Lady Catherine

Lady Catherine de Bouqulement or Kate, as she is known to her friends and close family, was born in January 1605, the only surviving child of an Anglo-Irish earl from an old Norman family. Her mother, herself the daughter of a duke, died in 1608 bearing a short-lived son, James. 

Kate was the apple of her father’s eye in her earliest years, until he died when she was 5 and the earldom and all the entailed lands were inherited by a distant cousin. She inherited her mother’s original dowry lands in England and her father’s unentailed English holdings. 

She was granted as a ward and a reward to Lord and Lady Harington, who were the guardians of King James’ daughter Princess Elizabeth, and were financially very squeezed by the cost of maintaining the needed expenses for the princess. Unlike many wards whose lands and persons were much abused, the Haringtons stewarded the lands well, benefitting from their income, whilst providing Kate herself with a good home.

Kate became a favourite of Princess Elizabeth. So when the Haringtons travelled to Heidelberg after Elizabeth’s marriage to the Elector Palatine in 1613, she insisted Kate went with them. 

But then disaster struck. Lord Harington died on his way back to England and a few months later his son and heir died too, leaving Lady Ann Harington with the family affairs to put in order. In the train of those events, Kate was pushed to one side and if not quite forgotten, left in Heidelberg whilst Lady Harington was in England and still claiming the income from her lands. 

So Kate, aged eight, was brought up in the broad renaissance/humanist court of Heidelberg and she thrived educationally, helped along by the many varied freethinking tutors who were drawn to the intellectual and artistic hub that Heidelberg had become under its young rulers.

Then in 1619 the Palatine couple accepted the Bohemian crown and she went to Prague as one of the now Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia’s ladies in waiting. 

When Lady Harington died the following year in May, Kate’s wardship was again up for grabs. But Elizabeth intervened and persuaded her father King James to let the wardship lapse as it was so close to expiry anyway (sixteen was the age at which wardships for women expired) having only a couple of months to run. So funds from her lands then went to Kate so she could support herself in the style she would need as a Bohemian lady in Elizabeth’s court. 

From that point on, aged fifteen, Kate was effectively an independent woman.

Then in November 1620 the dream went horribly wrong and she had to flee with the rest of Elizabeth’s immediate household after the Battle of the White Mountain forcibly removed the Palatines from their new kingdom to seek eventual exile in Holland.

Kate was already a superb rider and a good shot, she had learned many languages and was a dab hand at playing games with codes and ciphers. She had acted in masques and slipped out into the streets dressed as a boy for high jinx. Now she saw her skills had a purpose and she resolved to keep her independence and do all she could to help restore Elizabeth to her Heidleburg home. 

This led Kate to a wild and very unladylike career across Europe, the tale of which may one day be told, but at some point in that career, Kate met Philip Lord and the rest, as they say, is history…