Katheryn of Berain

Katheryn of Berain (born 1535 - Latin eulogy; died aged 56 on 27 August 1591), sometimes called Mam Cymru ("mother of Wales"), was a Welsh noblewoman noted for her four marriages and her extensive network of descendants and relations. Life She is sometimes referred to as Katheryn Tudor, her father being Tudur ap Robert Vychan and her mother Jane Velville. Her maternal grandfather Sir Roland de Velville (1474 – 25 June 1535), is said to have been a natural son of King Henry VII of England by a Breton lady. Katheryn, who is said to have been a ward of Queen Elizabeth, was the heiress to the Berain and Penymynydd estates in Denbighshire and Anglesey. John Salusbury At the age of 22, Katheryn married John Salusbury, Esquire, son of Sir John Salusbury of Llewenni (died 1578), of the prestigious Salusbury Family of Lleweni, Denbighshire. According to John Ballinger, this was probably a "child marriage". There is said to be a letter written by young Salusbury while at Westminster School in which he mentions his wife. He died in late May or early June 1566. They had been married for nine years and had two sons: Thomas Salusbury (c. 1564 – September 20, 1586). Executed as a traitor for his involvement in the Babington Plot. He married his stepsister Margaret Wynn (daughter of Katheryn's third husband, Maurice Wynn from Maurice's first marriage), and their daughter, Margaret, eventually inherited Berain, John Salusbury (c. 1565/66 – 1612), married Ursula Stanley, illegitimate daughter of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and Jane Halsall. One of their two surviving sons was Sir Henry Salusbury, 1st Baronet, the first of the Salusbury Baronets of Lleweni (1619). Henry was the father of Anne Salusbury, the wife of Arthur Stanhope and ancestor of all the Earls of Chesterfield from the fifth Earl. Shakespeare's poem The Phoenix and the Turtle was published in a collection called Love's Martyr (1601), dedicated to Katheryn's son John Salusbury, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in June 1601.