Double Feature: Isabella and Catherine of Valois, Sisters and Queens

Women of royal families began their official lives young, betrothed and then married to foreign suitors.  And, if died, these young brides were quickly recycled, the word choice is deliberate, put back on the marriage market again, and sometimes again.  Only rarely were they allowed to chart their own destinies.  Two of the daughters of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria illustrate this contract perfectly.

Isabeau of Bavaria had 5 daughters, two of whom became Queens of England, another the Duchess of Britanny, another Duchess of Burgundy and one a nun.  This was a good dynastic record for that generation of the Capet family.  Two of their daughters married Plantagenet kings.  The first up was Isabella, 1389-1409.  Isabella was just seven years old in 1396 when she married the widowed Richard II, who was 22 years her senior.  Not surprisingly, they didn't live together as husband and wife.  Richard took care of his child bride, providing for her safety by sending her to Porchester Castle while he left to campaign in Ireland.  Her tenure as Queen of England was short-lived.  Richard was deposed in 1399 and dead by 1400.  The incoming King, Henry IV, ordered young Isabella to move out of Windsor Castle, but had no intention of returning her to France.  She was too valuable a prize to waste.  He wanted to marry her to his own son, he future Henry V.  Isabella, however, still only 11 years old, stood her ground.  She intended to remain in mourning for the husband who had treated her so well and wanted to return to her French family.  Henry IV eventually let her go.  Isabella would ultimately marry her cousin, the Duke of Orleans, give birth to a daughter, Joan, but die in childbirth at the age of 19.

But the Plantagenets hadn't given up on a Valois bride for Henry V.  Isabella's younger sister Catherine, 1401-1437, would be 18 years old when she married Prince Henry in 1420.  Henry was already the victor of Agincourt and quite a catch.  Catherine was crowned with him in 1421 and quickly became pregnant with a son.  Henry returned to France to resume fighting the final stages of the Hundred Years War.  Catherine gave birth to a son, the future Henry VI.  Henry V died during the Siege of Meaux in 1422.  His son was King of England at the ripe age of 8 months, and Catherine was a young Queen Dowager.  There was no going home for her.  She was now the mother of a Plantagenet lion and had a royal legacy to protect. 

Catherine was still young and marriageable.  There was talk of her marrying a powerful English noble, perhaps a member of the royal family.  To control this, Parliament passed a law requiring anyone marrying the Queen Dowager to have the King's consent, only after Henry VI had attained the age of majority.  As he was still a school-age child, the nobles thought they'd put a lid on this problem for now.  They had reckoned without Catherine's heart and her basic need for human companionship.  She fell in love with a member of her household, Own Tudor, and by 1431 gave birth to their first child, Edmund.  Parliament at first was lenient with Owen Tudor, granting him the rights of an Englishman.  Owen and Margaret would have six children, four of whom would live to grown up.  Edmund, Jasper, Owen, Jr., and Margaret, who would later become a nun. 

On January 3, 1437, Catherine died at Bermondsey Abbey, shortly after her last childbirth.  She had gone to the Abbey seeking a cure for a condition otherwise unspecified.  At the time of her death, her eldest son Henry VI was 15, considered an adult by the standards of the time, though a young one and still vulnerable, particularly given his mental issues.  Owen Tudor had only Henry's goodwill toward himself and his children to stand between him and the wrath of the nobles.  Henry's Council summoned Owen to appear before them on charges of having broken the law by marrying Catherine.  There was no proof of any marriage and nothing in the law preventing Catherine from having had a sexual relationship without the King's permission.  Owen couldn't be charged with a crime, but he was separated from his children and placed in Newgate Prison, but later moved to Windsor Castle.  Later, he would be reunited with his sons under the care of Katherine de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk.  Henry VI took an interest in his two younger brothers.  Edmund became Duke of Richmond and Jasper became Duke of Bedford.

Edmund later married Margaret Beaufort, a wealthy heiress and Plantagenet by descent with a claim to the throne in her own right.  She bore him Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII.  The Tudors would claim the throne through Margaret's biological rights, and legally as heirs to Henry VI through a fictional marriage to Catherine of Valois.  This was pure smokescreen, as Catherine couldn't have transmitted any royal rights to her possibly illegitimate Tudor offspring, and Henry had to cement his claim with a marriage to Elizabeth of York, but propaganda is usually built on alternative facts, anyway.  Meanwhile, Catherine's tomb in Westminster Abbey was inadvertently destroyed during renovations by Henry VII.  Perhaps not wanting to call attention to her off-the-record 2nd marriage/relationship, he didn't have the tomb repaired.  The lid of the coffin exposed the body and-here we go with another creepy story about corpses, yuck!.  The corpse became a tourist attraction.  In 1699, diarist Samuel Pepys visited the Abbey and was able to both embrace "had the upper body in my hands" and kiss, "I did kiss a Queen."  Victoria did Catherine a favor and had the tomb repaired, with the body out of sight and out of reach!