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Catherine Carey

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For her niece, see Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham. For the Clerk of the New York State Assembly, see Catherine A. Carey.

Catherine Carey
Lady Knollys
Portrait often identified as Catherine, 1562
Bornc. 1524
England
Died15 January 1569 (aged 46-47)
Hampton Court Palace, England
BuriedSt Edmund's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, England
Spouse(s)Sir Francis Knollys
Issue
FatherWilliam Carey
MotherMary Boleyn
Arms of Carey: Argent, on a bend sable three roses of the field[1]

Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys,[2] (c. 1524 – 15 January 1569), was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.

Biography

Catherine Carey was born in 1524, the daughter of William Carey of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII, and his wife Mary Boleyn, who had once been a mistress of the king.[3] Catherine was thus Elizabeth I's maternal first cousin.[4] Some historians believe that Catherine was an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, which would make her also Elizabeth I's paternal half-sister through their shared father, Henry VIII.[5][6][7] Other historians suggest that this was a rumour spread by supporters of Catherine of Aragorn.[8]

Catherine was said to be a witness to the execution of her aunt, Anne Boleyn, in 1536;[9] however, claims that she had stayed overnight to entertain and distract her aunt Anne in the Tower of London before the latter's execution have been dismissed.[9]

Catherine went on to be appointed Maid of Honour to both Anne of Cleves, in November 1839, and Catherine Howard, who were the fourth and fifth wives of Henry VIII.[10]

On 26 April 1540 she married Sir Francis Knollys.[6][11] Her husband was knighted in 1547 and was named a Knight of the Garter in 1593. He was also Treasurer of the Royal Household. From the time of her marriage, Catherine became known as Mistress Knollys, and from 1547 as Lady Knollys. When not in London, the couple lived at Reading in Berkshire and Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire.

As Catherine and her husband were staunch Protestants, they fled to Germany in spring 1556 during the reign of Queen Mary I.[3] Princess Elizabeth wrote to her cousin whilst she lived on the continent, and Catherine is known to have resided in Basel and Frankfurt am Main whilst on the continent.[3]

Catherine was appointed Chief Lady of the Bedchamber after Elizabeth became queen. For the first ten years of the reign, Lady Catherine combined the most senior post among the ladies-in-waiting with motherhood to more than a dozen children.[6] Elizabeth never recognized Catherine as her half-sister, and it was certainly not a relationship that Catherine or Sir Francis ever openly claimed. At court, Catherine was acknowledged as the queen's favourite among her first cousins, and Elizabeth's lack of other female relatives to whom she felt close may be adequate to explain this favoured position.[6]

She died on 15 January 1569 at Hampton Court Palace, being outlived by her husband and children. At the time of her death, her husband was in charge of the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots.[12]

Catherine was buried the following April in St Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, with the grieving Queen herself paying £640 2s. 11d. for the interment.[3][13] There is a small commemorative plaque in the abbey, although her chief monument is at Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire.

Catherine's epitaph reads:

The Right Honourable Lady Catherine Knollys, chief Lady of the Queen's Majesty's Bedchamber, and Wife to Sir Francis Knollys, Knight, Treasurer of Her Highnesses Houshold, departed this Life the Fifteenth of January, 1568, at Hampton-Court, and was honourably buried in the Floor of this Chapel. This Lady Knollys, and the Lord Hunsdon her Brother, were the Children of William Caree, Esq; and of the Lady Mary his Wife, one of the Daughters and Heirs to Thomas Bulleyne, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde; which Lady Mary was Sister to Anne Queen of England, Wife to K. Henry the Eighth, Father and Mother to Elizabeth Queen of England.[14]

Catherine's mother, Mary Boleyn, was the sister of Anne Boleyn and a mistress of King Henry VIII of England

Issue

Sir Francis and Lady Knollys produced sixteen children:[6]

In literature

The possibility that Catherine, and perhaps her brother Henry, were illegitimate children of Henry VIII, appears in many works of fiction, including Wendy J. Dunn's The Light in the Labyrinth and Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl. Carey is also a character in Gregory's The Boleyn Inheritance, where she is sent to the royal court during the time of Queens Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, and in The Virgin's Lover, where, as the mother of the seventeen-year-old Lettice Knollys, she is among Elizabeth I's closest companions. In Henry VIII's Wives by Alison Prince, the book's narrator has a friend, Catherine "Kitty" Carey, whose father died of sweating sickness and whose mother is Mary Boleyn. In this book, Catherine was thought to be the king's daughter. Catherine is the featured subject in the novel Cor Rotto: A Novel of Catherine Carey by Adrienne Dillard and in The Lady Carey by Anne R. Bailey.

References

  1. ^ Vivian, p.150
  2. ^ Doran, John (1835). "The history and antiquities of ... Reading in Berkshire". John Doran. Retrieved 30 October 2018. Queen Elizabeth, by her charter, gave 50 oaks out of the park, to the corporation of Reading, and granted the rest of the estate to Sir Francis and Dame Catherine Knollys.....
  3. ^ a b c d Varlow, Sally (8 January 2009) [28 September 2006]. "Knollys [née Carey], Katherine, Lady Knollys (c. 1523–1569), courtier". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69747. Retrieved 16 November 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ Cole, Mary Hill (2 December 2004). "Maternal memory: Elizabeth Tudor's Anne Boleyn". Explorations in Renaissance Culture. 30 (1): 41–56. doi:10.1163/23526963-90000273. ISSN 2352-6963.
  5. ^ Weir 2012, p. 200.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Varlow, Sally (August 2007). "Sir Francis Knollys's Latin dictionary: new evidence for Katherine Carey". Historical Research. 80 (209): 315–323. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.2007.00400.x. ISSN 0950-3471.
  7. ^ Stedall, Robert (30 June 2022). Elizabeth I's Final Years: Her Favourites & Her Fighting Men. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-3990-8316-4.
  8. ^ Levin, Carole (2009). "Elizabeth I as Sister and "Loving Kinswoman"". In Cruz, Anne J.; Suzuki, Mihoko (eds.). The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. University of Illinois Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-252-07616-9.
  9. ^ a b Weir 2012, p. 286.
  10. ^ Merton, Charlotte Isabelle (28 January 1992). Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth : Ladies, Gentlewomen and Maids of the Privy Chamber, 1553-1603. PhD Thesis (Thesis). doi:10.17863/CAM.13844 – via Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository.
  11. ^ Wiliams, Penry (1 March 1983). "Court and polity under Elizabeth I". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 65 (2): 259–286. doi:10.7227/BJRL.65.2.12. ISSN 2054-9318.
  12. ^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1999). Who's Who in Shakespeare's England: Over 700 Concise Biographies of Shakespeare's Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-312-22086-0.
  13. ^ Mayhew, Mickey (21 September 2022). Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots: The Men Who Kept the Stuart Queen. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-3990-1100-6.
  14. ^ Guillim 1726, p. 255.
  15. ^ Levin, Carole (2022), "The Privy Council", The Reign and Life of Queen Elizabeth I: Politics, Culture, and Society, Queenship and Power, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 19–48, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-93009-7_3, ISBN 978-3-030-93009-7, retrieved 16 November 2024
  16. ^ Campbell, H. (28 February 2018). CampbellTree. Harold Campbell - Lulu. p. 202. ISBN 9781387631230. Retrieved 30 October 2018. Lady Elizabeth Knollys ... was born on 15 June 1549 in Rotherfield Peppard Court, Oxfordshire, England

Sources

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