Catherine Howard was the queen of England from 1540 to 1541 as the 5th wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII), and niece to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. On 13 February, 1542, she was executed on charges of adultery.
The night before her execution Catherine is believed to have spent several hours practising how to lay her head upon the block which had been brought to her at her request. She died with relative composure but looked quite pale and terrified, she even required assistance to climb the scaffold. At her final moments, she made a short speech describing her punishment as "worthy and just" and asked for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul.
