Katherine Howard Friday 15 at 2:30 pm at Vidioteca

Early life Katherine Howard was the tenth child of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce (Jocasta) Culpepper. Her older siblings (not in chronological order) were as follows: Ralph, George, Henry, Charles, Mary, Thomas, Isabel, Joyce,and Margaret.
Katherine's exact date of birth is unknown, although the year has been estimated as being between 1520 and 1525. She was the niece of the Duke of Norfolk, and a first cousin to Henry's second wife Queen Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary Boleyn, a former lover to Henry VIII.
Katherine's family therefore had an aristocratic pedigree, but her father, a younger son, was not well-off and often begged for handouts from his more powerful relatives. His niece, Anne Boleyn, got him a government job working for the king in Calais in 1531[citation needed].
At this point, young Katherine was sent to live with her step-grandmother, Agnes Tilney, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.
The Dowager Duchess ran a large household at Lambeth Palace, and she had numerous female and male attendants, along with her many wards; usually the children of relatives who could not afford to support their families. Supervision was lax, as the Dowager Duchess was often at Court and took little interest in the upbringing and education of her wards.
Consequently, Katherine was the least educated of Henry's wives, although she could read and write, unlike many English women of her time. Her character is often described as merry and vivacious, but never scholarly or devout, and a casual upbringing in the licentious atmosphere of the Duchess's household led to a romance with her music teacher, Henry Mannox around 1536, when Katherine was between the ages of eleven and thirteen (her exact date of birth is not known). When she became queen, Mannox was appointed as a musician in her household. Mannox later gave evidence in the inquiry against her.
Mannox and Katherine both confessed during her adultery trial that they had engaged in physical contact similar to sexual foreplay: "At the flattering and fair persuasions of Mannox being but a young girl I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret parts of my body which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him to require." She said. "And I do also admit that I enjoyed his relationship with me, though I shall never regret loving him, I do now love Henry."
This affair came to an end in 1538, when Katherine was pursued by a secretary of the Duchess' household, Francis Dereham. They became lovers, addressing each other as "husband" and "wife". Dereham also entrusted Katherine with wifely duties such as keeping his money when he was away on business. Many of Katherine's roommates knew of the affair, and it was apparently ended in 1539 when the Dowager Duchess caught wind of the matter. Despite this, Katherine and Dereham may have parted with intentions to marry upon his return from Ireland, a "precontract", as it was then known. Indeed, if they had exchanged vows of their intention to marry before having sexual intercourse they would have been considered married in the eyes of the church.