Who betrayed Catherine Howard, and how accurate is The Tudors Season 4 Episode 4? As the series builds toward her downfall, it dramatizes Francis Dereham’s return, Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpepper’s relationship, and Henry VIII’s political tensions, but the real Tudor history behind these events is far more complex.

In This Post:

• What Happened at Pontefract Castle?
• How did Francis Dereham Return to Court?
• Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper: What Really Happened?
• Was Henry VIII Snubbed by the King of Scotland?
• Who Betrayed Catherine Howard?
• Minor Historical Inaccuracies

Episode 4: Natural Ally

What Happened at Pontefract Castle?

The episode opens with Henry’s arrival at Pontefract Castle, one of his massive, ancient fortresses in the north. Here, he meets Sir Ralph Ellerker, who never acted as warden of the place. It was in disrepair, and they hoped that by Henry VIII visiting it, he would notice his strongholds in the north (vital against the invading Scots) needed substantial repairs. Henry seemed not to care about this in favor of putting his money toward French campaigns (they brought him more “glory” and allowed him to harass his loathed Catholic rival, King Francis).

While at Pontefract, Henry Howard, Lord Surrey, tells Charles Brandon about the death of King Richard II, which took place at Pontefract. This is an apt reference because it parallels what would later happen with Prince Edward Tudor, in terms of him inheriting the throne at a young age and being at the mercy of his ruthless uncles, the Seymours.

Richard II became king at age ten in 1377, with four powerful royal uncles and his grandfather’s counselors all angling for power. As an adult, Richard banished his cousin Henry for fear that his charismatic nature might allow him to usurp Richard. After Henry’s father, John of Gaunt, died, Richard seized the rest of his holdings, including Pontefract Castle. This was a mistake because this “abuse of royal power” turned the nobility against him.

Henry returned, usurped Richard with the help of the nobility who no longer trusted Richard and considered him a tyrant, and became Henry IV. Richard agreed to abdicate the throne if they spared his life and was sent to Pontefract Castle. He may have been able to live out the rest of his natural life there, had not five or six loyal earls intended to murder the king and restore him to power. There is no record of what happened to him, but historians believe he starved to death in 1400.

So, why does this matter enough to become a reference on the show? Because John of Gaunt was Margaret Beaufort’s great-grandfather, thus Henry VIII’s great-great-great-grandfather. It was through the Gaunt line she had a claim to the succession; Henry IV’s descendants ruled until the Lancastrian brothers deposed and murdered Henry VI, and Edward IV became king. A war raged for the next thirty years over the throne of England, with the Lancastrian grip easing at the death of Richard III. Henry VII leaned on his Gaunt roots to gain traction with the English nobility, thus restoring the Gaunt royal lineage to the English throne.

How did Francis Dereham Return to Court?

When last we saw Francis Dereham in history, he was off to Ireland after a hot and heavy affair with the teenaged Catherine Howard, who came to court to serve Anne of Cleves and promptly fell in love with Thomas Culpeper. But whatever possessed “Queen” Catherine to allow her former lover to serve in her household?

Turns out… maybe blackmail. Dereham came back from his job in Ireland to find Catherine gone from the Howard household and now queen. He wanted a job with her, which her grandmother tried to dissuade him from, but he held firm. He might have had “proof” of their informal engagement, such as letters, which he threatened to show the king; whatever he had over her, the Dowager Duchess decided a formal audience with Catherine might convince him to leave off his intentions. Catherine “heard” he was visiting the court, asked to see him, and was polite to him. And probably thought that was the last she would ever see of him. Nope.

Dereham turned up at Pontefract a few months later after the Dowager Duchess kicked him out of her household. He had a “private meeting” with Catherine, and might have threatened to show her engagement letters (or some other evidence, perhaps love letters with explicit references in them) to the king, because suddenly, she changed her mind and let him join her staff (not as her secretary, unlike in the show).

He was an idiot who acted “forward” with the queen frequently, and who intimated to a man in her service he had been “of the Queen’s Council before he knew her, and shall be when she has forgotten him.”

Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper: What Really Happened

We have a scene between Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper, in which he gets angry upon finding out she slept with Francis Derehem. This makes for good drama, but historically, he and Catherine had discussed all their previous lovers. She never pretended to be an “almost virgin” with him, as she did with the king; in fact, she said if she had been in Anne of Cleves’ service longer, she might have “tried” (slept with) Culpeper.

They have a fictional tiff, and she hurls after him she has a “store of other lovers besides you,” which was a playful statement she made to him on one of his visits (“I have a store of other lovers at other doors”).

Was Henry VIII Snubbed by the King of Scotland?

Part of Henry’s reason for going north involved brokering a new peace with James V of Scotland, his sister Margaret Tudor’s son. The border had always been contentious, with Scots and English routinely raiding across it, stealing from the farms on the outer reaches of each kingdom, and fleeing the authorities back into their own country. Henry’s father stopped this by arranging a treaty through the marriage of his daughter, Margaret, to the former King James, but after his death, James “tested” the English by invading while Henry was in France. Catherine of Aragon, Sir Thomas Lovell, and the Howard family (northerners) mobilized and decimated the Scottish army, killing off a huge number of the Scottish nobility.

This lessened the attacks for a couple of decades, while the Scots waited for a new generation to grow up big enough to cause trouble. Around this period, James V had been in league several times with King Francis, and developing anti-Tudor sentiments because of his deep Catholic roots. Scotland remained Catholic. Henry wanted to meet him and arrange a new treaty, so he sent many invitations, hoping to convince his nephew to side with him and reform his church. This thwarted the meeting because the Catholic Church had no desire to see their Catholic monarch meet up with the “English heretic.” James may have also been reluctant to travel as far as York, considering he would be several hundred miles into enemy territory, rather than on neutral ground.

The Tudors plays up the insult more than the actual historical event, with Henry and his nobles all decked out in the cathedral awaiting James’ arrival, only for him not to show up. Henry hears a Scottish army has ridden across the border and is burning barns, ruining fields, and killing whomever resists. He sends Thomas Seymour to retaliate. Then he picks up the massive jeweled egg he brought as a gift for his nephew and smashes it open on the floor, scattering pearls in all directions.

In history, James never agreed to a meeting, and all of his letters to his uncle never mentioned it. Henry hung out in York for a while until he recognized his nephew would never come, and went home. The border attacks escalated a month later, after Henry’s sister Margaret, Queen of Scotland, died, ending his father’s treaty.

Who Betrayed Catherine Howard?

This episode ends with an incriminating letter being written and left for Henry to find on his chair. It isn’t revealed who wrote it, and a lot of the details are left out. The implication is that Francis Dereham’s misbehavior has drawn attention to his assignation with the queen in her youth; but in reality, one of Catherine’s former friends and bed-mates, Mary Lascelles, confided in her brother John that the queen was of “loose morals,” and the story got back to members of the court.

John Lascelles took this information (about Henry Mannox and Francis Dereham) to Archbishop Cranmer, who hasn’t been seen since season two, who decided after consulting with others that he needed to expose her former lifestyle to the king. He wrote down all the details he knew about and delivered them in a letter to the king.

Minor Historical Inaccuracies:

• Catherine Howard wakes up too late to attend the king addressing the citizens of York, after being in bed half the night with Culpeper; historically, she took her public duties seriously and missed none of them.
• Elizabeth I is trying to teach Prince Edward a Latin poem by William Lily, which was not written until 1549, eight years later. She also looks about twelve and he seems to be five, but she was only eight and he was four.
• Prince Edward fell ill, but not in the middle of his father’s pilgrimage to York; Henry was almost back to London. Instead of rushing to his bedside, Henry merely gathered his physicians to consult on how best to help him.

Curious what personality types feature in The Tudors? Check out my analysis here!

This article is part of my Historical Accuracy in Historical TV Shows & Movies series, where I break down the real history behind popular historical dramas.

About the Author: Charity Bishop writes historical fiction, historical fantasy, and suspense novels that explores the darkness in human hearts, and the light that refuses to be extinguished. Discover her books.