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10:19 pm
Boleynfan said
I agree, Bella44: Katherine Wiloughby is very interesting. I’ll admit, though, that I have a bit of sown-in prejudice for her because I love Mary Tudor aka Katherine’s husband Charles Brandon’s first wife.
Mary was not actually Charles Brandon’s first wife! He had a very chequered marital history. He secretly married a certain Anne Browne in 1505 (shades of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville!) when he was about 21, they had a daughter in 1506, then he cast her off on the grounds that the secret marriage had been no such thing, and married a certain Margaret Neville in 1506. I seem to recall she was a rich older woman and was Anne Browne’s aunt. He then got this marriage annulled on the grounds of his precontract to Anne Browne and remarried her publicly in 1508. They had another daughter in 1510. Anne Browne died at some point between this birth and 1515. He married Princess Mary Queen of France in 1515, but she died of course in 1533. Katherine Willoughby was the daughter of Maria de Salinas, one of KoA’s ladies in waiting who had married Lord Willoughby. Katherine was named after KoA. She was originally betrothed to Charles Brandon’s son, but he married her himself. She was 14 and he was about 50. They had two sons, who died within an hour of one another of either the sweating sickness or smallpox. Katherine Willoughby married a Mr Bertie after the Duke’s death, but continued to be known as Duchess of Suffolk, as with the death of her two sons the title had become extinct and there was no new Duchess of Suffolk to challenge her use of the title. She had to go abroad to excape Mary Tudor on her accession, as Katherine was a staunch protestant.
4:46 pm
January 3, 2012
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AnneTheQueene said
a lot of these mistresses I never even heard of like Katherine Wiloughby. But I also heard a story that one day when Henry was out hunting and he came across a young woman and her father. He chatted with the young woman and took her on his horse back to his castle and the father never saw his daughter again. Not sure if this is a true story but I heard it somewhere.
There is a story similar to the one you have mentioned here, concerning King John, and the maid of Dunmore. John had been visiting a castle and had taken a fancy to the knights daughter, Her mother, who having heard the rumours that King John, liked to sport with virgins, decided she and her daughter would go and visit some other family member far away, and made arrangements to leave the castle as soon as possible. Somehow John found out what the mother was planning, and had his men intercept the travelling party, with orders to detain the mother, and send the daughter to Dumore tower where he would soon come and keep her company. This done John enjoyed the evening’s entertainment that the knight had given him, and left the next morning and made his way to the tower. However things didn’t turn out as he had hoped, the young woman refused, John’s advances, so vehemently that he grew cross (We all know he had a fearful temper) knowing that if the girl was allowed to go home, her father would no doubt be extremely angry that the King had tried to seduce his daughter, John ordered his men to do away with her, and rode off towards where ever he was going. The poor girl was poisoned and dumped her body not far from the tower, before riding on to catch up with their master. Her mother who had managed to escape her guards, rushed home to tell her husband that they had been waylaid on the road and their daughter had been dragged away but some men that she recognised, as being part of the King’s enterage. The knight quickly spurred to action, and made ready to form a search party, knowing that the only place that his daughter could have been taken would be Dunmore tower. As he and has men mounted their horses, some of the tenant farmers brought back the dead knights daughter, saying that they had found her body not far from Dunmore. The distraught Mother and Father were beside themselves with greif, but from that moment on the Knight swore he would revenge his daughter’s death at the king’s hands, even if it cost him his own life. I forget the name of the knight, but I do know he was intrumental in getting King John to sign the Magna Carta (The Great Charter)
A variation to this story was used in the Tudors, the King saw a man and his lady riding together on the road and took the lady to one of his many hunting lodges, where they played tiddly winks.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
