Catherine Howard Executed

February 13, 1542

Henry VIII's teenage fifth queen, Catherine Howard, was beheaded on Tower Green for alleged infidelities before her marriage. She reportedly rehearsed her execution the night before, asking for the block to be brought to her cell. The chopping went, witnesses said, badly. She was the second queen Henry beheaded, and her youth at execution made her fate among the reign's most pitiable episodes.