Catherine Woodville

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Catherine Woodville (or Katherine Wydeville) (1458 – 18 May 1497), was an English medieval noblewoman, best known for marrying a number of influential husbands and producing several illustrious children. She owed her position largely to her sister, Elizabeth Woodville, the queen of King Edward IV of England.

Catherine and her sister were the daughters of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg. Her first husband was Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. They were married sometime before the coronation of Elizabeth Woodville in May 1465; both parties were children at the time. They had four children, the first born in 1478. Henry was said by Dominic Mancini to have resented his marriage to a woman of inferior birth, but nothing is known about the couple's private relations. Following Buckingham's execution for treason, she married Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford, who died in 1495. Her third and last husband was Sir Richard Wingfield, who outlived her.

She was mother of five children by her first husband Henry:

• Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
• Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex
• Henry Stafford, 3rd Earl of Wiltshire
• Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon
• Humphrey Stafford, died young.

[edit] References

• The Royal Ancestry Bible Royal ancestors of 300 American Families By Michel L. Call ISBN 1-933194-22-7 (chart 806)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Henry Stafford, Second Duke of Buckingham" by C. S. L. Davies.