William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham bride, Anne of Cleves at Calais. While on an embassy to France in 1541 William Howard was charged with concealing the sexual indiscretions of his young niece, Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, and was recalled to England to stand trial. On 22 December 1541 Howard, his wife, and a number of servants who had been alleged witnesses to the Queen's misconduct were arraigned for misprision of treason, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. He and most of the others were pardoned after Queen Catherine's execution on 13 February 1542. In 1544 Howard accompanied the Earl
Catherine Howard (from details of her dress and the technique of the miniature) to the short period when Catherine was queen. In it, she wears the as Jane Seymour in Holbein's panel portrait in Vienna. Records show that these jewels belonged to the Crown, not to any queen personally, and there is no record that they were removed from the treasury and given to anyone else. The pearls may tie in with a gift to Catherine from Henry in 1540, and she is the only queen to fit the dating whose appearance is not already known. For female sitters, duplicate versions of