Katherine Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

Katherine Hastings (née Dudley), Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1538[1] or 1543–1545[2] – 14 August 1620) was an English noblewoman. She was the youngest surviving daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his wife, Jane Guildford, and a sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth I's favourite. Katherine Dudley was betrothed or married on 25 May 1553 at a very young age to Henry Hastings, the heir of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon.[2] From her mother's will it appears that she was still under 12 years of age in January 1555,[2] and a clause regarding her marriage implies that the match could still be dissolved: "if it so chance that my Lord Hastings do refuse her or she him".[2]

By the spring of 1559 Katherine Hastings was definitely married,[2] and on the death of her father-in-law in 1560 became Countess of Huntingdon. She remained childless, though she may have suffered a miscarriage in the spring of 1566.[1] For many years she lived with her husband in the English Midlands and Yorkshire, where she dedicated herself to the education of young women of the nobility and gentry.[1] Among her pupils were the diarist Margaret Hoby, and her brother Robert's stepdaughters, the sisters Penelope and Dorothy Devereux.[3] Like her husband, the Countess was a convinced Protestant with Puritan leanings.[1] After the Earl of Huntingdon's death in 1595 she lived at court and became one of the closest friends of the old Queen.[1] When young, she had suffered from Elizabeth's distrust of her husband's loyalty, which was nourished by his descent from the House of Plantagenet.[1] Katherine, Countess of Huntingdon died at Chelsea, London on 14 August 1620, and was buried in her mother's tomb at Chelsea Old Church.[1]