The Rose Without a Thorn

"I DIE A QUEEN, BUT I WOULD RATHER DIE THE WIFE OF THOMAS CULPEPPER." If Katherine Howard had not been born both poor and beautiful, or had she not been adopted by her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, she might indeed have wed her childhood playmate, Thomas Culpepper. But left to run wild in her grandmother's licentious household, Katherine was introduced to secret pleasures. And as she grew in years and beauty, she was made to serve the political ambitions of her powerful uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. When the aging King Henry VIII, desperate for a strong male heir, chose Katherine as his fifth wife, her tragic destiny was sealed. In this dazzling finale to the Queens of England series, Henry VIII's lovely "rose without a thorn" tells her own heartbreaking story of betrayed innocence and passion, and the brief years of glory that brought her to the block....