What If Katherine Howard Had Culpepper's Baby?

Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Heather Teysko

History

4.6 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Katherine Howard is remembered as the tragic teenager who lost her head at seventeen. But what if she didn't have to? In the winter of 1541, everyone at the English court thought Henry VIII was dying. They were just waiting him out. All Katherine had to do was survive a few more months. And then Cranmer slipped that letter under Henry's door, and everything fell apart. But what if two things had gone differently? What if Katherine had gotten pregnant during her secret meetings with Thomas Culpepper? And what if Henry had died when everyone expected him to? Today we're following that thread all the way to the ending Katherine Howard never got. I've also been reading Philippa Gregory's newest book, The Boleyn Traitor, and it gave me a lot to think about regarding Jane Boleyn's role in all of this. Links below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Babe, it's Gem.
0:02.0	Just voice-noting you because I'm so busy.
0:05.0	I can't even type right now.
0:06.8	I'm working on that big presentation for my new launch.
0:10.3	I'm making it on Canva Mobile like you suggested.
0:13.1	And it's making everything iconic.
0:16.6	So it's a bit noisy, babe's mabts is going off.
0:20.3	Anyways, I'm going to ping the presentation to you now so you can see what I mean.
0:25.1	Yeah, madame.
0:25.9	Got to go, hon.
0:27.3	Thanks for introducing me to Canva.
0:29.3	Love you.
0:31.1	300 years of expertise in every twining sleep blend.
0:37.0	100 hours of craft in every cup.
0:40.3	Eight natural ingredients in every sip.
0:44.3	One night of winding down in every drop.
0:48.3	Your moment of serenity.
0:51.3	Brought to you by twining sleep. Twinings, alive in every drop.
0:59.8	So I'm going to start today with a piece of historical context that I think completely reframes the
1:06.7	Catherine Howard story. And honestly, when I was first thinking about it and sitting with it,
1:11.5	I had to like put down my notes and just sort of stare at the wall for a minute. In the winter of 1541,
1:18.0	154041, everyone at the English court thought that Henry VIII was dying. Not like in a vague,
	...

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