Catherine Howard her mother already had five children from her first husband, Ralph Leigh ( – 1509); she went on to have another six with Catherine's father, Catherine being about her mother's tenth child. With little to sustain the family, her father was often reduced to begging for handouts from his more affluent relatives. After Catherine's mother died in 1528, her father married twice more. In 1531 he was appointed Controller of Calais. He was dismissed from his post in 1539, and died in March 1539. Catherine was the third of Henry VIII's wives to have been a member of the English
Catherine Des Roches Catherine Des Roches Catherine Fradonnet (December 1542 – November 1587), called Catherine Des Roches, was a French writer of the Renaissance. She was the daughter of Madeleine Des Roches, née Madeleine Neveu (c. 1520 - November 1587) and of André Fradonnet, seigneur Des Roches, the procurer of Poitiers. Catherine was educated by her mother and was taught poetry, literature and ancient languages. Wanting to invest all her time in her intellectual pursuits, Catherine Des Roches never married. Both mother and daughter died of an epidemic on the same day. Contemporaries of Pierre de Ronsard, and friends of the humanist Estienne