Katharine Basset (c. 1522 – after 1558, occasionally misnamed "Elizabeth"[1]) was an English gentlewoman who served at the court of King Henry VIII, namely in the household of Queen Anne of Cleves, and was briefly jailed for speaking against him.
[16] Her sister Anne Bassett was rumoured to be a mistress of Henry VIII, by whom she was showered with great gifts and kept at court even after her stepfather Viscount Lisle had been sent to the Tower of London for alleged treason, namely for having plotted to betray Calais, then an English dominion, to the French.
According to rumour, Anne Basset was being considered as Henry's sixth wife on the eve of Queen Catherine Howard's execution.
[17] Katharine came to public attention at the same time that her sister was supposedly being considered as a new wife for King Henry VIII, and was arrested and briefly imprisoned on suspicion of having made treasonable utterances.
Katharine is said to have gossiped that Catherine Howard's misdemeanours and execution were the actions of God showing the king that his previous marriage to Anne of Cleves was still in force.
[18] The Letters and Papers of Henry VIII record the following examination dated 4 December 1541 of Jane Rattsey, who it appears had been provoked by Katharine Basset's relation to her of the news of Catherine Howard's misdemeanours and by her expression of praise of Anne of Cleves, into making unconsidered and impolitic replies to her:[19]
[20] On 8 December 1547 she married Sir Henry Ashley (1519–1588), MP, of Hever in Kent, later of St Giles, Upper Wimborne in Dorset, who was later knighted in 1553 the day after the coronation of Queen Mary I.