Legit my favourite historical critique of Katherine Howard is framing the fact that she was interested in fashion and dressing up and boys and parties as a bad thing? Like? She was 17! What was she SUPPOSED to be interested in?
“aLL HER HANDMAIDENS WERE HER FRIENDS!!!!”
I- well YEAH. she’s a TEENAGER who’s not been at court, she’s not going to immediately pick based off courtesans.
Besides doing this shit undermines that Katherine Howard was at heart a good person who knitted blankets for prisoners in the tower because it got cold.
the deep irony of the perception of katherine as this frivolous, social butterfly of a queen is that it is not simply unfounded, but actually more appropriate to other, far more “respectable” wives such as anne boleyn, katherine parr etc.
it’s not really evident in historical works that she was particularly interested in fashion or boys or parties. that’s a modern anachronism imposed on her. she doesn’t really stand out, actually, as being especially outrageous in any regard outside of her sexual experiences. we know from chapuys that apparently she became very imperious and demanding whilst detained at syon, but a) he was not actually there so his word is not law, and b) being that she was under ‘house arrest’ at this point, her circumstances were not conventional and therefore this could be a sign of emotional stress, or of her trying to make the best out of a bad lot.
from memory, katherine howard did not knit blankets for prisoners - though it may be a detail i have forgotten. i believe anne boleyn sewed shirts which might be the mix up. BUT katherine DID send margaret pole clothing to keep her warm whilst held in the tower. she later asked for her own clothing to be distributed to her ladies in waiting after her execution, bc she had nothing else with which to repay them for their service to her. which i think is an important detail to remember.
because the one personality trait we can glean with some degree of confidence from the original documents about katherine is that she was an individual of high empathy. there is a lot of evidence of her sending people money or clothing or speaking on their behalf. in fact, that’s predominantly all the evidence we have of her, outside of the interrogations etc. pertaining to her sexual history.
so, yeah, the tragedy of katherine howard is that people have forgotten the predominant contribution she makes in state letters and papers: that she was Genuinely Kind.
I didn’t realise this!
All the works I’ve seen implied that Kat was really frivolous, but you’re right in that it seems a more modern adjustment to her character.
Oh sorry! I didn’t realise that About it being Anne Boleyn and not her. And I didn’t know about the clothes sent to her ladies in waiting!
Katherine Howard really deserves better than what people describe her as. (Plus, hmm, the fact that so many people have put her as “someone who slept around” is Worrying considering that Dereham very likely r*ped her and there was no evidence that linked to her having any sort of consensual relationship with Culpeper)
