Catherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham Catherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham ("née" Catherine Carey; c. 1547 – 25 February 1603), was a cousin, lady-in-waiting, and close confidante of Elizabeth I of England. She was in attendance on the queen for 44 years. Catherine Carey was the eldest daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and his wife Anne Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan and Anne Whitney. Hunsdon was Queen Elizabeth's cousin, being the son of Mary Boleyn, and court gossip hinted at a closer connection, since Mary had been the mistress of Henry VIII. Catherine may have joined Elizabeth's household
Catherine Howard nobility or gentry; Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were from continental Europe. Catherine was probably born in Lambeth in about 1523, but the exact date of her birth is unknown. Soon after the death of her mother (in about 1528), when Catherine was aged about five, she was sent with some of her siblings to live in the care of her father's stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The Dowager Duchess presided over large households at Chesworth House in Horsham in Sussex, and at Norfolk House in Lambeth where dozens of attendants, along with her many wards—usually the