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Revision as of 20:48, 15 August 2006
- This article is about the courtier. For the governor of Virginia, see Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper.
Thomas Culpeper (executed December 10 1541) was a young courtier in Henry VIII's time. He was distantly related to the Howard clan, who were immensely powerful at the time. They were particularly influential after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, and for a brief time under the reign of Anne Boleyn, who was one of their cousins.
Royal intrigues, conspiracies
It seems that Culpeper entered royal service during Anne's time, although there is no record of any meeting between either Anne Boleyn or Jane Seymour and Culpeper, which would suggest that his real prominence didn't begin until after 1537.
Culpeper was reportedly enormously attractive. He was described as 'a beautiful youth' and he was a great favourite of the king's. Henry eventually made Culpeper gentleman to the King's Privy Chamber, giving him intimate access to the king, to the extent of dressing and undressing and often sleeping in Henry's bedchamber. He was part of the group of privileged dignitaries who greeted Henry's German bride Anne of Cleves when she arrived in England for her marriage.
Affair with Queen Catherine Howard, unpleasant personality
In terms of personality, however, Culpeper was a monumentally unpleasant individual; arrogant, selfish, cruel and conceited. In either 1539 or 1540, he was convicted of rape and murder when he pulled a park-keeper's wife into the bushes and had his men hold her down while he violated her. When some villagers tried to save the woman, Culpeper killed one of them. Henry VIII pardoned him, treating the horrific incident as something of a joke.
In 1540, Culpeper caught the attention of Henry's new teenage bride, Catherine Howard, and by 1541 they were spending time together, often alone and late at night, aided and abetted by Catherine's lady-in-waiting, Lady Rochford, the widowed sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn. The affair would cause the downfall of all involved.
Stories of the Queen's premarital indiscretions had meanwhile come to the attention of Thomas Cranmer, then Archbishop of Canterbury. During Cranmer's investigations he came across rumours of an affair between the Queen and Culpeper. Culpeper was arrested for questioning. Both parties denied the allegations, but a love letter from Catherine to Culpeper found during a search of Culpeper's quarters provided the evidence Cranmer was looking for. Whether the affair between Culpeper and the Queen was consummated is still debated by historians, but the letter gives clear evidence of Catherine's feelings for her lover.
It is, however, a matter of speculation on how much of Culpeper's desire for the Queen came from love and how much from political ambition. With Henry in bad health, and with only his very young son Edward to succeed him, being Catherine's favourite would undoubtedly have put Culpeper in a very strong political position. However, he misjudged the whole affair, relying too heavily on his friendship with the king, and on the queen's lack of discretion.
Downfall, execution
Culpeper was arrested on the orders from the king. In December 1541, Culpeper was tried for treason alongside Francis Dereham, who was separately accused of sexual relations with the Queen before her marriage to Henry. Catherine had not hidden the affair with Culpeper from members of her household, who now testified against her to protect their own necks.
The Queen was portrayed as having seduced Culpeper, although it could easily have been the other way around. With testimony given of private meetings at Hatfield House and during the Royal progress to the north of England in the summer of 1541, his fate was sealed. Culpeper admitted after torture to having had sexual relations with Catherine. The two men were found guilty and sentenced to death.
The means of death was to be particularly gruesome. They were both to be hung by the neck, cut down while still alive, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered. Both men pleaded for leniency, and Culpeper, presumably due to his former closeness to the King, received a commuted sentence of simple beheading. Dereham received no such mercy.
Culpeper was executed along with Dereham at Tyburn on December 10, 1541, and their heads put on display on London Bridge. Culpeper was buried at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church in London. The Queen, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Rochford were both subsequently executed on February 13, 1542.