Lady Catherine Gordon

Lady Catherine Gordon (c. 1474–October 1537) was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed he was Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. After her imprisonment by King Henry VII of England, she became a favoured lady-in-waiting of his wife, Elizabeth of York. She had a total of four husbands, but there are no records of any surviving children.

Family
Lady Catherine was born in Scotland, the daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, by his third wife, Lady Elizabeth Hay. Some 19th-century writers had assumed she was a daughter of King James I's daughter Annabella, who had been the Earl of Huntly's first wife.

Perkin Warbeck
Before 4 March 1497, Lady Catherine was given in marriage to the pretender Perkin Warbeck, who was favoured by King James IV of Scotland for political reasons, and who had apparently been courting her since 1495. A copy of a love letter from Warbeck to Lady Catherine Gordon survives:"Most noble lady, it is not without reason that all turn their eyes to you; that all admire love and obey you. For they see your two-fold virtues by which you are so much distinguished above all other mortals. Whilst on the one hand, they admire your riches and immutable prosperity, which secure to you the nobility of your lineage and the loftiness of your rank, they are, on the other hand, struck by your rather divine than human beauty, and believe that you are not born in our days but descended from Heaven. All look at your face so bright and serene that it gives splendour to the cloudy sky; all look at your eyes so brilliant as stars which make all pain to be forgotten, and turn despair into delight; all look at your neck which outshines pearls; all look at your fine forehead. Your purple light of youth, your fair hair; in one word at the splendid perfection of your person:—and looking at they cannot choose but admire you; admiring they cannot choose but to love you; loving they cannot choose but to obey you. I shall, perhaps, be the happiest of all your admirers, and the happiest man on earth, since I have reason to hope you will think me worthy of your love. If I represent to my mind all your perfections, I am not only compelled to love, to adore, and to worship you, but love makes me your slave. Whether I was waking or sleeping I cannot find rest or happiness except in your affection. All my hopes rest in you, and in you alone. Most noble lady, my soul, look mercifully down upon me, your slave; who has ever been devoted to you from the first hour he saw you. Love is not an earthly thing, it is heaven born. Do not think it below yourself to obey love's dictates. Not only kings, but also gods and goddesses have bent their necks beneath its yoke. I beseech you most noble lady to accept for ever one who in all things will cheerfully do your will as long as his days shall last. Farewell, my soul and consolation. You, the brightest ornament in Scotland, farewell, farewell."

James IV gave Perkin Warbeck a 'spousing goune' of white damask for the wedding at Edinburgh, and the celebrations included a tournament. Warbeck wore armour covered with purple brocade.

Lady Catherine, now called the Duchess of York, sailed from Ayr with Perkin with Guy Foulcart in the Cuckoo dressed in a new tanny coloured "sea gown". She was taken prisoner at St. Michael's Mount after King Henry's forces captured Warbeck's Cornish army at Exeter in 1497. On 15 October 1497 Robert Southwell was paid £7 13s. 4d. for horses, saddles and other necessities for the transportation of "my Lady Kateryn Huntleye" to London. Her husband was hanged at Tyburn on 23 November 1499. Lady Catherine was kept a virtual prisoner by King Henry, who placed her in the household of his wife Elizabeth of York, where she became a favourite lady-in-waiting.

Life as Warbeck's Widow
Henry VII paid some of her expenses from his privy purse and gave her gifts of clothing. The privy purse accounts record her name as "Lady Kateryn Huntleye". These gifts of clothing included, in October 1498, a black velvet gown trimmed with mink and Calabrian squirrel, and a black cloth gown trimmed with lettice and miniver; in March 1499 a tawny gown edged with black velvet, frontlets, and tippets; in November 1501, clothes of cloth-of-gold furred with ermine, a purple velvet gown, and a black hood in the French style; in April 1502, black and crimson velvet for gown and black kersey for stockings; and in November 1502, black satin, and other black cloth, to be trimmed with mink (from her own stock) and miniver, with a crimson bonnet. On 25 January 1503, Catherine attended the ceremony of marriage between James IV and Margaret Tudor at Richmond Palace. James was represented by the Earl of Bothwell as his proxy.

In February 1503, Lady Catherine was a mourner at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, arriving in a "chair", a carriage, with Lady Fitzwalter and Lady Mountjoy. The train of her dress was carried by the Queen's mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Lady Catherine made the offerings at the masses and with 37 other ladies placed a pall, an embroidered cloth, on the coffin at Westminster Abbey. In 1510, Lady Catherine obtained letters of denization and that same year, on 8 August, was given a grant of the manors of Philberts at Bray, and Eaton at Appleton, both then in Berkshire. Two years later, she acquired along with her second husband the manor of 'Fiffhede', Fyfield, and upon surrender of patent of 8 August the three manors were all re-granted to Lady Catherine Gordon with the proviso she could not leave England, for Scotland or other foreign lands, without licence.

Subsequent marriages and death
Before 13 February 1512, she married James Strangeways of Fyfield, a gentleman usher of the King's Chamber. The couple endowed a chantry priest to sing for the souls of their parents at St Mary Overie at Southwark in London, where James Strangeways, James's father, was buried.

In 1517, she married her third husband, Matthew Craddock of Swansea, Steward of Gower and Seneschal of Kenfig, who died c. July 1531. Matthew Craddock's will notes the jewels and silver which Lady Catherine owned before they were married. These included a girdle with a pomander, a heart of gold, a fleur-de-lis of diamonds, and a gold cross with nine diamonds. He bequeathed her an income from the lands of Dinas Powys and Llanedeyrn near Cardiff.

Her fourth and last husband was Christopher Ashton of Fyfield. She is not recorded as having any surviving children; however, she acquired two stepchildren by Ashton's previous marriage.

According to biographer David Loades, Lady Catherine was head of Mary Tudor's Privy Chamber until 1530. When not at court, Catherine resided at Fyfield Manor, except during her marriage to Craddock, when she had gained permission to live in Wales. Catherine made her will on 12 October 1537, and died soon after.

Catherine was buried in the church of St Nicholas at Fyfield, with a monument including brass figures (now lost). Matthew Craddock had previously erected a chest monument for himself and "Mi Ladi Katerin" with their effigies in St Mary's Church, Swansea. The carved heraldry included emblems of the Gordon and Hay family. Both Catherine's mother and paternal grandmother were members of the Hay family.

In Literature
Lady Catherine Gordon features prominently in Mary Shelley's historical romance, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830). Her captivity is the subject of James Hogg's historical ballad, The White Rose o' Scotland, published in the Monthly Magazine in February 1834.

On screen
She was played by Elizabeth MacLennan in The Shadow of the Tower and by Amy Manson on the Starz series The White Princess.