Abandoned before she could read her letters, given no true education, and shuffled between indifferent relatives, Katherine Howard entered the Tudor court with nothing but charm, youth, and a desperate desire to belong. She would find instead a world eager to use her. Drawing from the surviving State Papers, ambassadorial dispatches, household accounts, and contemporary chronicles, Katherine A Child Forsaken tells the story not of a temptress, but of a vulnerable girl shaped—then shattered—by the ambitions and desires of men. Raised without guidance, thrust into the glittering danger of Henry VIII’s household, Katherine was swept up in a king’s fleeting favor and destroyed by his whims. Hewing closely to the historical record of the fragile child behind the crown, this book restores Katherine’s humanity, tracing her brief, bright rise and her tragic fall. She died before she ever had a chance to live. A life cut short. A queen ensnared. A child lost to history—until now.