Katherine Willoughby

Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, inherited substantial estates as a child and became a ward of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Her mother, Maria de Salinas, had been a close attendant of Catherine of Aragon, connecting Katherine from an early age to the highest levels of the Tudor court. After Mary Tudor’s death, Katherine married Brandon in 1533 and became Duchess of Suffolk.

Katherine developed strong evangelical Protestant convictions and became an important patron of reformers. She was close to Catherine Parr and remained prominent during the reign of Edward VI, but the accession of the Catholic Mary I made her position dangerous. Katherine and her second husband Richard Bertie eventually left England for continental exile, returning after Elizabeth I came to the throne.

Tony Riches’s Katherine – Tudor Duchess is a biographical novel centred on Katherine Willoughby’s passage from wealthy ward to Duchess of Suffolk and outspoken Protestant patron. It follows her marriage to Charles Brandon, friendships within the households of Henry VIII’s queens, and growing commitment to evangelical reform under Edward VI. Mary I’s accession turns convictions that had brought Katherine influence into a source of danger, carrying the story into the continental exile she undertook with Richard Bertie rather than renounce her faith.