Lady Catherine Gordon

Lady Catherine Gordon (c. 1474–October 1537) was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed he was Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.

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.

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.

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.

[4]James IV gave Perkin Warbeck a 'spousing goune' of white damask for the wedding at Edinburgh, and the celebrations included a tournament.

[5] 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".

[8] 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.

[16] In 1510, Lady Catherine obtained letters of denization and that same year, on 8 August, was given a grant of the manors of Philberts at Bray, and Eaton at Appleton, both then in Berkshire.

[11] Matthew Craddock had previously erected a chest monument for himself and "Mi Ladi Katerin" with their effigies in St Mary's Church, Swansea.

[23] Lady Catherine Gordon features prominently in Mary Shelley's historical romance, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830).

Her captivity is the subject of James Hogg's historical ballad, The White Rose o' Scotland, published in the Monthly Magazine in February 1834.