Catherine Willoughby
Encyclopedia
Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, suo jure
12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (22 March 1519/1520 - 19 September 1580), was an English
noblewoman living at the royal courts of King Henry VIII
, King Edward VI
and later, Queen Elizabeth I
. She was the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk
, who acted as her legal guardian during his third marriage to Mary Tudor, the younger sister of Henry VIII. Her second husband was Richard Bertie
, a member of her household. Following Charles Brandon's death in 1545, it was rumoured that King Henry had considered marrying Catherine as his seventh wife, while he was still married to his sixth wife and her close friend, Catherine Parr
.
An outspoken adherent of the reformed Protestant religion, she fled abroad to Wesel
and later Poland
during the reign of Queen Mary I
, to avoid persecution.
, a close friend and lady-in-waiting
of Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon
. Catherine Willoughby's father was William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
, a courtier during the reign of Henry VIII. Catherine was born on 22 March 1519/1520 and was baptised on 26 March 1519/1520. The King favoured another match bolstering his own marital alliance with Spain
, and he even named one of his warships the Mary Willoughby. It seems clear that Catherine was named for the Queen, but her mother's partisanship towards Catherine of Aragon did not prevent her from becoming one of England
's leading Protestants later in life.
and an income of 15,000 ducat
s a year at the age of seven. Wardship of the girl, i.e., guardianship and provision of her person, fell to the King, who sold it to his brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. A battle over her inheritance ensued with her uncle, who argued that the estates and title should pass to him rather than a female heir. After this issue was resolved, Catherine was betrothed to the Duke's son and heir, the Earl of Lincoln
. However, in September 1533, three months after the death of the Duke's wife, Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII and Queen Dowager of France), Brandon chose to marry Catherine himself. Lord Lincoln died the following year.
The Duke of Suffolk and his new Duchess had two sons, Henry
and Charles
. This marriage brought Catherine into a significant branch of the extended royal family, as the King's will made his sister Mary's descendants the next heirs to the throne after his own children. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk officially greeted Anne of Cleves
when she arrived in England in 1539 to marry the King, and in 1541 they helped arrange a royal progress for the King and his next Queen, Catherine Howard
. This progress later became notorious for the Queen's adulterous trysts with her kinsman, Thomas Culpeper
, though the Duke and Duchess's Grimsthorpe Castle
was "one of the very few places on the route ... where Catherine Howard had not misbehaved herself".
, particularly after the Duke died in 1545, and was a strong influence on the Queen's religious beliefs. In 1546, as the Queen's Protestantism grew controversial, the King ordered the Queen's arrest, though his wife managed to cajole him into cancelling this. The Duchess of Suffolk once gave a banquet and during a party game afterwards named Bishop Gardiner as the man she loved least. She named her pet spaniel "Gardiner," provoking much amusement when she called her dog to heel. Several years later when Gardiner was imprisoned during the reign of King Edward VI, she is quoted as saying, "It was merry with the lambs when the wolf was shut up."
At this time, it was rumoured that the King was considering the Duchess of Suffolk — still only in her mid-20s — as his seventh wife. In February 1546, Van der Delft wrote: "I hesitate to report there are rumours of a new queen. Some attribute it to the sterility of the present Queen, while others say that there will be no change during the present war. Madame Suffolk is much talked about and is in great favour; but the King shows no alteration in his behaviour to the Queen, although she is said to be annoyed by the rumour". But the friendship of the two Catherines remained strong, and after Henry VIII's death in 1547, the Duchess helped fund the publication of one of Catherine Parr's books, The Lamentation of a Sinner. She also became a patron of John Day
, England's leading Protestant publisher; Day printed various books with the Duchess of Suffolk's coat of arms from 1548 onward. Beginning in 1550, the Duchess helped establish Stranger churches
for foreign Protestants, principally Dutch, who were fleeing religious persecution on the Continent.
, asking for funds to support the Queen's infant daughter, is the last definite record of this child. Years later, the Duchess also became the custodian of one of her Brandon step-granddaughters, Lady Mary Grey, when the latter was placed under house arrest after marrying without royal consent.
In 1551 both the Duchess's sons, already students at Cambridge, died within an hour of each other. In recovering from this misfortune and its severe test to her faith, Catherine built a new life. In this period she employed Hugh Latimer
as her chaplain. She married her second husband, Richard Bertie (25 December 1516- 9 April 1582), a member of her household, out of love and shared religious beliefs. But she continued to be known as the Duchess of Suffolk, and her efforts to have her husband named Lord Willoughby de Eresby were unsuccessful. In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, the Berties were among the English Protestants who went into exile on the Continent. Their persecution by Stephen Gardiner
, the Bishop of Winchester
and Lord Chancellor
, and subsequent wanderings were recounted in Foxe's Book of Martyrs
, in an account probably written by Richard Bertie himself for the 1570 edition. After their return to England, they lived at Catherine's estate, Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, and at court. By Richard Bertie, Catherine was the mother of Peregrine Bertie
, who married a sister of the Earl of Oxford
, and of Susan Bertie
, who married firstly the Earl of Kent
, and secondly Sir John Wingfield, a nephew of Catherine's friend Bess of Hardwick
.
, The Dutchess of Suffolk's Calamity, published before 1607, and of Thomas Drue
's play, The Life of the Duchess of Suffolk, published in 1624. It may also have been the subject of an unpublished play from 1600 by William Haughton
, The English Fugitives. Catherine's second marriage to one of her servants and subsequent persecution also present parallels to the plot of John Webster
's The Duchess of Malfi
.
Suo jure
Suo jure is a Latin phrase meaning "in her [or his] own right".It is commonly encountered in the context of titles of nobility, especially in cases where a wife may hold a title in her own right rather than through her marriage....
12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (22 March 1519/1520 - 19 September 1580), was an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
noblewoman living at the royal courts of King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, King Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
and later, Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. She was the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG was the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. Through his third wife Mary Tudor he was brother-in-law to Henry VIII. His father was the standard-bearer of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond and was slain by Richard III in person at...
, who acted as her legal guardian during his third marriage to Mary Tudor, the younger sister of Henry VIII. Her second husband was Richard Bertie
Richard Bertie (courtier)
Richard Bertie was an English landowner and religious evangelical. He was the second husband of Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, Duchess Dowager of Suffolk and a woman who Henry VIII was considering as his seventh wife shortly before his death; she also received a proposal...
, a member of her household. Following Charles Brandon's death in 1545, it was rumoured that King Henry had considered marrying Catherine as his seventh wife, while he was still married to his sixth wife and her close friend, Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...
.
An outspoken adherent of the reformed Protestant religion, she fled abroad to Wesel
Wesel
Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district.-Division of the town:Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark,Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.-History:...
and later Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the reign of Queen Mary I
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
, to avoid persecution.
Childhood
Catherine was born, probably at court, to Maria de SalinasMaria de Salinas
María de Salinas, Lady Willoughby was a noblewoman from Spain, she served as confidante and lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England.-Family background:Maria was the daughter of Martín de Salinas María de Salinas, Lady Willoughby (ca 1490 - 1539) was a noblewoman from Spain, she...
, a close friend and lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
of Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
. Catherine Willoughby's father was William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was an English baron and the largest landowner in Lincolnshire. He was the son of Sir Christopher Willoughby William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (1482–1526) was an English baron and the largest landowner in Lincolnshire. He was...
, a courtier during the reign of Henry VIII. Catherine was born on 22 March 1519/1520 and was baptised on 26 March 1519/1520. The King favoured another match bolstering his own marital alliance with Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and he even named one of his warships the Mary Willoughby. It seems clear that Catherine was named for the Queen, but her mother's partisanship towards Catherine of Aragon did not prevent her from becoming one of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's leading Protestants later in life.
Marriage
In 1526, Lord Willoughby de Eresby died, and Catherine, as his only surviving child, inherited the BaronyBaron Willoughby de Eresby
Baron Willoughby de Eresby is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ in 1313 for Robert de Willoughby of Eresby Manor, near Spilsby, Lincolnshire. The fourteenth Baron was created Earl of Lindsey in 1626. His great-grandson, the fourth Earl and seventeenth Baron, was created...
and an income of 15,000 ducat
Ducat
The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...
s a year at the age of seven. Wardship of the girl, i.e., guardianship and provision of her person, fell to the King, who sold it to his brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. A battle over her inheritance ensued with her uncle, who argued that the estates and title should pass to him rather than a female heir. After this issue was resolved, Catherine was betrothed to the Duke's son and heir, the Earl of Lincoln
Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln
Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln was the youngest child and second son born to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, Queen of France, who was a daughter of Henry VII of England. Thus Henry Brandon was nephew to Henry VIII of England...
. However, in September 1533, three months after the death of the Duke's wife, Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII and Queen Dowager of France), Brandon chose to marry Catherine himself. Lord Lincoln died the following year.
The Duke of Suffolk and his new Duchess had two sons, Henry
Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk
Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk , styled Lord Henry Brandon before 1545, was an English nobleman, the son of the 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife, the suo jure 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby....
and Charles
Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk
Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk , known as Lord Charles Brandon until shortly before his death, was the son of the 1st Duke of Suffolk and the suo jure 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby....
. This marriage brought Catherine into a significant branch of the extended royal family, as the King's will made his sister Mary's descendants the next heirs to the throne after his own children. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk officially greeted Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
when she arrived in England in 1539 to marry the King, and in 1541 they helped arrange a royal progress for the King and his next Queen, Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard , also spelled Katherine, Katheryn or Kathryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
. This progress later became notorious for the Queen's adulterous trysts with her kinsman, Thomas Culpeper
Thomas Culpeper
Sir Thomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, to the south of Maidstone in Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a...
, though the Duke and Duchess's Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle
Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house in Lincolnshire, England four miles north-west of Bourne on the A151. It lies within a 3,000 acre park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown...
was "one of the very few places on the route ... where Catherine Howard had not misbehaved herself".
Personality and beliefs
Noted for her wit, sharp tongue, and devotion to learning, by the last years of Henry VIII's reign the Duchess of Suffolk was also an outspoken Protestant. She became a close friend of Henry's last queen, Catherine ParrCatherine Parr
Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...
, particularly after the Duke died in 1545, and was a strong influence on the Queen's religious beliefs. In 1546, as the Queen's Protestantism grew controversial, the King ordered the Queen's arrest, though his wife managed to cajole him into cancelling this. The Duchess of Suffolk once gave a banquet and during a party game afterwards named Bishop Gardiner as the man she loved least. She named her pet spaniel "Gardiner," provoking much amusement when she called her dog to heel. Several years later when Gardiner was imprisoned during the reign of King Edward VI, she is quoted as saying, "It was merry with the lambs when the wolf was shut up."
At this time, it was rumoured that the King was considering the Duchess of Suffolk — still only in her mid-20s — as his seventh wife. In February 1546, Van der Delft wrote: "I hesitate to report there are rumours of a new queen. Some attribute it to the sterility of the present Queen, while others say that there will be no change during the present war. Madame Suffolk is much talked about and is in great favour; but the King shows no alteration in his behaviour to the Queen, although she is said to be annoyed by the rumour". But the friendship of the two Catherines remained strong, and after Henry VIII's death in 1547, the Duchess helped fund the publication of one of Catherine Parr's books, The Lamentation of a Sinner. She also became a patron of John Day
John Day (printer)
John Day was an English Protestant printer. He specialised in printing and distributing Protestant literature and pamphlets, and produced many small-format religious books, such as ABCs, sermons, and translations of psalms...
, England's leading Protestant publisher; Day printed various books with the Duchess of Suffolk's coat of arms from 1548 onward. Beginning in 1550, the Duchess helped establish Stranger churches
Stranger churches
Strangers' church was a term used by English-speaking people for independent Protestant churches established in foreign lands or by foreigners in England during the Reformation...
for foreign Protestants, principally Dutch, who were fleeing religious persecution on the Continent.
After Henry VIII's death
Upon Catherine Parr's death in childbirth, the Duchess of Suffolk took custody of her child, Mary Seymour. But the Duchess's letter to her friend William CecilWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, asking for funds to support the Queen's infant daughter, is the last definite record of this child. Years later, the Duchess also became the custodian of one of her Brandon step-granddaughters, Lady Mary Grey, when the latter was placed under house arrest after marrying without royal consent.
In 1551 both the Duchess's sons, already students at Cambridge, died within an hour of each other. In recovering from this misfortune and its severe test to her faith, Catherine built a new life. In this period she employed Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Bishop of Worcester before the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555, under Queen Mary, he was burnt at the stake, becoming one of the three Oxford Martyrs of Anglicanism.-Life:Latimer was born into a...
as her chaplain. She married her second husband, Richard Bertie (25 December 1516- 9 April 1582), a member of her household, out of love and shared religious beliefs. But she continued to be known as the Duchess of Suffolk, and her efforts to have her husband named Lord Willoughby de Eresby were unsuccessful. In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, the Berties were among the English Protestants who went into exile on the Continent. Their persecution by Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.-Early life:...
, the Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
and Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
, and subsequent wanderings were recounted in Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...
, in an account probably written by Richard Bertie himself for the 1570 edition. After their return to England, they lived at Catherine's estate, Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, and at court. By Richard Bertie, Catherine was the mother of Peregrine Bertie
Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
thumb|Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de EresbyPeregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was the son of Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and Richard Bertie. Bertie was Lady Willoughby de Eresby's second husband, the first being Charles Brandon, Duke of...
, who married a sister of the Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....
, and of Susan Bertie
Susan Bertie, countess of Kent
Susan Bertie was the daughter of Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, née Willoughby, by her second husband, Richard Bertie. Susan was the noblewoman memorialized by Lanyer at the beginning of the Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum as the "daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk." At sixteen years of age, she...
, who married firstly the Earl of Kent
Reginald Grey, 5th Earl of Kent
Reginald Grey, 5th Earl of Kent was an English peer.-Biography:He was a son of Henry Grey and Margaret St John...
, and secondly Sir John Wingfield, a nephew of Catherine's friend Bess of Hardwick
Bess of Hardwick
Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1521 – 13 February 1608, known as Bess of Hardwick, was the daughter of John Hardwick, of Derbyshire and Elizabeth Leeke, daughter of Thomas Leeke and Margaret Fox...
.
Literary tributes
Catherine and Richard Bertie's exile became the basis of a ballad by Thomas DeloneyThomas Deloney
Thomas Deloney was an English novelist and balladist.He appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next ten years is known to have written about fifty ballads, some of which got him into trouble, and caused him to keep a low profile for...
, The Dutchess of Suffolk's Calamity, published before 1607, and of Thomas Drue
Thomas Drue
Thomas Drue or Drewe was an English playwright.He wrote The Life of the Duchess of Suffolk and The Bloody Banquet.Drue is the author of a historical play, ‘The Life of the Dvtches of Svffolke,’ 1631, 4to, which has been wrongly attributed by Langbaine and others to Thomas Heywood...
's play, The Life of the Duchess of Suffolk, published in 1624. It may also have been the subject of an unpublished play from 1600 by William Haughton
William Haughton
William Haughton was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre. During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, John Day, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith....
, The English Fugitives. Catherine's second marriage to one of her servants and subsequent persecution also present parallels to the plot of John Webster
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...
's The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...
.
Issue
- Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of SuffolkHenry Brandon, 2nd Duke of SuffolkHenry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk , styled Lord Henry Brandon before 1545, was an English nobleman, the son of the 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife, the suo jure 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby....
(18 September 1535 - 14 July 1551) died of the sweating sicknessSweating sicknessSweating sickness, also known as "English sweating sickness" or "English sweate" , was a mysterious and highly virulent disease that struck England, and later continental Europe, in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. The last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently... - Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of SuffolkCharles Brandon, 3rd Duke of SuffolkCharles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk , known as Lord Charles Brandon until shortly before his death, was the son of the 1st Duke of Suffolk and the suo jure 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby....
(1537/1538 - 14 July 1551) died of the sweating sickness an hour after his older brother. - Susan Bertie, Countess of KentSusan Bertie, countess of KentSusan Bertie was the daughter of Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, née Willoughby, by her second husband, Richard Bertie. Susan was the noblewoman memorialized by Lanyer at the beginning of the Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum as the "daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk." At sixteen years of age, she...
(1554 -) Married firstly in 1570, Reginald Grey of Wrest, 5th Earl of KentEarl of KentThe peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.See also Kingdom of Kent, Duke of Kent.-Earls of Kent, first creation :*Godwin, Earl of Wessex...
and secondly on 30 September 1581, John Wingfield by whom she had two sons Peregrine Wingfield and Robert Wingfield. - Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de EresbyPeregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresbythumb|Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de EresbyPeregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was the son of Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and Richard Bertie. Bertie was Lady Willoughby de Eresby's second husband, the first being Charles Brandon, Duke of...
(12 October 1555 - 1601). Married 1577 Mary de VereMary de VereMary de Vere , married names Bertie and Hart was a noblewoman of the sixteenth century.In 1577 the hard-drinking, straight-talking Peregrine Bertie successfully courted Mary, sister of the Earl of Oxford, a lady known, in the words of Mark Anderson, “for her quick temper and harsh tongue.” Though...
, daughter of John de Vere, 16th Earl of OxfordEarl of OxfordEarl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, held for several centuries by the de Vere family from 1141 until the death of the 20th earl in 1703. The Veres were also hereditary holders of the office of master or Lord Great Chamberlain from 1133 until the death of the 18th Earl in 1625...
and Margery Golding. They had seven children.
Further reading
- My Lady Suffolk: A Portrait of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk by Evelyn Read (1963) ASIN B000JE85OK
- Queen Katherine Parr by Anthony Martienssen, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York 1973
- Women, Reform and Community in Early Modern England: Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, and Lincolnshire's Godly Aristocracy, 1519-1580: 19 (Studies in Modern British Religious History) by Melissa Franklin Harkrider
- The Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart
In fiction
- Catherine's story is very fictionalized in the novel The Sixth Wife: A Novel by Suzannah DunnSuzannah DunnSuzannah Dunn is an author and graduate of the MA creative writing programme at the University of East Anglia. She teaches MA creative writing at the University of Manchester, and is the author of ten novels...
- Her character is played by Rebekah Wainwright in the historical fiction series The TudorsThe TudorsThe Tudors is a Canadian produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime...
, where she is called Catherine Brooke, and much of her story has been changed.