Katherine Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

Katherine Hastings (née Dudley), Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1538^[1] or 1543–1545^[2] – 14 August 1620) was an English noblewoman. She was the youngest surviving daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his wife, Jane Guildford, and a sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth I's favourite. Katherine Dudley was betrothed or married on 25 May 1553 at a very young age to Henry Hastings, the heir of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon.^[2] From her mother's will it appears that she was still under 12 years of age in January 1555,^[2] and a clause regarding her marriage implies that the match could still be dissolved: "if it so chance that my Lord Hastings do refuse her or she him".^[2]

By the spring of 1559 Katherine Hastings was definitely married,^[2] and on the death of her father-in-law in 1560 became Countess of Huntingdon. She remained childless, though she may have suffered a miscarriage in the spring of 1566.^[1] For many years she lived with her husband in the English Midlands and Yorkshire, where she dedicated herself to the education of young women of the nobility and gentry.^[1] Among her pupils were the diarist Margaret Hoby, and her brother Robert's stepdaughters, the sisters Penelope and Dorothy Devereux.^[3] Like her husband, the Countess was a convinced Protestant with Puritan leanings.^[1] After the Earl of Huntingdon's death in 1595 she lived at court and became one of the closest friends of the old Queen.^[1] When young, she had suffered from Elizabeth's distrust of her husband's loyalty, which was nourished by his descent from the House of Plantagenet.^[1] Katherine, Countess of Huntingdon died at Chelsea, London on 14 August 1620, and was buried in her mother's tomb at Chelsea Old Church.^[1]

Ancestry

Citations

References

• Adams, Simon (ed.) (1995): Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-55156-0
• Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics Manchester University Press ISBN 0-7190-5325-0
• Cross, Claire (2008): "Hastings, Katherine, countess of Huntingdon (c.1538–1620)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 04-04-2010
• Freedman, Sylvia (1983): Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich. An Elizabethan Woman The Kensal Press ISBN 0-946041-20-2