Previous to the following term, on the removal of the two Catholic chief justices, Catlyn was, on 22 January, promoted to the head of the court of King's Bench, in the place of Sir Edward Saunders.
That he was bold and independent also is apparent from a letter to Lord Burleigh, who had conveyed a message from the queen, complaining of his judgment in a suit in which the Earl of Leicester was a party, wherein he says he "dares not alter the ancient forms of court."
[6] The whole proceedings are minutely detailed from the report, apparently, of "Mr. Thomas Norton, who wrote down the trial on the scaffold," being, it is to be presumed, the "short-hand writer" employed by the crown.
The duke being tried by his peers, neither of the chief justices interfered, except when questions of law were raised, which they decided fairly, according to the acknowledged practice of the times.
[8] Chief Justice Catlyn died at his seat at Newenham in Bedfordshire towards the end of 1574, when he was succeeded by Sir Christopher Wray.