Lady Catherine Gordon (–October 1537) was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed he was Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. After her imprisonment by King Henry VII of England, she became a favoured lady-in-waiting of his wife, Elizabeth of York. She had a total of four husbands, but there are no records of any surviving children.
Family
Lady Catherine was born in Scotland, the daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, by his third wife, Lady Elizabeth Hay. Some 19th-century writers had assumed she was a daughter of King James I's daughter Annabella, who had been the Earl of Huntly's first wife.
Perkin Warbeck
Before 4 March 1497, Lady Catherine was given in marriage to the pretender Perkin Warbeck, who was favoured by King James IV of Scotland for political reasons, and who had apparently been courting her since 1495. A copy of a love letter from Warbeck to Lady Catherine Gordon survives:Most noble lady, it is not without reason that all turn their eyes to you; that all admire love and obey you. For they see your two-fold virtues by which you are so much distinguished above all other mortals. Whilst on the one hand, they admire your riches and immutable prosperity, which secure to you the nobility of your lineage and the loftiness of your rank, they are, on the other hand, struck by your rather divine than human beauty, and believe that you are not born in our days but descended from Heaven.All look at your face so bright and serene that it gives splendour to the cloudy sky; all look at your eyes so brilliant as stars which make all pain to be forgotten, and turn despair into delight; all look at your neck which outshines pearls; all look at your fine forehead. Your purple light of youth, your fair hair; in one word at the splendid perfection of your person:—and looking at they cannot choose but admire you; admiring they cannot choose but to love you; loving they cannot choose but to obey you.I shall, perhaps, be the happiest of all your admirers, and the happiest man on earth, since I have reason to hope you will think me worthy of your love. If I represent to my mind all your perfections, I am not only compelled to love, to adore, and to worship you, but love makes me your slave. Whether I was waking or sleeping I cannot find rest or happiness except in your affection. All my hopes rest in you, and in you alone.Most noble lady, my soul, look mercifully down upon me, your slave; who has ever been devoted to you from the first hour he saw you. Love is not an earthly thing, it is heaven born. Do not think it below yourself to obey love's dictates. Not only kings, but also gods and goddesses have bent their necks beneath its yoke.I beseech you most noble lady to accept for ever one who in all things will cheerfully do your will as long as his days shall last. Farewell, my soul and consolation. You, the brightest ornament in Scotland, farewell, farewell.
James IV gave Perkin Warbeck a 'spousing goune' of white damask for the wedding at Edinburgh, and the celebrations included a tournament. Warbeck wore armour covered with purple brocade.
Lady Catherine, now called the Duchess of York, sailed from Ayr with Perkin with Guy Foulcart in the Cuckoo dressed in a new tanny coloured "sea gown". She was taken prisoner at St. Michael's Mount after King Henry's forces captured Warbeck's Cornish army at Exeter in 1497. On 15 October 1497 Robert Southwell was paid £7 13s. 4d. for horses, saddles and other necessities for the transportation of "my Lady Kateryn Huntleye" to London. Her husband was hanged at Tyburn on 23 November 1499. Lady Catherine was kept a virtual prisoner by King Henry, who placed her in the household of his wife Elizabeth of York, where she became a favourite lady-in-waiting.
