Downfall and Execution
Culpeper was arrested on orders from King Henry and, in December 1541, was tried for adultery alongside Francis Dereham, who was separately accused of adultery with the Queen before her marriage to Henry. Catherine had not hidden the affair with Culpeper from members of her household, who now testified against her to protect themselves.
The Queen was portrayed as having seduced Culpeper at Chenies Palace in Buckinghamshire, although it could easily have been the other way around. With testimony given of private meetings at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, and during the royal progress to the north of England in the summer of 1541, his fate was sealed. Culpeper admitted under torture to having had sexual relations with Catherine. Both Culpeper and Dereham were found guilty and sentenced to death.
They were both to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Both men pleaded for mercy; Culpeper, presumably because of his former closeness to the King, received a commuted sentence of simple beheading. Dereham received no such mercy.
Culpeper was executed along with Dereham at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, and their heads were put on display on London Bridge. Culpeper was buried at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate church in London. Queen Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Rochford were both subsequently executed on 13 February 1542.
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