Recently, British historian Alec Ryrie has described Katherine Willoughby as an ‘evangelical firebrand’ and perhaps ‘the most aggressive of the reformers’ within the royal circle around Henry VIII.
A hostile Spanish Roman Catholic source described her as ‘one of the worst heretics in England’.
Early years and marriage
Her life began in a staunch Roman Catholic environment. Her mother was an ardent Spanish Roman Catholic, who was the confidante of Queen Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII.
