Catherine Carey Francis and Lady Knollys produced a number of offspring who survived to maturity. Of the children listed, only the last, Dudley, is known to have died in infancy: The possibility that Catherine, and perhaps her brother Henry, were illegitimate children of Henry VIII, appears in many works of fiction, including Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl". Catherine Carey is also a character in Gregory's "The Boleyn Inheritance", where she is sent to the royal court during the time of Queens Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, and in "The Virgin's Lover", where, as the mother of the seventeen-year-old Lettice Knollys,
House of Howard three are earldoms, and the latter a barony. Throughout much of English, and later British history, the Howards have played an important role. Claiming descent from Hereward the Wake, the resister of the Norman conquest who has been much celebrated in folklore, John Howard fought to the death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in defence of the cause for the House of York. They regained favour with the new Tudor dynasty after leading a defence of England from Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, and Catherine Howard subsequently became the fifth wife and Queen consort to King Henry