Her father, although he was not a leading political figure, enjoyed the confidence of King Edward IV: in 1469 he sat on the commission of oyer and terminer which convicted Thomas Hungerford of Rowden and Henry Courtenay of treason.
[3] Ross suggests that it was loyalty to Edward's children that led Berkeley, like several other key members of the royal household, to oppose Richard III when he seized the throne.
Despite a record of fomenting riot, which brought him before the Star Chamber on at least one occasion, he enjoyed the trust of successive Kings, and was Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1478–79.
[2] Within a few years, with the House of York almost extinct and the Tudor dynasty on the throne, Katherine and William faced an uncertain future.
Henry VII, the first Tudor king, did not have his son's ruthless determination to eliminate all the surviving Yorkist claimants,[6] but he was deeply suspicious of the de la Poles, and with some reason; William's eldest brother, John had been killed at the Battle of Stoke Field, fighting against Henry for the pretender Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be the rightful Yorkist heir.