Catherine of Valois
Catherine of Valois | |
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Queen consort of England | |
Tenure | 2 June 1420 – 31 August 1422 |
Coronation | 23 February 1421 |
Born | 27 October 1401 Hôtel Saint-Pol, France |
Died | 3 January 1437 (aged 35) London, England |
Burial | , London |
Spouse |
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Issue more... | |
House | Valois |
Father | Charles VI of France |
Mother | Isabeau of Bavaria |
Catherine of Valois or Catherine of France (27 October 1401 – 3 January 1437) was Queen of England from 1420 until 1422. A daughter of King Charles VI of France, she married King Henry V of England[1] and was the mother of King Henry VI.[a] Catherine's marriage was part of a plan to eventually place Henry V on the throne of France, and perhaps end what is now known as the Hundred Years' War. But, although her son Henry VI was later crowned in Paris, the war continued.
After Henry V's death, Catherine's surprise marriage to Sir Owen Tudor helped lead to the rise of the House of Tudor's fortunes and to her Tudor grandson's eventual elevation to the throne as King Henry VII of England.[2]
Early life
Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife
While some authors have maintained that Catherine was neglected as a child by her mother, a more modern examination of the evidence suggests otherwise. According to the financial accounts of her mother, toys befitting a French princess were purchased, religious texts were provided, and Catherine was sent to the convent in Poissy to receive a religious education.[4]
Royal marriage
Henry V went to war with France, and even after the victory at
By this time, Catherine was several months pregnant and gave birth to a son named Henry on 6 December 1421 at Windsor. Her husband never saw their child. During the siege of Meaux, he became sick and died on 31 August 1422, just before his 36th birthday.[5] Catherine was not quite 21 and was left a queen dowager. 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 son during his early childhood.
Relationship with Owen Tudor
Catherine was still young and marriageable, a source of concern to her brother-in-law Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the guardian of her son. Rumours abounded that Catherine planned to marry Edmund Beaufort, Count of Mortain, her late husband's cousin. The Duke of Gloucester was strongly against the match, however, and the Parliament of 1427–8 passed a bill which set forth the provision that if the queen dowager remarried without the king's consent, her husband would forfeit his lands and possessions, although any children of the marriage would not suffer punishment. The king's consent was contingent upon his having attained his majority. At that time, 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 dowager herself. Nevertheless, Catherine entered into a sexual relationship with Welshman Owen Maredudd Tudor, who, in 1421, in France, had been in the service of Henry V's steward Sir Walter Hungerford. Tudor was probably appointed keeper of Catherine'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.
There is no known date of Catherine's marriage to Owen,
Owen and Catherine had at least six children. Edmund, Jasper, and Edward were all born away from court. They had one daughter, Margaret, who became a nun and died young.
Death and aftermath
Catherine died on 3 January 1437, shortly after childbirth, in London, and was "buried in the old Lady chapel" of Westminster Abbey.
Meanwhile, Owen and Catherine's two older sons, Edmund and Jasper, went to live with
The wooden
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.
In historical fiction
- William Shakespeare's play Henry V (c. 1599) depicts Catherine of Valois' marriage to Henry V of England after the Battle of Agincourt.
- Mary Pix's play Queen Catherine; or, the Ruines of Love (1698) depicts the end of Catherine's relationship with Owen Tudor.
- Catherine of Valois is the subject of Rosemary Hawley Jarman's novel Crown in Candlelight (1978)
- Jasper.
- In The Queen's Secret by Jean Plaidy, Catherine is the title character.
- Another novel by Jean Plaidy, Epitaph for Three Women, retells the minority of Henry VI by focusing on the lives of Catherine, Joan of Arc and Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester.
- In the historical novel, Fortune Made His Sword by Martha Rofheart, Catherine is one of five narrators who tell the story of Henry V.
- Dedwydd Jones's novel, The Lily and the Dragon (2002) tells the story of Owain Tudor and Catherine of Valois.
- Joanna Hickson's novel The Agincourt Bride (2013) tells the story of the early life of Catherine of Valois while its sequel The Tudor Bride (2014) tells of her life as the Queen of England and her relationship with Owen Tudor.
- Anne O'Brien's novel The Forbidden Queen (2013) details the life of Catherine of Valois.
- Vanora Bennett's novel Blood Royal/The Queen's Lover (2009) tells the story of Catherine's early years through her secret marriage to Owen Tudor.
- Mari Griffith's novel Root of the Tudor Rose (2014) is the story of Catherine's brief marriage to Henry V and her subsequent clandestine relationship with Owain ap Maredydd ap Tudur.
- Rosemary Anne Sisson's play The Queen and the Welshman (1957) tells the story of Catherine de Valois and Owen
- In the Laurence Olivier film Henry V (1944), Catherine (listed as Katherine) is played by Renée Asherson.
- In the Kenneth Branagh film Henry V (1989), Catherine (listed as Katharine) is played by Emma Thompson.
- In the Netflix film The King (2019), Catherine is played by Lily-Rose Depp.
Ancestry
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Notes
- ^ Catherine's older sister Isabella had also been a Queen of England as the child bride of Richard II.
References
- ^ Haigh 1985, p. 345.
- ^ Williams & Fraser 2000, p. 19.
- ^ Fritze & Robison 1992, p. 94.
- ^ Gibbon 1996, pp. 51–63.
- ^ Allmand 1992, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Griffiths & Thomas 2005, p. 35.
- ^ Chrimes 1980, pp. 320–333.
- ^ Harvey 2003, p. 27.
- ^ a b Chrimes 1999, pp. 9–10.
- ^ a b c d Anselm 1726, pp. 109–110.
- ^ a b Anselm 1726, pp. 111–114.
- ^ a b Anselm 1726, pp. 105–106.
- ^ a b Riezler, Sigmund Ritter von (1893), "Stephan III.", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 36, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 68–71
- ^ ISBN 9780394400266.
Sources
- Allmand, Christopher (1992). Henry V. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-4135-3280-0.
- Chrimes, S. B. (1980). "The Reign of Henry VI: Some Recent Contributions". ISSN 0043-2431.
- Chrimes, S.B (11 July 1999). Henry VII. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-3002-1294-5.
- Fritze, Ronald H.; Robison, William Baxter, eds. (1992). Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272–1485. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-3132-9124-1.
- Gibbon, Rachel (1996). "Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France (1385–1422): The Creation of an Historical Villainess: The Alexander Prize Essay". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 6: 51–63. S2CID 162409969.
- de Gibours, Anselm (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
- Griffiths, Ralph A.; Thomas, Roger S. (2005). The Making of the Tudor Dynasty. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-3776-4.
- Haigh, Christopher, ed. (1985). The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521255592.
- Harvey, Barbara (2003). "The monks of Westminster and the old Lady chapel". In Tatton-Brown, Tim; Mortimer, Richard (eds.). Westminster Abbey: The Lady Chapel of Henry VII. The Boydell Press. p. 5-32. ISBN 978-1-8438-3037-5.
- Williams, Neville; Fraser, Antonia, eds. (29 November 2000). The Tudors. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-5202-2804-7.
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). 1911. .
- Heidi Murphy Catherine of Valois (1401–1437)
- Portraits of Catherine of Valois at the National Portrait Gallery, London