Catherine of Valois

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Catherine of Valois
Queen consort of England (more...)
Consort 2 June 1420 - 31 August 1422
Coronation 23 February 1421
Spouse Henry V
Owen Tudor
Issue
Henry VI
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond
Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford
Royal house House of Valois
Father Charles VI of France
Mother Isabella of Bavaria
Born 27 October 1401
Paris, France
Died 3 January 1437
London, England
Burial Westminster Abbey

Catherine of Valois (27 October 14013 January 1437) was the Queen consort of England from 1420 until 1422. She was the daughter of King Charles VI of France, wife of King Henry V of England, mother of King Henry VI of England, and through her second marriage, to Owen Tudor, the grandmother of King Henry VII of England. Catherine's older sister, Isabella of Valois, was Queen consort of England from 1396 – 1400, as the child bride of King Richard II of England.

Catherine was buried at Westminster Abbey, and during the reign of Henry VII her coffin lid was accidentally raised, revealing her corpse, which for generations became a tourist attraction; Catherine's remains were not properly re-interred until the reign of Queen Victoria.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Catherine of Valois was the daughter of King Charles VI of France and Isabella of Bavaria-Ingolstadt. She was born on October 27, 1401, in Paris.

On June 2, 1420, she was given in marriage to King Henry V of England, but only after Henry's demand for return of Normandy and Aquitaine as part of the marriage pact which was triggered by the Battle of Agincourt and the subsequent Treaty of Troyes. As part of the treaty, Henry won control of Normandy and Aquitaine, became Regent of France during Charles' lifetime, and won the right to succeed on Charles' death.

If this had come to pass, France and England would have been united under one monarch. However, Charles outlived Henry V by two months and Catherine of Valois thus never became Queen of France.

Catherine of Valois was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey on 23 February, 1421. The only issue of Catherine and Henry, the future Henry VI of England, was born on 6 December 1421. Then Henry V died on 31 August 1422. Catherine was given Wallingford Castle, where she retired, distant from the Court and from her infant son.

[edit] Second marriage

coat of arms of Owen Tudor
coat of arms of Owen Tudor

At Wallingford Castle, she turned for comfort to Owen Tudor, a direct descendant of Rhys Ap Gruffydd (a ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth in South Wales), who would become the founding father of the Tudor dynasty. In 1428, Parliament reacted to the rumours about this relationship by forbidding Queens Dowager from marrying without the King's permission. There is no record of their marriage, which is believed to have taken place in around 1428 (based on the dates of birth of their children)

[edit] Children by Owen Tudor

She gave birth to at least six of Owen Tudor's children

  • Daughter Tudor. (born c. 1435) She became a nun.
  • Margaret (Katherine) Tudor (born January 1437). Died young.

[edit] Death and burial

Catherine died on January 3, 1437, shortly after childbirth, in London, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her second husband, Owen Tudor, lived on until 1461, when he was executed by the Yorkists following the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. Their sons were given Earldoms by King Henry VI after Catherine's death. Edmund would become the father of the future King Henry VII of England.

The wooden funeral effigy which was carried at her funeral still survives at Westminster Abbey and is on display at the Undercroft Museum. Her tomb originally boasted an alabaster memorial, which was deliberately destroyed during extensions to the abbey in the reign of her grandson, Henry VII. It has been suggested that Henry ordered her memorial to be removed to distance himself from his common ancestry. At this time, her coffin lid was accidentally raised, revealing her corpse, which for generations became a tourist attraction. In 1669 the diarist Samuel Pepys kissed the long-deceased queen on his birthday:

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.

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] External links

[edit] References

[edit] Historical fiction

Catherine of Valois is the subject of Rosemary Hawley Jarman's novel "Crown in Candlelight" (1978)

Catherine of Valois
Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
Born: 27 October 1401 Died: 3 January 1437
English royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Joanna of Navarre
Queen Consort of England
2 June 1420 - 31 August 1422
Vacant
Title next held by
Margaret of Anjou
Vacant
Title last held by
Isabella of France
Queen mother
1422 - 1437
Vacant
Title next held by
Elizabeth Woodville