Catherine of York (14 August 1479 – 15 November 1527) was the sixth daughter of King Edward IV of England and his queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.
Soon after the death of her father and the usurpation of the throne by her uncle Richard III, Catherine was declared illegitimate along with the other children of Edward IV. The princess' mother, fearing for her children's lives, moved them to Westminster Abbey, where the late king's family received sanctuary and spent about a year; later she moved to the royal palace. When Richard III died, and Henry Tudor was on the throne under the name of Henry VII, the act recognizing the children of Edward IV as bastards was canceled. Henry VII married the eldest of Edward IV's daughters, Elizabeth, and Catherine became a valuable diplomatic asset: marriage plans with John, Prince of Asturias and later with James Stewart, Duke of Ross were made for her, but in both cases it did not come to a wedding. In 1495, Catherine was married to William Courtenay, son and heir of the Earl of Devon, an ardent supporter of Henry VII.
In 1502, Catherine's husband was suspected of being involved in the conspiracy of the House of York pretender to the throne, Edmund de la Pole, and was soon arrested, deprived of his property and rights to inherit and transfer his father's titles and possessions to his children. Catherine herself, thanks to the patronage of her sister, remained at large. After the death of Henry VII in April 1509, the new king forgave William Courtenay and returned his confiscated estates to him; Catherine's father-in-law also soon died. In May 1511, William Courtenay was restored in his title of Earl of Devon, but a month later he died of pleurisy.
Left a widow at the age of thirty-one, Catherine took a vow of celibacy. In 1512, she received from the king the right to use for life all the possessions of the late spouse in the county of Devon, in the same year the title of Earl of Devon was transferred to the ten-year-old son of the princess, Henry Courtenay. After the death of her husband, Catherine rarely visited the court: one of the few visits was the christening of the daughter of Henry VIII, Princess Mary in 1516, in which Catherine was the godmother. In Tiverton, Catherine was the head of the most powerful family in the area and the owner of a large estate, so that she could lead a lifestyle consistent with her origin. Catherine died at Tiverton Castle at the age of forty-eight and was buried with great ceremony in the adjacent parish church St. Peter. Of all the grandchildren of Edward IV, Catherine's children became the only ones who inherited claims to the English throne from the House of York.
The exact date of Catherine's birth is unknown. Documents have been preserved related to the manufacture of a baptismal font for her by Piers Draper; based on them, historians date the birth of the princess on 14 August 1479 or a little earlier. The alleged birthplace is Eltham Palace in Greenwich. Catherine was the sixth daughter and the ninth of ten children of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. The princess' wetnurse was Jane or Joanne, wife of Robert Coulson, who in November 1480, received from the king an annuity payment of £5 per year for her services.
Catherine had six sisters, of whom only four reached adulthood—three older (Elizabeth, Cecily and Anne) and one younger (Bridget); Mary, born in 1467, died at the age of 14 from some illness, and Margaret, born in 1472, died in infancy. Catherine also had five brothers: three elder full brothers who were sons of Edward IV, and two elder half-brothers from her mother's first marriage to John Grey of Groby: Thomas and Richard Grey. The youngest of Catherine's full brothers, George, died at the age of about two years, while the other two brothers, Edward V and Richard, disappeared from the Tower in 1483 during the reign of their uncle Richard III.
Almost from birth, Catherine was a desirable bride and in the future could become a pawn in the politics of dynastic marriages. Soon after her birth, in August 1479, a proposal was received for Catherine to marry the heir to the Catholic Monarchs—John, Prince of Asturias, who was a year older than the princess. On 28 August 1479, a preliminary marriage agreement was concluded; on 2 March 1482, this agreement was ratified by the Spanish side. However, in April 1483, the princess's father suddenly died, and the negotiations were terminated.
Edward IV's death was followed by a political crisis that dramatically changed the position of the former queen and her children. Catherine's older brother, Edward V, who succeeded to the throne, was captured by his uncle Lord Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Anthony Woodville and Richard Grey (Catherine's uncle and half-brother, respectively) who accompanied the young king, were arrested. The king was moved to the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his only full-brother, Richard; together with the rest of the children, among whom was Catherine, the dowager queen took refuge in Westminster Abbey. Two months later, on 22 June 1483, Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was declared illegal; all the children of the late king were declared illegitimate by the act of parliament Titulus Regius and deprived of the right to the throne and all titles. A few days later, Anthony Woodville and Richard Grey were executed. On 6 July 1483, Richard of Gloucester was proclaimed king under the name of Richard III; shortly thereafter there was no news of Catherine's brothers locked up in the Tower.
On Christmas Day 1483, Henry Tudor, whose mother was plotting with Elizabeth Woodville against King Richard III, swore in Rennes Cathedral that he would marry Edward IV's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, or the next Cecily (if the marriage with Elizabeth for some reasons will be impossible) after he takes the English throne. However, the uprising of the Tudor party, led by the Duke of Buckingham, failed even before this oath. After the failure of Buckingham's rebellion, Richard III agreed to negotiate with his brother's widow, Elizabeth Woodville. On 1 March 1484, the king swore publicly that the daughters of his late brother would not be harmed or molested; in addition, Richard III promised that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower or any other prison, that they would be placed "in respectable places of good name and reputation", and later be married to "men of noble birth" and given dowry lands with an annual income of 200 marks each. The princesses moved under the care of their "gracious uncle", who gave them rooms in his palace. Tudor historian Edward Hall writes that Richard III "made all the daughters of his brother solemnly arrive at his palace; as if with him new—familiar and loving entertainment—they were supposed to forget ... the trauma inflicted on them and the tyranny that preceded this". According to the generally accepted version, Catherine moved to the royal palace with her sisters, but there is an assumption that Catherine and her younger sister Bridget stayed with their mother after leaving the sanctuary.
Two years later, in August 1485, Richard III died at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor became the new king by right of conquest under the name of Henry VII. He fulfilled his promise and married Elizabeth of York, and also canceled the Titulus Regius act, which deprived the children of Edward IV of titles and rights to the throne. The act of Titulus Regius was removed from the archives, as were all documents related to it. In 1492 Dowager Queen Elizabeth died; Catherine took part in her funeral ceremony, becoming one of the youngest mourners at the royal funeral. Left an orphan, Catherine finally settled at the court of her sister the queen.
Henry VII, once on the throne, began to build grandiose matrimonial plans for his wife's relatives. First of all, he wanted to establish peace with his northern neighbour—the Kingdom of Scotland. In November 1487, a preliminary agreement was concluded on the marriage of Catherine with the second son of King James III, James, Duke of Ross, who was almost three years older than the princess. According to the same agreement, Catherine's sister Cecily was to become the wife of the heir to the Scottish throne, James, Duke of Rothesay, and James III, widowed by that time, was to marry the mother of the princess, Dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville. But James III was killed in June 1488 before these marriages were made; negotiations were interrupted and never resumed.