Lady Catherine Gordon, princess of Scotland, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, was by all accounts a remarkable woman who became a legend in her own lifetime. She married four times for love in an age when men controlled the destiny of women and bartered them for gain. Her first husband was believed to be the younger of the two princes in the Tower.

Lady Catherine lived in a turbulent age of upheaval when survival required both courage and tenacity. But she not only survived; she even triumphed over the enormous tragedies that marked her life. Henry VII fell in love with the twenty year old beauty the moment he laid eyes on her, and remained besotted with Catherine to the end of his life. Though he tore her child from her arms and hid him away where she might never find him (because the babe was a threat to his throne) he still hoped to win her love. He viewed her husband with jealousy and hatred as his rival in both love and war.

Catherine’s husband, Richard of England—called Perkin Warbeck in England—was forced to watch helplessly as the Tudor king wooed his beautiful wife. But Catherine never succumbed to the lure of riches and royal power. Courageously, she rejected his overtures. Impoverished and a captive in the dangerous Tudor court, she stood by her husband so loyally, with such grace, dignity, and loving devotion, that she won the admiration of a nation. The English people adopted the Scots-born beauty as their own and named her their Pale Rose of England.

Henry VII never abandoned his efforts to win her love, and Catherine never wavered. After Henry’s death, she married three more times, each time for love.

Did she ever find her son again?

Did she ever find happiness?

For that you will have to read Pale Rose of England.

Sandra will offer a signed copy of The Rose of York: Fall from Grace with a gold award seal to someone who comments.

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