475 years ago today, Catherine Howard was beheaded, after being found guilty of adultery while married to Henry VIII.
Historians argue over whether the queen was really guilty, or a merely bubble-headed object manipulated for political gain. The verdict on that question is still out.
I have a tenuous connection with Catherine Howard, as I once played her in the stage play The King’s Mare, by Anita Loos. She was not sympathetically portrayed in that play, either.
When Catherine Howard died, she was 19.
Henry was 51.