catherine howard was henry vii’s fifth wife, but who’s counting? you can’t help but pity any of henry’s wives, none of them fared very well in his company. catherine is perhaps the saddest of all. she was very young when she came to court to serve as a lady in waiting for henry’s beloved jane seymour and was just seventeen when she married henry. her family were impoverished aristocrats and she had something of a wild past behind her. as she climbed her way to being queen, her history began to catch up with her and eventually her affair with a music teacher and the blackmailing of her peers earned catherine the axe. legend has it she escaped from the tower and banged on the doors of a chapel where his majesty was hearing mass to beg forgiveness. her ghost is said to re-enact this every night. too bad, so sad, you’d think the well to do laides of england would have learned not to cross henry viii by then.
1: lady in waiting: dress by reem acra, shoes by christian dior, bag by dries van noten
2: all hail queen catherine: dress by nina ricci, shoes by lanvin, fur by elie saab
3: catherine’s ghost: christian dior
