Catherine Plantagenet

My name is Catherine: I am the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III of England and Lady Katherine Haute. Although the nature and duration of their relationship isn’t known, most historians believe I was born before his marriage to Queen Anne Neville in 1472. Historians and Authors alike tend to agree I was about 13 or so when he was crowned King of England in 1483, and that I lived at Sheriff Hutton with my brother, John. However, it is unknown how long I lived there, or what my relationship was with my mother- if I had one at all. Not much is known about her, except that she had two children at least: myself and my brother, and that she received a pension from our father annually of £10.

In the 1480s, I was married to one William Herbert, whom I lived with until after my father’s death. During the reign of Henry VII, I was investigated for my Yorkist blood, and was subsequently sentenced to home confinement. It was during this sentence I died- from a cause lost to history- as the accounts of the Coronation of Elizabeth Of York tells, my husband was a widower in 1488.

Although I lived a short life, I am often portrayed as happy until the death of my father at the very least. Hopefully, in a day not too far from this, more information will be known about me, and I shall be a shade, forced to linger in the annals of history no longer. Yet, until that day comes, here I am, all that is left of me.