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From: John Carmi Parsons <>
Subject: Catherine de Valois' second marriage
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 10:12:33 -0500 (EST)

Two brief remarks in clarification:

1. I would never deny the possibility that Catherine conceived OOW and only
then married Owen clandestinely to ensure that she would not bear an OOW
child. This, I think, would have been a primary consideration for any single
woman of Catherine's rank, and it may very well have been what happened in
Joan of Acre's case in 1297.

2. Catherine might very well also have wanted to enter a second marriage as a
means of taking herself out of the aristocratic marriage lottery. Again to
cite Joan of Acre's case (though not as a decisive precedent), Joan revealed
her union with Monthermer in time to forestall Edward I's plan to marry her to
the count of Savoy. Marriage to the king of England's mother, as I noted
earlier, would have been a tantalizing prospect for many a nobleman (in the
1420s and early 1430s, while Catherine was still of childbearing age, Henry
VI's weaknesses were not yet apparent). While there is no evidence that the
English council ever considered offering Catherine to a foreign ruler, there
was nothing to prevent their doing so if, for some reason, they thought it
would be better to get her out of England altogether or if they desperately
needed a new ally abroad. In such case, Catherine might reveal her married
state to stop any negotiations.

Again please note that I offer neither point as proof that a marriage did take
place.

John P.

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• Catherine de Valois' second marriage by John Carmi Parsons <>