When the Prince of Wales eventually ascends to the throne, the UK will be graced with the sixth Queen Catherine.
But an author has issued a warning about the fate of previous queens that share her name.
A new book, the Catherine Code, has pointed out the difficulties faced by the Queen Catherine’s that came before her.
One was abandoned, another beheaded and the third falsely accused of poisoning her husband the king.
Autho Bob Casey reveals: “Kate’s five royal namesakes were ill-fated in various ways, and often ill-treated by their husbands.”
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Catherine of Aragon, well known as the first wife of Henry VIII, was the daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabelle of Castille.
She was initially married to Henry’s older brother Arthur, who died as the Prince of Wales of in 1502.
To maintain the Spanish alliance, Catherine married Henry six years later. She had six children but only one, Mary I, survived.
But her failure to produce a male heir led to Henry divorcing her for Anne Boleyn. Catherine was banished from court and died just three years later,
Another wife of Henry VIII named Catherine also had a bleak fate.
Catherine Howard, his fourth wife, was from a family who had served four monarchs when she married the King.
She was aged just 17 at the time of her marriage and had been sexually abused by her music teacher at 13.
Her downfall came when Henry discovered her premarital relationships and she was beheaded at 19 in the Tower of London.
Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, outlived him but this does not mean she didn’t escape the Catherine curse.
She remarried after the king’s death but died in childbirth just a year later.
Catherine of Braganza was the daughter of King John IV of Portugal and the wife of King Charles II of England.
She became the target of Protestant extremists, her being Roman Catholic, after she did not have any children.
They accused her of scheming to poison the king to put his Catholic brother James on the throne. The king cleared her of all charges.
England has had three other Queen Catherines – Catherine of Lancaster, wife of Henry III, and Catherine of Valois, wife of Henry V.
Princess Kate will be hoping that she avoids the ‘Queen Catherine curse”, when her husband Prince William is eventually crowned the nation’s monarch.
