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 Howard 1537. Margaret Douglas died in March 1578, age 63. Her grandson James Stewart became king of both Scotland and England. Other exist, mostly showing her decades after these portraits were painted. The portrait shown on this page, attributed to Hans Holbein, dated circa 1535–1540, is exhibited at the Toledo Museum of Art as "Portrait of a Lady, Probably a Member of the Cromwell Family" (1926.57). Another version of the portrait, now located at Hever Castle, dating from the 16th century, is exhibited as Queen Catherine Howard. The National Portrait Gallery exhibits a similar painting, "Unknown Woman, Formerly Known as Catherine