A True Tudor Love Story: Katherine Willoughby and Richard Bertie, Guest Post by Jo Romero
- Feb 7
- 4 min read
I am so pleased to welcome back Jo Romero, a friend and follow history blogger. You can view her previous posts on a riot, dog and the George Hotel in Reading here, and Reading During the Wars of the Roses here. Her debut book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, was published in 2024. I was lucky enough to feature an interview with her about that book here. It is also a privilege to welcome Jo back to share an interesting aspect of her latest book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, which came out last year. I am very grateful to have been sent a copy by Jo, which I will be reviewing in the next Voyager of History post.
Jo has been obsessed with history for as long as she can remember and gained her History degree at the University of Hull. She has been published in The Historians magazine and runs the blog Love British History where she shares articles, travel stories and historic sketches.
As we all know, some of the greatest unions of the Tudor age weren’t always fuelled by love. Royalty and members of the aristocracy were expected to marry to increase family fortunes, property holdings and status. But some were motivated by love, like the partnership of Katherine Willoughby, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, and her household servant, Richard Bertie.
Katherine and Richard were married in around 1552, although Katherine is perhaps best known for her more famous marriage to her first husband, the enigmatic Sir Charles Brandon, friend and close advisor to Henry VIII. The Duke of Suffolk, Brandon married Katherine when she was just fifteen years old in 1534, to gain the lucrative lands of the Willoughby family, of which Katherine was heir. The couple later had two sons named Henry and Charles, but Brandon died in 1545, followed closely by both children, who died in Cambridge of the sweating sickness in 1551.
Now a widow, Katherine spent more time at her estates, among them her homes in London and Lincolnshire. There, Richard Bertie acted as her household servant, negotiating with suppliers and maintaining the general administration of her properties. The sources show Richard to have been persuasive, with a sharp attention to detail and a quick, self-deprecating sense of humour. This contrasted sharply with Katherine’s well-known, and often abrupt, personality. Bertie was called upon to answer for insults previously levelled by his wife on Bishop Stephen Gardiner. The bishop complained that the duchess had once shouted abuse to him as he doffed his cap politely at a window. She was also said to have called her lap dog after him, dressing it in a vestment.
This was all provocative fun, until the Catholic queen, Mary I succeeded to the throne in 1553. With her husband Philip of Spain, she forced her subjects to practice Catholicism and brought England once again under the power of the Pope. Katherine and Bertie were both dedicated Protestants, and Gardiner, remembering the duchess’s insults, was said to have been determined to make an example of them. After a brief showdown with the bishop, Bertie received permission to leave the country to gather debts due to his wife. Leaving Katherine initially behind, he arranged for her to secretly follow him, and she boarded a ship out of the realm and into exile in the Netherlands.
Here in wider Europe, the couple were safe from Mary, Philip and Gardiner’s gaze, but faced various episodes of adversity together. They prepared to sleep in a church porch with their young daughter Susan, until Richard overheard some locals speaking Latin and asked them for directions to a friend’s house. They fled one inn in the middle of the night, when locals suspected they weren’t the merchant family they professed to be, and between them, they shared food and childcare duties. Katherine also gave birth in these uncertain circumstances, to a son named Peregrine, and Richard fought off a crowd of attackers with his rapier.
Although they must have missed the easy life and home comforts of Grimsthorpe they remained overseas for the rest of Mary’s reign. Establishing a Protestant community and centre of worship, they elevated the careers of Protestant clergymen and became figures of solidarity, publicly resisting the Counter-Reformation in England. Katherine maintained a friendship with William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and after their return under the Protestant queen, Elizabeth I, tried to secure a title for her husband, which was unsuccessful. Katherine died in 1580 and Bertie followed in 1582.
Although Katherine is better known for her marriage to Charles Brandon, and her ties with the Tudor court of Henry VIII, her partnership with Richard Bertie should not go un-noticed. They had a successful marriage of almost thirty years that was almost certainly driven by romance. It probably also set tongues wagging in the household at Grimsthorpe in its early stages, as their relationship progressed. Their personalities were very different – Bertie was calm and dissembling while Katherine was outspoken and often argumentative. However, these differences worked in their favour, as Bertie diplomatically soothed tensions following the behaviour of his wife, and Katherine used her connections and ambition to fight for Bertie’s title. As a couple, they stood firm in their beliefs, preferring exile to adherence to a religion that was not in their heart. Choosing to face adversity, they were, at times, not guaranteed a meal or a place to stay, but shared different responsibilities and tasks in total support of one another. They show a different side to relationships in the Tudor period, bridging gaps between social expectations and working cohesively as a partnership. This is why I chose Katherine and Bertie as one of the Power Couples of the Tudor Era in my book. Their power was subtle, but it was significant, as they combined solidarity, trust and support.
You can find out more about Katherine Willoughby and Richard Bertie – and nine other power couples of the period – in my book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books.
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