Catherine Howard Catherine Howard Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542) was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541, as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She (then aged 16 or 17) married him (then 49) on 28 July 1540, at Oatlands Palace, in Surrey, almost immediately after the annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves was arranged. Catherine was stripped of her title as queen within 16 months, in November 1541. She was beheaded three months later, on the grounds of treason for committing adultery while married to Henry, similarly to Anne Boleyn. Catherine was one of the daughters of
Catherine Howard miniatures only exist for queens at this period. There are no other plausible likenesses of her to compare to. Both versions have long been documented as of Catherine Howard, since 1736 for the Buccleuch version and 1739 (or at least the 1840s) for the Windsor version. A Holbein sketch (above) is also traditionally identified as being of Catherine Howard, but this is widely disputed. The contemporary Hans Holbein the Younger portrait of a woman in black (Toledo Museum of Art), was identified by Sir Lionel Cust in 1909 as Catherine Two copies of Holbein's original are extant: one at Hever