Catherine of Valois

Catherine of Valois (born October 27, 1401, Paris, France—died January 3, 1437, Bermondsey Abbey, London, England) was a French princess, the wife of King Henry V of England, mother of King Henry VI, and grandmother of the first Tudor monarch of England, Henry VII.

Catherine was the daughter of King Charles VI of France and Isabella of Bavaria and was much neglected in childhood because of her father’s frequent bouts of madness and her mother’s selfish indifference. After his accession to the English throne (March 1413), Henry V renewed the negotiations for his marriage to Catherine started by his father, Henry IV. His demand for a large dowry and the restoration of Normandy and Aquitaine (once possessions of English kings) led to war, and the marriage did not take place until June 2, 1420, after the signing of the Treaty of Troyes. Catherine was crowned in Westminster Abbey in February 1421 and gave birth to a son, afterward Henry VI, in the following December. She joined Henry in France in May 1422 and returned to England after his death the following August, residing first at Windsor Castle and later at Baynard’s Castle, London.

From about 1425, gossip associated Catherine’s name with that of a Welsh squire, Owen Tudor. Their marriage may have taken place secretly in 1429, or they may already have been married when, in 1428, an act of Parliament was passed forbidding her marriage without the consent of king and council. Owen Tudor was imprisoned in 1436 and Catherine retired to Bermondsey Abbey, London. By Owen Tudor she had three sons and two daughters, one of whom died in infancy; the eldest son, Edmund, created earl of Richmond in 1452, was the father of Henry VII.