Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk

Katherine was born at Parham Hall, one of the properties of the barony of Willoughby d'Eresby, inherited from the Willoughby ancestors, the Uffords Earls of Suffolk. Although Parham had a parish church, it is probable that Katherine was baptised in the church at Ufford, some miles to the south.

Suffolk lost no time in marrying his 14-year-old ward, Katherine, Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby, previously betrothed to his son. As Duchess of Suffolk, Katherine was an important court figure in the later years of Henry VIII’s reign – it was even rumoured that Henry might make her his seventh wife, when she was widowed in 1545. A close friend of Katherine Parr, she was known as a follower of the reforming party in religion, and also for her wit, saucily naming her spaniel ‘Gardiner’, after Bishop Gardiner, the leading conservative cleric. Katherine had 2 sons from her first marriage. Tragically, both of them died of "sweating sickness" within a day of each other, in 1551.

A couple of years after the deaths of her sons, about 1553, Katherine remarried. She and her second husband, Richard Bertie, employed in Katherine's household as a gentleman usher and master of the horse, remained strong advocates of Reform – so sincere were they in their beliefs that, with the accession of Mary I to the throne in 1553, they had to make the choice of whether to conform to the restitution of Catholicism (as many of the Reformers did) or go into exile. Katherine and Bertie chose the latter course.

Their first point of refuge was at Wesel, a bustling city, part of the Hanseatic League, in the duchy of Cleves.When the city authorities refused to let the burgeoning community of English exiles celebrate the Eucharist as they wished, Katherine and Bertie moved deeper into Germany, into the territory of the Elector Palatine, Otto Heinrich ‘the Magnanimous’. He was certainly magnanimous to the Berties – they were given the castle of Windeck, a fortification built in the 1100s to protect the great abbey at Lorsch, one of the most important early Christian sites in the Frankish empire.

Whilst Otto Heinrich had been generous in the matter of a home, he was either unable or unwilling to support Katherine and her extended household, which contained a number of English exiles, further. Fortunately, King Sigismund of Poland, and his brother, Nicholas, Count of Vilna, were more able to give financial assistance. Katherine and Bertie made a journey which took them hundreds of miles to the province now called Samogitia in Lithuania.Sigismund gave Bertie a role in governing the province according to Foxe. For Katherine, however, nothing could compare with home, and, as soon as she heard that Mary I had died, and been succeeded by Elizabeth I, who was expected to institute a Protestant religious settlement, she and Bertie began the long trek home.

They returned when Elizabeth I became queen, but the new monarch did not like Katherine, or her radical views, and the Duchess was not welcome at court – nor was her husband, recognised as Baron Willoughby d’Eresby, as was customary. For the remaining twenty-two years of her life, Katherine spent most of her time at Grimsthorpe, although she did visit friends and family. On her death in 1580, Katherine’s body was taken to St James’ Church, Spilsby (15), close to the old manor of Eresby, and the resting place of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th barons Willoughby. She was joined there two years later by her beloved Bertie, and the couple have a splendid tomb. Later, Katherine’s son, Peregrine, 13th baron, and his daughter, another Katherine, were buried there.

Catherine Willoughby

suo jure Baroness Willoughby de Eresby

Duchess of Suffolk

Spouse(s)
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk

Richard Bertie

Issue:

Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk

Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk

Susan Bertie

Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby

Noble: Willoughby

family : de Salinas

Father: William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby

Mother: Maria de Salinas

Born: 22 March 1519/1520

England

Died: 19 September 1580 (aged 60/61)

Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire

Links:

Biography:

http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/katherine-willoughby-from-lincolnshi...

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00004234&tree=LEO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Willoughby,_12th_Baroness_Wi...

http://www.thepeerage.com/p1679.htm#i16789

http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=340536

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/CatherineWilloughby.htm

http://www.gallini.co.uk/toc6.html