Catherine of Valois

For other uses, see Catherine of Valois (disambiguation).

Catherine of Valois
Queen consort of England
Tenure	2 June 1420 – 31 August 1422
Coronation	23 February 1421
Born	(1401-10-27)27 October 1401 Paris, France
Died	3 January 1437(1437-01-03) (aged 35) London, England
Spouse	Henry V of England m. 1420; dec. 1422 Owen Tudor m. c. 1431–32; wid. 1437
Issue among others	Henry VI of England Thomas Tudor Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford Owen Tudor Tacinda Tudor Margaret Tudor
House	House of Valois
Father	Charles VI of France
Mother	Isabella of Bavaria

Catherine of France (27 October 1401 – 3 January 1437) was the Queen consort of England from 1420 until 1422. She was the daughter of King Charles VI of France, wife of Henry V of Monmouth, King of England, mother of Henry VI, King of England and King of France, and through her secret marriage with Owen Tudor, the grandmother of King Henry VII of England. Catherine's older sister, Isabella of Valois, was Queen consort of England from 1396–1399, as the child bride of King Richard II of England.

Early life

Catherine of Valois was the daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabelle of Bavaria. She was born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol (a royal palace in Paris) on 27 October 1401. Early on, there had been a discussion of marrying her to the son of Henry IV, but the king died before negotiations could begin. The new king, Henry V, also proposed the match, but demanded a large dowry and acknowledgement of his right to the throne of France.

Catherine's marriage to Henry V

Marriages

Henry V went to war with France, and even after the great English victory at Agincourt, plans for the marriage continued. Catherine was said to be very attractive and when Henry finally met her at Meulan, he became enamoured. In May 1420, a peace treaty was made between England and France, and Charles acknowledged Henry of England as his heir. Catherine and Henry were married at the Parish Church of St John or at Troyes Cathedral on 2 June 1420. Catherine went to England with her new husband and was crowned queen in Westminster Abbey on 23 February 1421. In June 1421, Henry returned to France to continue his military campaigns.

By this time, Catherine was several months pregnant and gave birth to Prince Henry on 6 December 1421 at Windsor. The boy and his father would never see each other. During the siege of Meaux, Henry V contracted a fatal illness (dysentery) and died on 31 August 1422, just before his 35th birthday. Catherine was not quite 21 and was left a widow and Dowager Queen of England. Charles VI died a couple of months after Henry V, making the young Henry VI king of England and English-occupied northern France. Catherine doted on her young son during his early childhood.

Catherine was still young and marriageable, a source of concern to the Lord Protector of England, the king's uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Rumours abounded that Catherine planned to marry Edmund Beaufort, Count of Mortain, her late husband's cousin. Humphrey was strongly against the match, however, and in the Parliament of 1427–8, a bill was introduced setting the rules for the remarriage of a queen dowager. The bill stated that if the Queen remarried without the king's consent, the husband would lose his lands and possessions, although any children of the marriage would still be members of the royal family and would not suffer punishment. Another rule stipulated that the king's permission could only be granted once he had reached his majority. At the time the bill was written, the king was only six years old.

Catherine lived in the king's household, presumably so she could care for her young son, but the arrangement also enabled the councillors to watch over the queen herself. Despite all of this, Catherine entered into an amorous relationship with Owen ap Maredudd ap Tudor of Wales. Owen was probably born in about 1400, and may have gone to war in the service of Henry V's steward Sir Walter Hungerford in 1421 in France. Tudor was most likely appointed keeper of the queen's household or wardrobe. The relationship began when Catherine lived at Windsor Castle, and she became pregnant with their first child there. At some point, she stopped living in the King's household and in May 1432 Parliament granted Owen the rights of an Englishman. This was important because of Henry IV's laws limiting the rights of Welshmen.

Catherine of Valois's arms as queen consort

It is unclear whether Catherine and Owen Tudor actually married. No documentation of such a marriage exists. Moreover, even if they had been married, the question exists if the marriage would have been lawful, given the Act of 1428. From the relationship of Owen Tudor and Queen Catherine descended Henry VII of England and the Tudor Dynasty. Tudor historians asserted that Owen and Catherine had been married, for their lawful marriage was a vital link in the argument for the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty.

Owen and Catherine had at least six children, Edmund, Jasper and Owen were all born away from court. They had two daughters, Tacinda, who married Reginald Grey, 7th Baron Grey de Wilton and Margaret who became a nun.

Death and aftermath

Catherine died on 3 January 1437, shortly after childbirth, in London, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Owen Tudor was arrested on unspecified charges shortly after her death, but later released. He lived until 1461, when he was executed by the Yorkists following the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire. Their sons were given Earldoms by Catherine's son King Henry VI. Edmund married Margaret Beaufort, a lady of royal descent, whose son became King Henry VII.

The wooden funeral effigy which was carried at her funeral still survives at Westminster Abbey and is on display in the Undercroft Museum. Her tomb originally boasted an alabaster memorial, which was deliberately destroyed during extensions to the abbey in the reign of her grandson, Henry VII. It has been suggested that Henry ordered her memorial to be removed to distance himself from his illegitimate ancestry. At this time, her coffin lid was accidentally raised, revealing her corpse, which for generations became a tourist attraction. In 1669 the diarist Samuel Pepys kissed the long-deceased queen on his birthday:

On Shrove Tuesday 1669, I to the Abbey went, and by favour did see the body of Queen Catherine of Valois, and had the upper part of the body in my hands, and I did kiss her mouth, reflecting upon it I did kiss a Queen: and this my birthday and I thirty-six years old and I did kiss a Queen.

— Samuel Pepys

Catherine's remains were not properly re-interred until the reign of Queen Victoria.

After the Queen's death, Owen and Catherine's enemies decided to proceed against Owen for violating the law of the remarriage of the Dowager Queen. Owen appeared before the Council, acquitting himself of all charges and was released. On his way back to Wales, he was arrested and his possessions seized. He tried to escape from Newgate jail in early 1438 and eventually ended up at Windsor Castle in July of that year.

Meanwhile, Owen and Catherine's two older sons, Edmund and Jasper, went to live with Katherine de la Pole, Abbess of Barking and sister of the Duke of Suffolk. Sometime after 1442, the king (their half-brother) took a role in their upbringing. Owen, their father, was eventually released on £2000 bail, but was pardoned in November 1439 (and the bail cancelled in 1440). Owen was treated well afterwards and was a member of the king's household until the mid-1450s.

Ancestry

Family of Catherine of Valois

16. Philip VI of France 8. John II of France 17. Joan of Burgundy 4. Charles V of France 18. John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia 9. Bonne of Luxembourg and Bohemia 19. Elisabeth of Bohemia 2. Charles VI of France 20. Louis I, Duke of Bourbon 10. Peter I, Duke of Bourbon 21. Mary of Avesnes 5. Jeanne of Bourbon 22. Charles of Valois 11. Isabelle of Valois 23. Mahaut of Châtillon 1. Catherine of Valois 24. Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor 12. Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria 25. Beatrix of Silesia-Glogau 6. Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria 26. Frederick III of Sicily 13. Elisabeth of Sicily 27. Eleanor of Anjou 3. Isabella of Bavaria-Ingolstadt 28. Stefano Visconti 14. Bernabò Visconti 29. Valentina Doria 7. Taddea Visconti 30. Mastino II della Scala 15. Beatrice Regina della Scala 31. Taddea da Carrara

In historical fiction

• Catherine of Valois is the subject of Rosemary Hawley Jarman's novel "Crown in Candlelight" (1978)
• In the book, "The Queen's Secret" by Jean Plaidy, Catherine is the title character.
• William Shakespeare's play Henry V depicts Catherine of Valois' marriage to Henry V of England after the Battle of Agincourt.
• Dedwydd Jones' novel, published in 2002, "The Lily and the Dragon", tells the story of Owain Tudor and Catherine of Valois.
• Vanora Bennett's novel "Blood Royal" (2009) is based on the life of Catherine of Valois.

External links

• Heidi Murphy Catherine of Valois (1401–1437)