Lady Catherine Grey

Lady Catherine Grey
then Lady Herbert, later Countess of Hertford
Lady Catherine Grey "The La Kathe'/ Graye. / Wyfe of Therle of / Hertford" is inscribed on the reverse of this miniature by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560
Spouse(s)	Henry, Lord Herbert (m. annulled); Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford
Issue Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp; The Hon. Thomas Seymour
Noble family	Grey
Father	Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Mother	Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk
Born	25 August 1540 Bradgate Park, near Leicester
Died	26 January 1568 (aged 27) Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suffolk
Buried	Salisbury Cathedral

Catherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford (25 August 1540 – 26 January 1568), born Lady Catherine Grey, was the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.

A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she emerged as a prospective successor to her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, before incurring Queen Elizabeth's wrath by secretly marrying Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. Arrested after the Queen was informed of their clandestine marriage, Catherine (as Lady Hertford) lived in captivity until her death, having borne two sons in the Tower of London.

Lady Catherine was born at Bradgate Park, near Leicester, the second surviving daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his marriage to Lady Frances Brandon. She was the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and elder sister of Lady Mary Grey. Catherine Grey's maternal grandparents were Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor (formerly Queen Consort of France), youngest surviving daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Through their grandmother, the Grey sisters had a close claim in the line of succession to the English throne. They were preceded in the line of succession only by Henry VIII's three children – Prince Edward, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth – and the descendants of Princess Margaret, the elder daughter of Henry VII and Queen Consort of Scotland, after 1542 represented by Mary, Queen of Scots. However, Henry VIII had excluded the Scottish regal line from the English succession in his Will, placing the Grey sisters next-in-line after his own children.