Katherine Neville, Duchess of Norfolk

Katherine Neville (c. 1400 – late summer 1483) was a medieval English noblewoman, the third daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife Joan Beaufort.[1] Through her mother she was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt.[2]

On 12 January 1412, Katherine was married at the age of 12 to John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1392–1432). Their only known child was John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1415–1461).

Katherine married for a second time to Thomas Strangeways (c. 1395-before 1442)[3] - they had 2 daughters:

• Joan Strangeways, who married Sir William Willoughby. Their daughter Cecily married Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley.[4] They were ancestors of Herbert Hoover,[5] among many others.
• Katherine Strangeways, who married Thomas SUTTON de CLONARD. They had one son, Nicholas SUTTON de CLONARD.[6]

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 Lancastrian rebellion against Edward IV. 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.[7]

She was still alive in 1483, having survived all her children. She was last seen in public at the coronation of Richard III.[8]