Thomas Wriothesley was at the same time sent to London to examine Mannock, and to arrest Dereham, not on the charge of criminal intercourse with the queen, but on a charge of piracy. On being questioned, however, Dereham himself confessed to having frequently lain with the queen. Mannock confessed to no such intercourse, but admitted that he had been allowed to take liberties. The result of the secret investigations was most painfully convincing. The king shed bitter tears over the discovery—a thing, as his privy council observed, 'which was strange in his courage.' It was months before he recovered his old buoyancy of spirits.
He commissioned Archbishop Cranmer, Lord-chancellor Audley, the Duke of Norfolk, the lord chamberlain, and the Bishop of Winchester to wait upon the queen and interrogate her upon the matter. She at first denied her guilt till she found that denial was hopeless. She then disclosed everything, and the archbishop took her confession in writing. Thus the case was complete against both her and her accomplices by their own confession; but it was not admitted that since her marriage with the king anything criminal had taken place. It might be doubted whether a capital charge could be founded on these acts alone; but even the use of torture did not wring more from Dereham, and the king could only point to the vehement presumption of criminal acts done afterwards.
As regards Catherine herself, if the case could have been judged impartially, she had really committed adultery in marrying the king, not in any acts done with Dereham. But she steadily denied that she had ever consented to become Dereham's wife. After her confession Cranmer was sent to her again. The archbishop found her almost out of her mind with terror. The announcement of the king's intended mercy relieved her anxiety for a moment; but little could be extracted from her.
On 11 Nov. Cranmer was instructed to proceed further, and when he had obtained all the information he could get to take the queen's keys from her, and intimate the king's pleasure that she should remove on Monday to Sion House. She was still to have the name and dignity of queen, but with a very much reduced establishment, three chambers only being allowed to her, 'hanged with mean stuff,' and a very modest attendance of servants. Next day the lord chancellor declared to the judges the fact of the queen's misconduct; and such members of the council as had been privy to the investigation were instructed to set forth the whole matter on Sunday the 13th to the ladies and gentlemen of the household, without making mention of any pre-contract with Dereham. The king and his council were evidently bent on establishing a case of adultery, but the information as yet would hardly serve. The pre-contract would have invalidated the marriage altogether, and there were no evidences of unlawful intercourse after the marriage had taken place. But if this could not be established in the case of Dereham, there was a considerable presumption in that of Culpepper. Catherine, however, had not yet fully confessed all that had passed between herself and her cousin; and Cranmer, Paulet, and Wriothesley were instructed to question her further.
Meanwhile, the old Duchess of Norfolk, on hearing that the queen and Dereham were arrested, sent a servant named Pewson to Hampton Court to learn particulars. She certainly knew that Catherine had in past years held stolen interviews under her roof both with Mannock and with Dereham. She, moreover, had even then in her custody two coffers belonging to Dereham, which contained papers apparently of some importance. She hastily broke them open and examined what was in them.
Now, the duke her stepson was sent to Lambeth to search Dereham's coffers, and when it was found that she had done so herself, it was naturally suspected that she had destroyed some papers that would somehow have compromised her. She was closely questioned and professed that her only motive was to search for evidences and send them to the king. She foresaw clearly her committal to the Tower, from which she did not hope to come out alive. Pewson also was arrested; and all who had opportunities of knowing the queen's misconduct were likewise placed in custody. Among these were her uncle, Lord William Howard, and his wife, her aunt, the Countess of Bridgewater, Joan Bulmer, Catherine Tylney, one Robert Davenport, and a number of others.
Meanwhile, Culpepper and Dereham were tried and condemned on 1 Dec. The evidence against them had been elicited from themselves and others, partly by the use of torture. Yet Culpepper denied his guilt to the last. There is in the Record Office a letter addressed to him by Catherine Howard before she was queen, which reads, to say the least, not unlike a love letter, and shows that even in those days Lady Rochford was a medium of communication between them; but it proves nothing as to criminal intimacy. Lady Rochford would have been brought to trial at the same time but that
