One consequence of the female succession was that after Henry IV's death in 1347, his sons-in-law could not inherit immediately; it became possible only after Judith of Brandenburg died on 1 February 1353.

Only eight days later, on 9 February 1353, Margrave Frederick appeared at the court of Emperor Charles IV in Prague, to be enfeoffed with the territory around Coburg.

This is reflected in an episode in a surviving chronicle, which relates how Catherine was sent back home when her dowry failed to be delivered.

In accordance with her late husband's will, Catherine took up their guardianship and ruled until her death both her own territory of Coburg and Weißenfels (which she had received as jointure from her husband) and jointly with her sons the territories along the middle Saale and between the Saale and Mulde, which they had received at the division of Chemnitz of 1382.

Catherine is also remembered because she commissioned Heinrich von Vippach's Fürstenspiegel Katherina divina.