The Forbidden Queen

AND AFTER THE FINAL WORD IN THE FORBIDDEN QUEEN…

There is nothing but tragedy to record for Katherine. In her own words she suffered from ‘a grievous malady, in which I have been long…troubled and vexed.’ Whether physical or mental is not clear, but she died at Bermondsey Abbey on 3rd January 1437, aged thirty-five years. Her infant daughter, sometimes named Margret, sometimes Katherine, was born and died at Bermondsey.

Katherine was buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1503 her body was placed in Henry V’s tomb on the orders of her grandson Henry VII, but—what a terrible, gruesome custom—was often displayed as a curiosity. In 1669 Samuel Pepys viewed Katherine’s body, held it and planted a kiss on her mouth—and was proud to record it. It was not until 1871 that her remains were moved to their present spot in Henry V’s chantry. There is a striking, wooden, painted effigy, used in her first funeral in the Abbey Museum. I recommend that you go to see such an accurate likeness, taken from her death mask.

As for Owen… As soon as Katherine was dead, Gloucester took his revenge on Owen, resulting in Owen’s being arrested without due process of law, his possessions seized and he was incarcerated in Newgate prison. It took a year before his innocence was recognised; he was released, pardoned of all offences.

But with the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, Owen, fighting beside his son Jasper on the Lancastrian side at Mortimer’s Cross in the Welsh Marches, was apprehended after the battle and taken to Hereford and there he was beheaded by the Yorkists. His head was placed on the base of the market cross in High Street, where ‘a madde woman’ combed his hair and washed away the blood from his face and then set a hundred candles about his head. Owen did not expect to die. When he saw that this would be his fate, he is recorded as saying ‘that head shall lye on the stock that was wont to lye on Queen Katherine’s lap.’ A sad end.

Owen’s body was taken to be buried in the chapel of the Greyfriars Church in Hereford but Greyfriars suffered at the Dissolution, the building demolished and the land sold off for other purposes. All trace of his grave has disappeared.

But of course, the careers of the children of Katherine and Owen should be on record:

Edmund Tudor: married Margaret Beaufort. Their son Henry Tudor was to become King Henry VII and the founder of the Tudor dynasty. (See Family Tree)

Jasper Tudor: was created Earl of Pembroke, later Duke of Bedford. He married Katherine Woodville, one of Elizabeth Woodville’s sisters.

Owen Tudor: legend says he became a monk at Westminster Abbey under the name Edward Bridgewater. The provenance is very unstable here.

Tacinda: disappears without trace.

Young Henry lived on as Henry VI into adulthood, but events of the Wars of the Roses overtook him. Never a strong character, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London where he was eventually murdered, perhaps at the hand of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. His son Edward, Prince of Wales, was killed after the Battle of Tewkesbury, thus bringing the direct line of Lancaster to an end.