Katherine Plantagenet, Countess of Huntingdon, Illegitimate Daughter of King Richard III of England

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Katherine Plantagenet’s father, King Richard III of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Katherine Plantagenet is one of the two recognized illegitimate children of King Richard III of England (reigned 1483 – 1485) and an unknown mother. Her date of birth is unknown but it is surmised that it was unlikely that Katherine was born before 1468, the year her father reached his sixteenth birthday. Some historians have suggested that Katherine’s mother may have been Katherine Haute who received an annual payment of five pounds from Richard and that Katherine Haute was the wife of James Haute, who was related by marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Katherine Plantagent’s paternal uncle King Edward IV of England. Katherine’s paternal grandparents were Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, a claimant to the English throne and the Yorkist leader during the Wars of the Roses until he died in battle in 1460, and Cecily Neville. Both Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville were great-grandchildren of King Edward III of England. John’s paternal uncle was King Edward IV of England.

Katherine had one royal half-brother from his father’s marriage to Anne Neville:

Nothing is known of Katherine’s childhood. The earliest mention of Katherine in contemporary documents is her marriage contract, dated February 29, 1484. The groom, William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, agreed “ to take to wife Dame Katherine Plantagenet, daughter of the King before Michaelmas of that year”. William Herbert was the son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Anne Devereux. He had succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Pembroke in 1469. William was a staunch Yorkist, and his first wife was Mary Woodville, the sister of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of the Yorkist King Edward IV. William and Mary had one daughter, Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert, her father’s only child and heir. The death of William’s wife Mary Woodville in 1481 weakened his links with the House of York and he was forced to give up the Earldom of Pembroke with its accompanying lands in Wales to King Edward IV’s son, the future King Edward V, then the Prince of Wales. In compensation, William was created Earl of Huntingdon with less valuable lands in Somerset and Dorset.

The marriage of Katherine Plantagenet and William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon occurred between March and May 1484. In March 1484, there is documentation in contemporary records that Katherine and William were granted an annuity and land in Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset.

The corpse of Richard III, King of England, found on the battlefield of Bosworth; Credit – Wikipedia

The reign of Katherine’s father King Richard III was only two years. On August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, 32-year-old King Richard III of England, lost his life and his crown. The battle was a decisive victory for the House of Lancaster, whose leader 28-year-old Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became King Henry VII, the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Katherine’s husband William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon played no part in the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Katherine Plantagenet survived her father King Richard III but when she died is unknown. The last mention of her in contemporary records was in March 1485 when Katherine and her husband received an additional annuity from King Richard III. Katherine died before November 25, 1487, the date of the coronation of her first cousin Elizabeth of York, daughter of Katherine’s paternal uncle King Edward IV and the wife of King Henry VII, the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Katherine’s husband William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon is on a list of nobility who attended the coronation as “a widower.” Katherine would have been around nineteen years old and possibly she died in childbirth along with her child. Katherine was buried at St. James Garlickhythe Church in London. Originally built in the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and was rebuilt so all tombs were lost. Katherine’s husband William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon survived her by nearly four years, dying at the age of forty, on July 16, 1491, in Troy Parva, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was buried with his first wife Mary Woodville at Tintern Abbey in Tintern in Monmouthshire, Wales, which now lies in ruins.

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Works Cited

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