man, and it is possible that this was his reasoning.

They were both taken from the Tower of London to Tyburn, where Culpepper was executed first. Dereham was then hanged until almost dead, cut down and then dismembered. He watched as his bowels and intestines were removed and burned on the fire in front of him. He possibly passed out from shock, but he would have still been alive until he was beheaded. It was a terrible way to go, and the only good thing for Dereham was possibly knowing that he would at least die in the end.

Kathryn Howard would later see the heads of her ‘lovers’. They were placed on Tower Bridge, which she would pass on her way to her own execution on February 13, 1542. There was a two month delay for her execution, since parliament needed to pass a bill so that she was guilty of a crime. There was no proof that she ever had an affair with Thomas Culpepper, but Henry VIII wanted to see her pay for her past.