Seymour, Lady Catherine

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Seymour, Lady Catherine (1540–68). Lady Catherine was the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, her grandmother being Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. She was only 13 when the disastrous abortive coup took place. Her sister and father were both executed and the earl of Pembroke, to whom she had been betrothed, broke off the contract. In 1560 she made a secret marriage to the earl of Hertford: Elizabeth sent them both to the Tower. As next in succession to the crown, Catherine was in the midst of intrigue. Philip of Spain considered the possibility of a marriage and in 1562, when the queen was believed to be dying of smallpox, it was mooted to bring Lady Catherine out of the Tower and proclaim her. But the queen recovered and Lady Catherine spent the last six years of her life under house arrest with various guardians.

J. A. Cannon