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Two men walked to the scaffold, but their crimes weren't equal. Francis Dereham
1541 Event

December 10

Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham Executed: Henry VIII's Wife's Lovers

Two men walked to the scaffold, but their crimes weren't equal. Francis Dereham had been Catherine Howard's lover before she ever met Henry VIII — technically legal, but he'd called her his wife. Thomas Culpeper, though, met her in secret gardens after she wore the crown, and Henry's investigators found a love letter she'd written him. Both lost their heads, but Culpeper got the mercy of beheading while Dereham was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Catherine followed them to the block two months later. She was nineteen.

December 10, 1541

485 years ago

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