Catherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham Catherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham Catherine Woodville (also spelled Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile) (c. 1458 – 18 May 1497) was an English medieval noblewoman. She was the sister-in-law of King Edward IV of England and gave birth to several illustrious children. Catherine was the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg. When her sister Elizabeth married King Edward IV, the King elevated and promoted many members of the Woodville family. Elizabeth Woodville's household records for 1466/67 indicate that Catherine was being raised in the queen's household. Sometime before the coronation of Elizabeth in May 1465, Catherine
Elizabeth Woodville she was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and her influence on events in these years, and her eventual departure from court into retirement, remains obscure. Elizabeth Woodville was born about 1437, possibly in October, at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. She was the first-born child of a socially unequal marriage between Sir Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, which briefly scandalised the English court. The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were gentry rather than noble, a landed and wealthy family that had previously produced commissioners of the peace, sheriffs, and MPs rather than peers of