# Catherine Howard is executed on 13 February 1542 as a completed royal killing

Date: 1542

## The fact

HRP, Britannica, and calendars print 13 February 1542 as the beheading of Catherine Howard after a parliamentary attainder addressing alleged premarital and later sexual conduct. Allegations in the attainder remain a legal file, not a modern private verification. The king and council share the machine.

It is one event.

## Context

A queen killed by attainder is a justice path. Do not sensationalise the bedroom. Do not twin with Anne’s 1536 death as if they were one event.

[Henry VIII](/people/henry-viii)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Reign 1509–1547. Statutes are parliamentary instruments with royal assent: Cromwell, bishops, judges, and unnamed officers share the file. Later legislation.gov.uk and TNA pages are carriers, not autographs. Complex contribution is required.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

Britannica and HRP independently describe the 1542 execution.

Official or archival record: Britannica — Henry VIII (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England; Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Significance

It is not a proof of every sexual count as historical fact.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 13 February 1542 execution as calendared. Not established: a complete private sexual diary.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Henry VIII.

They are not a public rating.

Henry VIII did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. Attainder is the process named. Keep 1542 distinct from 1536. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Henry VIII.

## People

- Henry VIII: https://factrail.ai/people/henry-viii

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/henry-viii/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/h8-catherine-howard-1542