Katherine de la Pole
Katherine de la Pole was the oldest daughter of Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and Katherine de Stafford.
She became abbess of Barking Abbey in January 1433. In this capacity, between 1437 and 1440, she took care of Edmund and Jasper Tudor, the two eldest sons of Catherine of Valois by her second husband Owen Tudor. Katherine persuaded King Henry VI to take an interest in the boys, who were his half-brothers. Henry later ennobled them, thereby taking one of the important steps that would later enable Edmund's son Henry Tudor to claim the English throne. Edmund's wife Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, had been a ward of Katherine's brother, William de la Pole, steward of the royal household.
