Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk

Katherine Neville
Duchess of Norfolk
Born	c. 1397
Died	c. August 1483 (aged 85–86) Epworth, Lincolnshire
Family	Neville
Spouse	John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (m. 1412, d. 1432) Thomas Strangeways (m. aft. 1432, d. bef. 1442) John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont (m. 1442, d. 1460) John Woodville (m. 1465, d. 1469)
Issue	John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk Joan Strangeways Catherine Strangeways
Father	Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
Mother	Joan Beaufort

Katherine Neville (c. 1397 – late summer 1483) was a medieval English noblewoman, the eldest daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife Joan Beaufort.[1] Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt[2] and a great-granddaughter of King Edward III.

First marriage

On 12 January 1412, Katherine was married at the age of 15 to John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1392–1432). Their only known child was John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1415–1461).

Second marriage

Katherine married for a second time to Thomas Strangeways (c. 1395-before 1442)[3] - they had 2 daughters:

• Joan Strangeways, who first married Sir William Willoughby, before 20 July 1461. Their daughter Cecily married Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley.[4] They were ancestors of Herbert Hoover,[5] among many others.[6] Joan married for a second time to William Berkeley in November 1468; they had one son, Thomas, and one daughter, Katherine.[6]
• Katherine Strangeways, who married Henry Grey, 4th (7th) Baron Grey of Codnor, 29 August 1454.[6]

Third marriage

She married for a third time to John, Viscount Beaumont, in 1442, who was killed in 1460 at the battle of Northampton.[7] He was also the first viscount in England.

Fourth marriage

Her fourth and last marriage in 1465 was infamous, known by contemporaries as the "diabolical marriage".[8] She married John Woodville, brother of Queen Elizabeth. Chronicler William Worcester referred to the match as being rotting revenge for both parties "vindicta Bernardi inter cosdem postem putrit".[7] He was 19 years old at the time of their marriage, while she was about 68. Nonetheless, she survived him, as he was executed in 1469 after the Battle of Edgecote, on the orders of her nephew Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, during a Lancastrian rebellion against Edward IV. Whether or not she was forced into her final marriage against her will is unclear, but the unsavoury details added to the deep dislike of the Queen's family among the ruling class, which greatly weakened the Yorkist dynasty.[9]

Death

She was still alive in 1483, having survived all her children. She was last seen in public at the coronation of her nephew, Richard III.[10]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk

8. Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby 4. John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby 9. Alice Audley 2. Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland 10. Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy of Alnwick 5. Maud Percy 11. Idonea Clifford 1. Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk 12. Edward III of England 6. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster 13. Philippa of Hainault 3. Joan Beaufort 14. Sir Payne de Roet 7. Katherine Swynford

Footnotes

1. Archer 2008.
2. Green., 82
3. Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, Plantagenet ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families, Genealogical Publishing Com, 2004
4. Bruce Harrison, The Family Forest Descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort, Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc, pp 15, 34
5. "Descent of Herbert Clark Hoover from Edward III". Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
6. Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011
7. Cokayne, George E. (George Edward); Howard de Walden, Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis; Warrand, Duncan; Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H. Arthur (Herbert Arthur); White, Geoffrey H. (Geoffrey Henllan) (1910). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom : extant, extinct, or dormant. Harold B. Lee Library. London : The St. Catherine Press, ltd.
8. Weir, Alison "Lancaster and York" Arrow Books 1996 p.331
9. Ross, Charles Edward IV Eyre and Methuen 1974 p.93
10. Ross p.93

References

• Archer, Rowena E. (2008). "Neville, Katherine, duchess of Norfolk (c. 1400–1483)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/54432. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Green, Mary Anne Everett. Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, From the Commencement of the Twelfth Century to the Close of the Reign of Queen Mary. London: H. Colburn, 1846. googlebooks Retrieved 13 December 2008
• Oxford History of England, 1399–1485, 485ff.
• Kennedy, Maev. The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered. Germany, Wiley, 2015
• Richardson, Douglas Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011

External links

• Katherine Neville profile, our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com. Accessed 24 November 2022.
• Neville family genealogy site, tudorplace.com.ar. Accessed 14 December 2022.