The Tudor Duchess Exiled For Her Protestant Faith? | Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk

Katherine Willoughby who would end up as Katherine Brandon and Katherine berti would become Duchess of suffk adoptive parent to a queen's child and an exile for her Protestant Faith she was a noble woman who never held back in her opinions and while this at times made her unpopular Catherine was never far from the drama of her time Catherine was born at parum Old Hall suffk on the 22 of March 1519 the daughter of William Willoughby 11th Baron Willoughby de erby he was a substantial landholder in Lincolnshire norfol and suffk and the lack of any higher Noble in those parts meant William was seen as a significant person in matters of administration for all three areas his status was raised even further when in 1516 he married Maria Des salinus a castian Noble woman who came over to England with Catherine of aragan and was a close friend of the queen as well as a lady in waiting to her it appears Maria was fond of England as she was known by Spanish ambassadors to have apparently influenced Queen Catherine to favor her new English subjects Henry VII was also delighted at another Spanish Anglo alliance between some of his subjects and one of his ships the Mary Willoughby may have been named after her in recognition of this in turn Catherine herself was likely named for the English Queen who was the friend of her mother along with many other girls of her generation Catherine was her father's only surviving child and so when he died in 1526 there was a contest for his inheritance as Catherine was not a boy it was contested by Sir Christopher Willoughby William's brother who refused to give up control over several properties in Lincolnshire Maria managed to muster support at court and Christopher received a reprimand from Cardinal walsey who had in turn been sent a letter by Charles Brandon Duke of suffk about the situation however Charles's intervention was not without benefit to himself on her father's death Catherine became a ward of the king despite her mother still being alive this often happen to Children of the nobility on the death of her father partly because mothers didn't have any rights and partly to take the financial strain off the mother Charles Brandon was busy collecting up land in East Anglia and funnily enough Catherine's inheritance would help with that he took out loans to purchase her wardship from Henry in early 1528 or 1529 and she joined Charles's household Charles was married at the time to his third wife Mary chuda sister of the king it was a love match that at the time had been scorned as they had married in secret against Henry's wishes but by 1529 both had long since been forgiven by the king it was rumored Catherine was to be betrothed to Henry Brandon Earl of Lincoln the young son of Charles and Mary but this would change after just a few years on the 25th of June 1533 Mary died and Catherine was a chief mourner at her funeral rumors had long abounded probably coming from anbin who disliked Mary chuda that Charles was far more interested in the young teenage girl in his household than he should have been even while Mary was still alive added to this was the fact that although everyone expected Catherine to be betrothed to Henry it never happened and it's possible he was sickly as he died in 1534 Charles instead married Catherine himself in September 1533 he was 49 years old and Catherine was just 14 it wasn't completely unusual for the time period but age gaps were starting to become less prevalent and eustus chais the Spanish Ambassador found it interesting enough to comment on the marriage for that reason another reason for the sudden marriage may have been that Charles was in need of cash and he couldn't afford to wait for his son to come of age marrying Catherine also made it easier to take those finances directly rather than going through young Henry despite the years between them it would be a successful marriage now as her husband Charles was able to force Christopher Willoughby to give up more lands that actually belonged to Catherine adding to his own impressive portfolio this would allow him to become the highest magnate in Lincolnshire and he would later play a significant part in quelling the pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 as a result as for Catherine she now became a duchess and gained a husband with clout at court furthermore she also now became connected to the royal family as the the children of Mary chuda were considered heirs to the throne and Catherine became stepmother to Henry who she might have otherwise married Ellena and Francis who went on to be the mother of Lady Jane gray as well as Anna and Mary daughters to Charles through his second wife Anne Brown the couple also raised an imposing residence for what would become their main home after 1537 Grim Thorp Castle in l lire it wasn't long before children came along Henry born almost a year after their marriage on the 18th of September 1534 and Charles named for his father who came along a year after in late 1537 the family stayed on at Grim's thought now as in the wake of quelling the pilgrimage of Grace in Lincolnshire Henry ordered Charles to remain in the north to make the Royal presence felt there Charles and Catherine also seemed to get on well on a personal level Mary chuda had been a strongly spoken woman who wasn't afraid of standing up to her brother and Catherine was also witty and opinionated so it seems Charles had a thing for strong outspoken women Catherine also had a love of learning which was encouraged by her husband she had also been given a good education by her mother when younger as evidenced by the writer and translations Catherine left us they continued to be a close part of the royal Entourage however when an of cleaves arrived in England in 1539 the Duke and Duchess of suffk were part of the official welcoming party and they would help arrange a royal progress for the king and Katherine Howard in 1541 this progress would later become known for the secret meetings between the queen and Thomas C pepper although apparently their home at Grim Thorp was one of the few places nothing happened now in her early 20s cathine became an advocate for protestantism however despite Henry VII's break from Rome many of her beliefs were still considered heresy and so she remained quiet in public about these Katherine also strongly disliked Bishop Gardner a devout Catholic and although they had once began as friends by all accounts the feeling was Mutual by this point at a dinner party she and Charles once held the guest had to play a game in which they sat with the person they liked the best as Catherine could not sit with her husband the host she chose instead to sit with Bishop Gardner as the person she liked the least she also named her pet spaniel Gardener so she could have fun shouting gardener heal and Gardner rollover in 1543 Catherine also became close friends with the king's final wife Catherine par and this only strengthened her leanings towards protestantism as par was also an advocate for the Reformation however this Association would cause the duchess problems just a few years later on the 22nd of August 1545 Charles died Catherine purchased the wship of her two sons as well as the right to choose who they would marry when old enough this left Catherine a young Widow in her mid-20s and while she was also able to maintain her autonomy as she was still wealthy it also made her more vulnerable to possible Court intrigues she was almost swept up in the attempt to remove Catherine par from the king's side when Catholic Advocates tried to rid them elves of protestant leaders in Henry's later years and it was even suggested Henry was considering Catherine herself for wife number seven something which she no doubt was glad never came true but once Henry died in 1547 and his son took the throne as Edward I 6 on the 28th of January 1547 Catherine found her situation much easier she was able to open help her friend The Dowager Queen with funding one of her books the lamentation of a sinner and as Edward made it clear his Reign would be a Protestant one used her near endless purse to pay for other patronage more than a dozen books either carried her coat of arms or were dedicated to Catherine and she became a patron of John Day the country's leading religious publisher at that time The Duchess was shown as a sh shining example of why women should be allowed to read the Bible and she even arranged for Hugh Latimer to conduct sermons at Grims Thor Katherine also had a hand in helping to establish stranger churches a name given to the churches of European Protestants in England for Protestants fleeing persecution in Europe but tragedy wasn't far away and in late August 1548 her friend Katherine par gave birth to a daughter before dying on the 5th of September having never left her child bed this was a sad enough event but when PA's fourth husband Thomas Seymour was arrested for treason and executed in March 1549 The Duchess was given the responsibility of being a guardian for Katherine PA's daughter Mary Mary was only a baby of 7 months old but being the daughter of a former Queen she was expected to be kept in a style befitting her station expense accounts for Catherine's household show Mary was dressed in the finest Fabrics slept in a well stocked Nursery of toys and Fine Furniture and was given the best food it wasn't long before The Duchess who had no husband to add extra income and her own two sons to support began to resent the extra money she needed to spend on a child child she hadn't expected to look after she wrote to William cile complaining about the situation asking for funds to help support the child the letter was eventually taken notice of as parliament passed an act in January 1550 to allow little Mary to be rid of her father's attainer and to gain some of his lands although she still wasn't permitted to hold any of Seymour's titles however no claim was ever made on the lands and any record of Mary or her place in Catherine's household disappears around this point it's highly likely the child died sometime before her second birthday and was probably buried close to grimor in 1551 Catherine's Sons now both in their teens and students at Cambridge became ill with the sweating sickness passing through England in that year in an attempt to flee the disease the two boys had gone to buckton in Cambridge and were staying at the bishop of Lincoln's Palace on the 14th of July 1551 Henry second Duke of suffk after his father's death passed in his bed resulting in his brother Charles sick in the bed opposite him becoming the Duke of suffk for a very short while before dying an hour later as well it was a bitter loss for Catherine in and she fell into deep mourning 4 months later she wrote a poignant letter to William cile in which she said truly I take this God's last and to the first sight most sharp and bitter punishment not for the least of his benefits in as much as I have never been so well taught by any other before to know his power his love and mercy my own wickedness and that wretched state that without him I should endure here in other words Catherine managed to find some comfort in her faith although sadly she considered the death of her sons to be a punishment for her shortcomings it would have an immense effect on her faith and her choices in the years to come the duchy of suffk now reverted to the crown and would later be passed to The Heirs of Mary chuda but Catherine still held the inheritance to the Barony of Willoughby of erby just a few years before Richard Bertie had joined Katherine's household as her gentleman Usher someone who dealt with business on her behalf as well as helping to maintain her large properties he was a well-educated man who had a skill with several languages and he had a sharp wit to match Catherine's to boot they were also close in age as Richard was just 3 years older than she was it wasn't long before a friendship blossomed between them that turned into love and they were secretly married sometime in 1552 it was unusual for a noble woman to marry lower socially but it was obviously a love match their marriage was a happy one and Catherine even attempted to have Richard made Baron Willoughby to erby but his non- Noble birth made it difficult a fictional Heritage was made for him to strengthen his case in which it was argued his ancestors had come over from berti land in Prussia with the Saxons but with the Ascension of Mary the to the English throne in July 1553 after Edward VI 6's death their lives were about to get more difficult at first they kept a low profile and Catherine gave birth to a daughter named Susan in 1554 but by June of that year Bishop Gardner saw his opportunity and suddenly claimed that Katherine's first husband Charles owed the crown £4,000 an enormous sum of money and he wanted her to repay it Richard was invited to meet with Gardner to discuss the repayment but it quickly became an interrogation of their religious beliefs many Protestants had decided to hide their faith privately or make concessions to allow them to exist under Mary's regime but the former Duchess and her husband did not Upon returning home Richard and Catherine began to make plans to flee England in February 1555 Richard Catherine their baby daughter and a small retinue went abroad Catherine was also pregnant just a few months later with a second child with Richard a son born in October 1555 which they named perigrine after their peregrinations in Exile they would travel across Europe through vasel straussburg and Frankfurt ending in the grand duche of Lithuania in zosia as guests of the Polish King rapidly running out of money as they went Richard's fluency with Latin and French also aided them out of many predicaments according to his later account of their trials and tribulations in the 1570 publication of Fox's book of Martyrs they were apparently made administrators in the Lithuanian region and it's unclear whether they plan to stay there forever or return home at some point but with Mary's death on the 17th of November 1558 and her Protestant leaning sister Elizabeth taking the Throne of England Catherine and Richard finally felt safe enough to return her Rome their travels were made into a popular Ballad by Thomas delone the most rare and excellent history of the Duchess of suk's Calamity and as a play by Thomas drew the life of the Duchess of suffk which was published in 1624 the fact it was still interesting 60 years later shows how big of an impact their story had they had returned to England by the summer of 1559 and Catherine's hands were restored to her once again Richard would go on to become an MP for Lincolnshire although he would never become Baron Willoughby to arisbe but the title would later pass to their son perigrine Katherine also once again picked up her extensive patronage where she had left off and the puritanical nature of Catherine and Richard's protestantism was at odds with Queen Elizabeth's more moderate form of it this led to tension between Catherine and Elizabeth and the former Duchess often sent letters to her equally moderate friend William ceile urging him to do more to promote protestantism Catherine also held property in the autonomous Parish of the minories in London an extra parochial Parish which meant it was considered to be outside of any ecclesiastical parish as such it became a center for Pure puran preachers many which received patronage from Catherine she also hired miles Coverdale a Protestant preacher who had produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English in 1535 to Che to her children many of those Katherine extended patronage to were outspoken about the Elizabethan version of the Protestant church and some even ended up in prison for the things they said however Catherine was still respected enough to be considered a safe Pair of Hands and to enact change for her family in August 1567 Katherine's step granddaughter Lady Mary Gray was sent to live with Catherine under house arrest for marrying without Elizabeth's permission the former Duchess was shocked at how little Mary brought with her but Lady Mary lived happily with her for 2 years becoming close to perigrine and Susan in 1570 Catherine's daughter Susan married Reginald gray of rest and Catherine convinced the queen to restore the title of Earl of Kent held by his grandfather to Reginald also allowing her daughter to become Countess of Kent until his death just a year later in her later years Catherine seems to have suffered on and off with illness and a 1580 book by Theodore bezer contains a dedication to her her that mentions her ongoing struggle with ill health she died on the 19th of September that year and while it's uncertain where Catherine died it may have been at Grims Thorp as she was buried in Lincolnshire at spilsby Catherine was a perfect example of the Renaissance chuda Noble woman born at a rare moment in history where women were able to gain more education than they had ever had before and when religion was at a pivotal moment in England she would Embrace both she would use her education to form opinions and wit that won over many as well as earning her enemies and her faith would remain the pillar to which Catherine clung throughout her life the death of her first husband her two young sons and her Exile into Europe were trial she had to live through that didn't diminish the flame of her spirit although it seems C cine took on a puritanical Edge that would both push her away from the Queen's favor and make her admired by Protestants who wish to push what they saw as the true Faith she also married for love something not usually open to Noble women and she also maintained control over her own estate to pass on to her children Catherine would go down in history as one of the most interesting people who was part of three Royal courts as well as well as being part of many of the events that shaped them she was also one of the most outspoken steering her family through the tumultuous Tuda period with an unfailing resolve if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new documentaries [Music]

Channel: History's Forgotten People

Views: 20,500

Keywords: the tudors, katherine willoughby, henry viii, katherine brandon, katherine bertie, duchess of suffolk, tudor history, 16th century history, marian exiles, reformation in england, reformation in europe, katherine parr, richard bertie, charles brandon duke of suffolk

Id: qY-LylVBles

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Sun May 05 2024