David Loades, " The Tudors Queens of England "

" The Queen was accused of having been a woman of abominable desire who had craftily and traitorously misled her royal spouse into believing she was chaste and pure , clean and honest living. Worse still she had followed daily her frail and carnal lust "....

Those were the words on everyone's lips in 1542 . Very similar language had been used against Anne , but this was different because the charges against Catherine were true, or substantially so.

The traitorous intent may be questioned, because Catherine had no political agenda , but in a world without a DNA test, errant sexual behavior posed an obvious threat for the succession.

If a woman was sleeping around, how did anyone know whether a child she was bearing had been begotten by the King or not ?

So even the most serious charge of treason was justifiable in the 16th century terms .

Although to modern eyes Catherine was just a silly, oversexed teenager who didn't remotely deserved to die for her sins , at the time she was a moral outrage.

No one ever successfully cheated on Henry, but Catherine tried and paid the ultimate prize for her sins.

David Loades, " The Tudors Queens of England "