The name has got royal pedigree with five queen consorts carrying it. Where it first came from isn't clear. The first queen Katherine was French and without any Katherines in her immediate family the reason she was given the name can only be guessed at. But she was born in 1401 when the cult of St Katherine of Alexandria was at its height so she may have been named for this saint. The name had been found in the English royal family before Katherine of Valois' marriage when the youngest daughter of Henry III arrived on the feast day of St Katherine and was given the name in her honour. She died young and just a few years later her brother, Edward I, had a little girl who he named Katherine, possibly in her honour. This little princess also died young.
But the first Katherine to wear the crown was the Valois princess who wed Henry V. On paper, this first Katherine was royal box office. She was born a princess of France, grew up into a beauty, married the most chivalrous of kings and then finding herself a widow in her early twenties she fell in love with a servant and their grandson founded one of Europe's most successful and famous royal houses. What's not to love about this first Kate, she is Hollywood and then some?
A romantic interpretation of the marriage of Katherine of Valois and Henry V in 1420 - Katherine's story is usually told as a romantic fairytale
Except as with all good fairytales, there are always demons lurking in the background and the reality of being the first Queen Katherine was slightly harsher than the rose tinted version in the history books. Her father was mad, her mother is said to have neglected her and she married Henry V as part of a peace treaty which saw him named heir of France above her own brother. When her husband and father died within months of one another she was left a widow at just twenty and mother of a nine month old who was now king of England and France. She had to watch advisers fight over his kingdoms and found herself the subject of a harsh law forbidding her remarriage until her own son could approve it. He was six at the time and unlikely to approve anything by himself for a good decade or so.
Katherine of Valois watched advisers tear two countries apart over the kingdoms of her father and her son
She did marry again - though there is no record of the wedding anywhere - to a servant called Owen Tudor. Their grandson, Henry, became Henry VII and founded the Tudor dynasty. But Katherine died fifty years before he claimed the crown. After her death her eldest son, Henry VI, suffered the same mental health problems that had affected her father and her second husband was executed as a traitor in the Wars of the Roses. Katherine herself was just 36 when she died, probably in childbirth.
Then we have the trio of Kates that make up most of the Tudor queens. Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragaon, was very popular. Even the king liked her for a while. And that meant a whole range of mums and dads naming daughters after her for the best part of two decades. Which was rather nice for this first Catherine but not so great for her husband because while he may have got rid of wife number one, her name followed him around like a bad smell.
Catherine of Aragaon. Being queen had a lot of advantages at the time including having people right across your kingdom naming their babies after you
In 1540 when he was meant to be marrying Anne of Cleves, one of her ladies in waiting caught his eye. Catherine Howard had been named in honour of the first queen of Henry. She became his fifth consort. But while wife number one had driven Henry mad by being too obedient and devoted to her marriage vows, the second Catherine in his life went the other way and forgot all about the fidelity part of being a queen within months.
England's third Queen Catherine, Catherine Howard who lost her head in 1542
Having had a pretty poor pass rate with the first two Catherines, Henry went for a third. Ever the optimist in the marriage stakes, the Tudor king married Catherine Parr who had been named after the first queen as well but with two previous marriages under her belt and her eye on someone else, proved more than a match in matrimony for the much married monarch. The fourth queen Kate of England is, so far, the most successful of the lot as she ruled as regent for her husband and in so doing became the first woman to officially wield kingly power in the country. She also managed to talk Henry out of his plans to make her his third wife without a head but that little marital inconvenience lessened her power considerably and after his death she was out maneouvred politically on a massive scale.
Kate the Great - Catherine of England number four was by far the most successful
Last on the list of Queen Consorts called Kate was Katherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess who came to England in 1662 to marry the newly restored King, Charles II. He already had several children by a mistress who was none too happy about a rival for her man's affections. And this Katherine was a Catholic - at a time when many at court mistrusted Catholics. She suffered quite a lot of abuse for this and her sadness was compounded by her inability to have children. But the king remained supportive of her. He may have had a string of lovers but he was quite certain that his queen would remain consort and defied plans to get rid of her or undermine her. She in her turn was a devoted queen and despite its unorthodox set up theirs was a model royal marriage in many ways.
Queen Consort Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. The Merry Monarch was her greatest supporter at court.
A queen regnant called Katherine is perhaps long overdue - it's among England's most regal names. But whether William and Kate will call a daughter after her mum remains to be seen - it's not a current tradition and might be seen as old fashioned. However, England's last three queen regnants have all been named after their mothers so a Queen Catherine would follow Anne, Victoria and Elizabeth II and that's not a bad start for any future monarch.
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