Katherine of England

Katherine of England (Old English: Katerine; 25 November 1253 – 3 May 1257) was the fifth child of Henry III and his wife, Eleanor of Provence. According to 13th-century chronicler Matthew Paris, when Katherine died she was deaf and may have had an intellectual disability, though it is unclear whether this is true. Some modern historians have theorised that Katherine alternately may have had a degenerative disease or a childhood illness; historians disagree on what disease or disability she may have had, or if she had one at all. She died when she was three years old. Her parents "celebrated her birth and commemorated her in death." Birth Katherine was born early in the morning at Westminster Palace, Westminster, London. She was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Boniface of Savoy, Katherine's maternal great-granduncle, who also stood as her godfather. She received the name Katherine because she was born on the feast of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. A few days after her christening, on the day of Saint Edward the Confessor's death, 5 January 1254, the king held a massive banquet, to which he invited all the nobility, including Emma le Despencer and her son, John. The provisions for this banquet included "fourteen wild boars, twenty-four swans, one hundred and thirty-five rabbits, two hundred and fifty partridges, fifty hares, two hundred and fifty wild ducks, sixteen hundred and fifty fowls, thirty-six female geese and sixty-one thousand eggs". Life Soon after the banquet, the queen had to leave England and join her husband in Gascony, leaving the infant Katherine at Windsor Castle. The aforementioned Emma le Despencer was appointed governess and her aides were two wet nurses, Agnes and Avisa. The next year, the king and queen returned and the king ordered "gold clothes, with borders embroidered with the king's coat of arms", on 2 May 1255 for Katherine. Death In the autumn of 1254, Katherine became gravely ill and was sent to Emma le Despencer's house in Swallowfield. She had few companions of her own age so the king sent one of his men into Windsor Great Park to capture a roe deer for his daughter to play with. The change seemed to benefit the sickly princess, and she was brought back to Windsor around or before February 1256. But, she had a relapse in late 1256.