Katherine Plantagenet: Richard III's Illegitimate Daughter
There is little known about Katherine and she is mentioned in just a few contemporary documents.
Her mother was possibly Katherine Haute, wife of James Haute, a relative of the Woodvilles. It is possible that Richard, in his youth, had an affair with this woman. He made an annual payment of 100 shillings from his East Anglian estates to this woman, before or in 1475. It is not known why he did so, unless as support for a child.
The earliest reference to Katherine is in her marriage convenant, dated 29th February 1484. We don't know where and how she grew up, but we know her father provided for her.
In this, William Herbert, convenanted with Richard to take Dame Katherine Plantagenet as his wife before Michaelmas (29th September).
Richard was generous, and provided a jointure in lands of £200 per year. He also settled the cost of the wedding and bestowed lands and lordship valued at £666 yearly on them.
They lived on their Welsh estate, Raglan Castle.
We can only assume that Richard recognised this child as his own and although baseborn and illegitimate, he cared enough to marry her well and make her Countess of Huntingdon.
When the couple married, Richard also granted William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon and Katherine, his wife, various manors in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
As for Katherine's age, again, assumptions. The church permitted a girl to co-habit with her husband by the age of twelve. She cannot have been much older than 12-14 years. William, her husband, was about thirty and was on his second marriage (his first wife was Mary Woodville, sister of Queen Elizabeth Woodville).
The last reference to Katherine occurs on 8th March 1485. We don't know if she had children, but we know that she died young, for a list of peers present at the Coronation of Elizabeth of York in November 1487 describes her husband as a widower.
If Katherine had lived, she was probably 17 years old at her death. But that also is a matter of speculation. Chances are that her husband, now in Henry Tudor's good graces (although his son-in-law, he didn't fight for Richard at Bosworth, arriving "too late"), repudiated her as the usurper's daughter.
Katherine might have been buried at Raglan, which was owned by her husband and father-in-law, because there is no evidence that she lies with her husband at Tintern Abbey, where he is buried with his first wife.
Source: Alison Weir
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