Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk


Katherine Neville was a medieval English noblewoman, the third daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife 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:
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. 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. Whether or not she was forced into her final marriage against her will is unclear, but the unsavoury details added to the deep dislike of the Queen's family among the ruling class, which greatly weakened the Yorkist dynasty.
She was still alive in 1483, having survived all her children. She was last seen in public at the coronation of Richard III.

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