On the morning of July 28, 1540, as King Henry VIII's former confidante Thomas Cromwell was being led to his execution, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of a country simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, the king's fifth wife would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason. Going beyond the image of Catherine as a naïve victim of her ambitious family, Gareth Russell examines the queen's own motivations, and takes stock of the powerful forces arrayed against her. Along with 16 pages of color illustrations, this biography includes family trees, a biographical glossary, and a chronology of Catherine's final years.