Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford (25 August 1540 – 26 January 1568), born Lady Katherine Grey, was a younger sister of Jane Grey.
A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she emerged as a prospective successor to her cousin, Elizabeth Tudor, before incurring queen Elizabeth's wrath; by secretly marrying Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. Arrested after the Queen was informed of their clandestine marriage, Katherine (as Lady Hertford) lived in captivity until her death, having borne two sons in the Tower of London.
Birth and family[]
Lady Katherine was born at Bradgate Park, near Leicester, the second surviving daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his marriage to Lady Frances Brandon. She was the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and elder sister of Lady Mary Grey. Katherine Grey's maternal grandparents were Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Margaret Tudor (formerly Queen Consort of France), youngest surviving daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
Through their grandmother, the Grey sisters had a close claim in the line of succession to the English throne. They were preceded in the line of succession only by Henry VIII's three children – Edward Tudor, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor.
First Marriage[]
Some time before August 1552, Katherine Grey was betrothed to Henry, Lord Herbert, heir apparent to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
In 1553, as King Edward VI was dying, the King and his Chief Minister, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, planned to exclude Edward's sister Mary Tudor from the succession in favour of Katherine's elder sister, Jane Grey. According to the Letters Patent of 21 June 1553, Lady Katherine was to be second in the line of succession behind her sister and heirs-male. Jane had been married to Northumberland's son, Lord Guildford Dudley, on 25 May 1553. On the same occasion, Lady Katherine was married to Lord Herbert at Durham House. After the wedding, Katherine (now Lady Herbert) went to live with her husband at Baynard's Castle beside the Thames.
Second Marriage[]
One of Lady Katherine's friends, Lady Jane Seymour, daughter of the Duke of Somerset, introduced her brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, to Lady Katherine Grey (so restyled after the annulment of her first marriage). Without royal assent, the two were married in December 1560 during a secret ceremony at Lord Hertford's house in Cannon Row, where Lady Jane Seymour was the sole witness.
Imprisonment[]
Katherine, Lady Hertford, concealed the marriage from everyone for months, even after she became pregnant, in her eighth month of pregnancy she decided to ask someone to plead for her with the Queen. She first confided in Bess of Hardwick, who refused to listen to Katherine and berated her for implicating her. Katherine then went to her brother-in-law, Robert Dudley. Visiting his bedroom in the middle of the night, she explained her dilemma. As Dudley's room adjoined the Queen's chambers, he was afraid they might be overheard or that he might be caught with a visibly pregnant woman at his bedside, and tried to get rid of Katherine as soon as he could. The next day he told Elizabeth Tudor everything he knew regarding Katherine and her pregnancy.
Elizabeth Tudor was infuriated that; her cousin had married; without her knowledge or consent. The marriage also upset Anglo-Scottish diplomacy, as the possibility of a union between Lady Katherine and the Earl of Arran, a young and unstable nobleman with a strong claim to the Scottish throne, had thereby been removed as an option. The Queen also disapproved of her choice of husband and, still unmarried, also feared that Katherine's ability to bear male offspring could possibly facilitate a rebellion in support of Katherine as queen.
Elizabeth imprisoned Catherine in the Tower of London, where Edward Seymour (Lord Hertford) was sent to join her on his return to England. Bess of Hardwick was also imprisoned, as Elizabeth had become convinced (not without reason) that the marriage was part of a wider conspiracy against the Crown. While imprisoned in the Tower, Katherine gave birth to two sons.
Later life[]
After the birth of her second child in 1563, the enraged Elizabeth Tudor ordered Catherine's permanent separation from her husband and elder son. Katherine was removed to the care of her uncle, Sir John Grey, at Pirgo. She stayed there until November 1564, when she was transferred to the charge of Sir William Petre. For two years she was in his custody, and probably resided at Ingatestone Hall; then she was removed to the care of Sir John Wentworth (a kinsman of Petre's first wife) at Gosfield Hall, and after seventeen months' confinement there was taken to Cockfield Hall, Yoxford in Suffolk.
There, lady Catherine died fourteen days later on 26 January 1568 at the age of twenty-seven of tuberculosis.
Catherine was buried alongside her husband.