Thomas Culpeper

1514–1541

Thomas Culpeper was a gentleman of Henry VIII’s privy chamber and a courtier with close access to the king. He became associated with Catherine Howard during her queenship, and evidence of secret meetings between them was uncovered in 1541. Whether their relationship was fully sexual remains debated, but Culpeper was convicted of treason and executed that December.

Culpeper commonly appears in novels about Catherine Howard, where he is portrayed as lover, opportunist or reckless courtier. He features in Alison Weir’s Katheryn Howard, The Tainted Queen and in Philippa Gregory’s The Boleyn Inheritance, both of which dramatise the secrecy and danger surrounding the queen’s household.

Alison Weir’s The Wicked Wife is set in the Wicked Wife is an e-short and companion piece to Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen. The captivating fifth novel in the Six Tudor Queens series by bestselling historian Alison Weir.1525.

In non-fiction, Thomas Culpeper is discussed in Gareth Russell’s Young and Damned and Fair. In Gareth Russell’s Young and Damned and Fair, the biography follows the investigation into Catherine’s past and her later meetings with Thomas Culpeper, showing how testimony moved through servants, councillors and members of the Howard affinity.