“Prick up your ears, I’m the Katherine who lost her head. For my promiscuity outside of wed- Lock up your husbands, lock up your sons. K-Howard is here, and the fun’s begun…” Katherine Howard was born in Norfolk House, Lambeth, London to Joyce Culpeper and Edmund Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk. Katherine was named after Catherine of Aragon. She was Anne Boleyn’s cousin, although they were not close. She was brought up by her step grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who often left her residence to attend court. While the Duchess was away, Katherine would spend time with the servant girls and flirt with all of the men who worked for her step-grandmother. She fell in love a few times, but in her late teens, she was whisked away to court to be a lady-in-waiting to Anna of Cleves. Despite being in love with a man named Thomas Culpeper and having been twice engaged (unbeknownst to Henry), Katherine married Henry VIII on July 28, 1540. She was 17, and he was 49. Henry accused Katherine of “promiscuity” with other lovers before they had met and married. For this, she was arrested and put to death. Prior to her execution, Katherine was held under house arrest for a few months. She wanted to rehearse her execution and say a few remarks on the green as her cousin, Anne Boleyn, had done but was not granted permission. She was executed on Tower Green in London. Katherine’s previous lovers and other confidants were also killed for not disclosing her past relationships. DID YOU KNOW? Henry had Katherine arrested in November of 1541, and in late January of 1542, Parliament passed an act that declared it treason for a woman to become the King’s wife without “plain declaration before of her unchaste life.” Henry could therefore legally have Katherine killed for her earlier indiscretions, and she was beheaded weeks later. SIX’s iteration of Katherine Howard is “queenspired” by Britney Spears and Ariana Grande. In “All You Wanna Do,” she details her relationships, which all share an eerily similar toxicity. WomensActivism.NYC honors Katherine Howard in partnership with SIX The Musical written by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss. "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an exuberant celebration of 21st century girl power! This new original musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over. The New York Times says SIX is “pure entertainment!” and Evening Standard hails SIX as “the most uplifting new British musical I have ever had the privilege to watch.”

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