Kat Ashley

Katherine Champernowne also " Kat" Ashley ( * before 1503, † 1565) was the governess and first lady in waiting at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

Life

Katherine was the daughter of John Champernowne of Dartington and his wife Margaret Courteney. Your birth date is not secured handed down to us, the International Genealogical Index shows, however, that her parents were married 1478-1485. Since Katherine's father John died in 1503, Katherine was probably born before that date, most likely in Modbury ( another child of Sir John was baptized there ).

The young Elizabeth was cared for in the period before the birth of her brother Edward of Lady Bryan, but which was then made ​​available to the young heir to the throne are available. So Elizabeth was assigned a new governess than four years in July 1536. She called her governess " Kat", a short and diminutive of Katherine. The highly educated Kat Champernowne taught Elizabeth in such fields as astronomy, geography, history, mathematics, French, Flemish, Italian and Spanish. To compensate for these studies Elisabeth was also informed embroidering, dancing and horseback riding in sewing.

In 1545 Kat married Sir John Ashley, a cousin of Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. At the time of the wedding Katherine was already over 40 years old. After King Henry VIII died, Elizabeth lived in the household of her last stepmother Catherine Parr. This still married to Henry's death year with Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, but died as a result of the birth of her daughter Mary a year later. Seymour, who was planning a rebellion against his brother, the Lord Protector Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, was arrested in 1549 and executed in the same year. Katherine Ashley also was taken to the Tower, because of their possible involvement in the case of Seymour. In August 1549, she was released and returned to Elizabeth, until it was brought to the Tower in 1554, because it was assumed they would plan a plot against her sister, Queen Mary. After Elizabeth was released for lack of evidence, it Kat Ashley was back to her in October 1555 allowed.

Katherine was again arrested, and that after a suitcase full of heretical books was found in May 1556 a house search. The strict Catholic Mary Tudor sentenced to three months imprisonment in the Fleet prison and after their release it was Kat not allowed to return to Elizabeth. After Mary Tudor died in 1558, this order was canceled immediately, Kat was allowed to return to Elizabeth, and was appointed by her for first maid of honor. Her death in the summer of 1565 plunged Elisabeth in great sorrow.