Wives and Widows

Catherine de Valois and Henry V

Wives and Widows

• Catherine of France = Henry V• Jacqueline of Hainault = Humphrey of

Gloucester• Jacquetta of Luxembourg = John of Bedford• Margaret of Anjou = Henry VI• The Paston Women

Genealogical Table of Henry VI

John Talbot presents Poems and Romances to Margaret of Anjou

CatherineHenry V

Henry VI

Humphrey, duke of Gloucester Richard, duke of YorkTalbot Presentation

Jacqueline (1401-36)Countess of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland Married John, Dauphin of France

(1415-17) John IV, Duke of Brabant

(1418-22) Humphrey, Duke of

Gloucester (1423-28) Frank van Borssele (1434-

6)

Lowlands

Humphrey and Eleanor Cobham (1400-1452)

1422 Lady in waiting to Jacqueline1425 Mistress1428 Wife1441 Trial1442 Divorce and life imprisonment

Jessica Freeman (2004) “Sorcery at court and manor: Margery Jourdemayne, the witch of Eye next Westminster,” Journal of Medieval History, 30:4, 343-357, DOI: 10.1016/j.jmedhist.2004.08.001

Margery JourdemaineWitch of Eye next Westminster

How she in waxe by counsel of the witch, An image made, crowned like a king,...... which dayly they did pytchAgainst a fyre, that as the wax did melt, So should his lyfe consume away unfelt.

The Paston Women

• Margaret Mautby [Margaret Paston (1421/2– 1484)– Wife of John (I) Paston

• Margery Paston Calle (~1448 – before 1482)• Margery Brews Paston (? – 1495)

Paston Letters 1449

• pray you to get some crossbows and windlasses to bind them with, and crossbow bolts;

• Defenses of Lord Molyns retainer• Requests for purchases in London

Margery Paston

• Richard Calle, bailiff for the Pastons• Secret marriage – opposition

The Valentine Letter

Wives, Widows and Future Kings

Effigy of Catherine of Valois Owen Tudor

Catherine of Valois (1401-37)

1420-22 Married to Henry V Henry VI

1425 Rumors of attachment to Edmund Beaufort1426 Petition to Commons to allow King’s widows to marry at will1427 Statute forbidding marriage of King’s widows

Catherine of Valois

~ 1428-29 Marriage to Owen Tudor (1400-1461)Edmund Tudor (~1430-56), Jasper Tudor (~1431-1495), Owen Tudor (?), daughter who may have become a nun and died young. 1432 Owen Tudor given rights of an Englishman

Jaquetta of Luxembourg (1416-1472)

1433 Marries John, duke of Bedford (1389-1435), brother of Henry V1437 Marries Richard Woodville (d. 1469), a minor knight

14 children including Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV (witchcraft?)