Katherine Stuart (died 1650) was an English noblewoman and Royalist supporter during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. She had married, in secret, her first husband,
George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny
Lord George Stewart (or Stuart), 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny (17 July 1618 – 23 October 1642) was an Anglo-Scottish nobleman of French descent and a third cousin of King Charles I of England. He supported that king during the Civil War as a Royali ...
, against the wishes of both King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
and her parents. George commanded a regiment for the king in the opening stages of the war and was killed at the
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge Hill) was a pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642.
All attempts at constitutional compromise between K ...
on 23 October 1642.
Katherine used a visit to London, ostensibly to deal with her husband's estate, to clandestinely pass messages to Royalists in the city. After her discovery she was imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
before being released by the intervention of the French ambassador.
Widowed since 1642, Katherine married
James Livingston in 1648. The pair unsuccessfully attempted to release the king from parliament's captivity during his journey to trial. After the king's execution, the couple fled to the Netherlands where Katherine died in 1650.
Early life and secret marriage
![Anthony Van Dyck Lord George Stuart Seigneur D'Aubigny](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Anthony_Van_Dyck_Lord_George_Stuart_Seigneur_D%27Aubigny.png)
Stuart was born Katherine Howard to
Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk
Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, (13 August 15843 June 1640) was an English nobleman and politician.
Born at the family estate of Saffron Walden, he was the son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, by his second wife, Catherine Knyvet ...
, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Home. Stuart defied her parents and secretly married
George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny
Lord George Stewart (or Stuart), 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny (17 July 1618 – 23 October 1642) was an Anglo-Scottish nobleman of French descent and a third cousin of King Charles I of England. He supported that king during the Civil War as a Royali ...
, in May 1638. By doing so she also went against the plans of King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
who was guardian to George and his brother
James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond
James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox KG (6 April 1612 – 30 March 1655), lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman. A third cousin of King Charles I, he was a Privy Councillor and a key member of the Royalis ...
. The marriage was immortalised in a
Van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
portrait of George which had the motto "love is stronger than I am". The couple had a son,
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox KG (7 March 1639December 1672) of Cobham Hall in Kent and of Richmond House in Whitehall, London, 11th Seigneur d'Aubigny in France, was an English nobleman of Franco-Scottish ancestry an ...
(born 1639), and a daughter, Katherine Stewart, Baroness Clifton (born before 1642).
First English Civil War
At the outbreak of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
in August 1642 George sided with the king and was killed whilst commanding a cavalry regiment at the
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge Hill) was a pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642.
All attempts at constitutional compromise between K ...
on 23 October 1642. After her husband's death Katherine joined Charles' court at Oxford. She was granted permission by the parliamentary forces to enter London in May 1643 to put her husband's affairs in order and used this trip to convey messages from the king to Royalist sympathisers in the city (part of the
Waller plot).
[ King Charles once received so many letters in code from Katherine on the subject of his Scottish supporters that he put them aside, writing it would cost a whole day to decipher them.][Nadine Akkerman, ''Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain'' (Oxford, 2018), pp. 45–6.]
The Waller Plot failed and Katherine was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. Several of the conspirators were hanged but Katherine managed to arrange her release through the French ambassador by virtue of her husband's French titles. By May 1645 Katherine was in Bristol where, as the First Civil War neared its end, she sought to return to the king's favour through George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, (bapt. 5 November 161220 March 1677) was an English politician who as Lord Digby (a courtesy title) sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641, when he was raised to the House of Lords by a writ of acc ...
.[
]
Second English Civil War
In Summer 1647 Katherine was granted extensive rights and claims over her husband's estate by the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, perhaps due to the influence of her brother James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
. The Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War took place between February to August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641†...
began in February 1648 and later that year Katherine married James Livingston, Viscount Newburgh. The king was by then in custody of the parliamentarians and stayed with the Newburghs at their house in Bagshot, Surrey in December 1648 whilst being taken from the Isle of Wight to Windsor in preparation for his trial. Katherine and her husband attempted to free the king but were foiled by Major General Thomas Harrison; though they were able to pass messages from Charles to his wife Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...
.[
]
Later life
Following the king's execution Katherine and her husband fled with other royalists to The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
in the Netherlands. The couple had a daughter, Elizabeth, before Katherine died in 1650. James was made Earl of Newburgh following the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of 1660. Katherine's death was a blow to the Royalists and she was described by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from ...
, in his ''History of the Rebellion
''The History of the Rebellion'' by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon and former advisor to Charles I and Charles II, is his account of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Originally published between 1702 and 1704 as ''The History of the Rebellion ...
'' as "a woman of a very great wit, and most trusted and conversant in those intrigues which at that time could be best managed and carried on by ladies".[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Katherine
1650 deaths
Cavaliers
Katherine
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...
Katherine
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...
English exiles
English expatriates in the Netherlands
Newburgh
Daughters of British earls
Wives of knights