Sunday, May 06, 2007

Question from Sara - Kathryn Howard's birth year

I know that for many people during the Tudor Dynasty, their dates of birth are not known since they did not keep good records. One of those people is Katherine Howard. I noticed that on your website it says she was born in 1521, while in other places it says 1525. In Alison Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" it says why she thnks it's 1525, but are your reasons for the 1521 date?

3 comments:

Lara said...

You know, I wrote that page so long ago I have no idea where I originally got that date from. I'm guessing that I chose the average of several books, or went with the one that I found the most (several of them had 'c.1521' when I just checked). That page is way overdue for a re-write (along with a lot of others!), so I'll probably address the questions and various lines of evidence about her birthdate when I finally get around to it.

Out of curiousity I looked at what her date was in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the article (by Retha Warnicke) gives 1518-1524 as the possible range, although says it is probably towards the later end of the range.

Can you imagine what she would have thought as a 15-year-old attracting the attentions of a king almost three times her age and probably three times her size!?

Anonymous said...

I think it's amazing that, either way, she was extemely young and by all accounts very pretty. It must have been very strange to have to marry an old man who had long ago lost his looks and charm. Thanks for checking. I'll look forward to reading any updates on her.

Anonymous said...

As a person who is interested in the tudor period and have an interest in catherine Howard. I have seen two different dates given as being her date of birth. One 1520-21 the second 1525 but I think the most plausable date Ithink is the first 1520-21.