General Notes

Catherine of Valois (1401-37), queen consort of England (1420-22), wife of
Henry V, king of England, and daughter of Charles VI, king of France, born in
Paris. When she was 12 years old, Henry V renewed the negotiations begun by
his father for a marriage with Catherine. Henry demanded a large dowry and the
French regions of Aquitaine and Normandy. The proposition was rejected, and in
1415 Henry invaded France and forced compliance with his terms. When he
married Catherine in Troyes, France, in June 1420, he received the provinces
claimed, the regency of France during the life of Charles, and the right to
succeed to the French throne after Charles's death. In February 1421 Catherine
was crowned at Westminster Abbey, and in December she bore a son, later King
Henry VI. After the death of Henry V in 1422, Catherine's union with the Welsh
squire Owen Tudor produced four children. One of her sons, Edmund Tudor, earl
of Richmond, married Margaret Beaufort; their son became Henry VII, the first
Tudor king of England.