Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk

Who was Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk?

Katherine Neville or Catherine de Neville was the eldest daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort. Through her mother she was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt.

On 12 January 1412, Katherine was married at the age of 12 to John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Their only known child was John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.

Katherine married for a second time to Thomas Strangeways - they had 2 daughters:

Joan Strangeways, who married Sir William Willoughby. Their daughter Cecily married Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley. They were ancestors of Herbert Hoover, among many others.

Catherine Strangeways, who married Henry Grey, 4th Baron Grey of Codnor.

She married for a third time to John, Viscount Beaumont, who was killed in 1460.

Her fourth and last marriage was infamous, known by contemporaries as the "diabolical marriage". She married John Woodville, brother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. He was 19 years old at the time of their marriage, while she was 65. Nonetheless, she survived him, as he was executed in 1469 after the Battle of Edgecote, on the orders of her nephew Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick during a brief period of Lancastrian readeption.