Catherine of Valois

Catherine of Valois was a daughter of Charles VI of France and queen consort of England through her marriage to Henry V. She was the mother of Henry VI and later formed a relationship with Owen Tudor, from whom the Tudor dynasty descended.

Catherine of Valois also held the offices or ranks of Fils de France and Prince of Achaea. Catherine of Valois belonged to the House of Valois; House of Tudor and operated within Kingdom of England. Catherine of Valois was born in Hôtel Saint-Pol and died in Bermondsey Abbey.

Joanna Hickson’s The Agincourt Bride follows Catherine of Valois from the unstable court of her father Charles VI into the marriage that makes her Henry V’s queen. Anne O’Brien’s The Forbidden Queen turns to her widowhood and the dangerous relationship with Owen Tudor, where private attachment threatens the rules surrounding a dowager queen. Hickson’s The Tudor Bride continues that story through the children born from Catherine and Owen’s union and the risks created by their Tudor blood. First of the Tudors shifts the focus to their son Jasper but keeps Catherine’s marriage as the origin of the dynasty he must protect. Nathen Amin’s Son of Prophecy then places Catherine and Owen within the longer history of the Welsh Tudors, showing how an apparently irregular royal marriage eventually produced the family from which Henry VII claimed the throne.