page_title: Lady Katherine Grey
section_title: Imprisonment
hierarchical_section_title: Lady Katherine Grey / Imprisonment
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Lady Katherine or Catherine Grey (25 August 1540 - 26 January 1568) and her son Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache (21 September 1561 – 21 July 1612).
context_page_description: Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford, born Lady Katherine Grey, was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.
  A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she emerged as a prospective successor to her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, before incurring Queen Elizabeth's wrath by secretly marrying Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. Arrested after the Queen was informed of their clandestine marriage, Katherine lived in captivity until her death, having borne two sons in the Tower of London.
context_section_description: Katherine, Lady Hertford, concealed the marriage from everyone for months, even after she became pregnant; in her eighth month of pregnancy and on progress with the royal court to Ipswich, she decided to ask someone to plead for her with the Queen. She first confided in Bess of Hardwick, who refused to listen to Katherine and berated her for implicating her. Katherine then went to her brother-in-law, Robert Dudley. Visiting his bedroom in the middle of the night, she explained her dilemma. As Dudley's room adjoined the Queen's chambers, he was afraid they might be overheard or that he might be caught with a visibly pregnant woman at his bedside, and tried to get rid of Katherine as soon as he could. The next day he told Elizabeth everything he knew regarding Katherine and her pregnancy.
  Queen Elizabeth was infuriated that her cousin had married without her knowledge or consent. The marriage also upset Anglo-Scottish diplomacy, as the possibility of a union between Lady Katherine and the Earl of Arran, a young and unstable nobleman with a strong claim to the Scottish throne, had thereby been removed as an option. The Queen also disapproved of her choice of husband and, still unmarried, also feared that Katherine's ability to bear male offspring could possibly facilitate a rebellion in support of Katherine as queen. To Katherine's misfortune, her claim to the throne was at the time argued by a book written by John Hales.
  Queen Elizabeth imprisoned Lady Katherine in the Tower of London, where Edward Seymour (Lord Hertford) was sent to join her on his return to England. Bess of Hardwick was also imprisoned, as Elizabeth had become convinced (not without reason) that the marriage was part of a wider conspiracy against the Crown. Sir Edward Warner, Lieutenant of The Tower, permitted secret visits between Katherine and Edward. Warner reported that the furnishings of Katherine's room, which were provided from the Royal Wardrobe in the Tower, had been damaged by her pet monkey and dogs. While imprisoned in the Tower, Katherine gave birth to two sons:
  Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp (1561–1612), who married Honora Rogers and had six children, including William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset. Among his descendants are Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (née Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon), and the present Dukes of Northumberland.
  The Hon. Thomas Seymour (1562/3, Tower of London – 8 August 1600). Baptized on 11 February 1563, he married Isabel Onley (d. 20 August 1619), daughter of Edward Onley MP, of Catesby, Northamptonshire. The couple had no issue, and were buried at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, where there is a monument with effigies in their memory.
  In 1562, the marriage was annulled and the Seymours were censured as fornicators for "carnal copulation" by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This rendered the children illegitimate and thereby ineligible as successors to the throne. Nonetheless, this did not stop their being courted as potential heirs to the Crown.
caption: Lady Katherine Grey with her elder son Edward, Lord Beauchamp.
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