Funeral Effigy of Catherine de Valois, Wife of Henry V.
Catherine de Valois (1401 –1437) was the daughter of King Charles VI of France; wife of Henry V of Monmouth, King of England; mother of Henry VI, King of England and France; and by her secret marriage with Owen Tudor, the grandmother of King Henry VII of England. Catherine's older sister, Isabella of Valois, was Queen consort of England from 1396 – 1399, as the child bride of King Richard II.
Henry V made war with France but after the English victory at Agincourt, planned to marry Catherine. Catherine was attractive and Henry became enamoured. In May 1420, a treaty between England and France acknowledged Henry of England as Charles VI’s heir. Catherine and Henry married at Troyes Cathedral on 2 June 1420.Catherine gave birth to Prince Henry on 6 December 1421 at Windsor. The boy and his father would never see each other. During the siege of Meaux, Henry V became ill and died on 31 August 1422, just before his 35th birthday. Catherine was not quite 21 and was left a widow and Dowager Queen of England. The French king, Charles VI, died two months later, making the young Henry VI king of England and English-occupied northern France. Catherine doted on her young son during his early childhood, but he became a victim of the madness he inherited from his French grandfather (as seen in the French king's behavior in Olivier's film of Henry V).
Catherine entered into a relationship with Owen Tudor of Wales. Owen was born about 1400, and may have gone to war with Henry in France. Tudor was probably keeper of the Queen's household. The relationship began when Catherine lived at Windsor Castle, and she became pregnant with their first child there. She stopped living in the King's household and in May 1432 Parliament granted Owen the rights of an Englishman. This was important because of Henry IV's laws limiting the rights of Welshmen. It is unclear whether Catherine and Owen Tudor married. Even if they had the marriage might have been unlawful, by an Act of 1428. From Owen and Catherine descended Henry VII of England and the Tudor Dynasty. Tudor historians asserted that Owen and Catherine had been married, a vital link in the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty.
Catherine died on 3 January 1437, shortly after childbirth, in London, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Owen Tudor was arrested shortly after her death, but later released. In 1461 he was executed by the Yorkists following the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. Their sons were given Earldoms by Catherine's son King Henry VI. Edmund married Margaret Beaufort, a lady of royal descent, with their son eventually becoming King Henry VII. Data courtesy of Wikipedia under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License.
Westminster Abbey: Funeral Effigy of Catherine de Valois, Queen of England, paternal grandmother of Henry VII, paternal great-grandmother of Henry VIII. Courtesy of libby1 photostream, Flickr.
