Catherine of Valois

Overview

Catherine of Valois is the French princess whose marriage to Henry V gave the Treaty of Troyes its dynastic mechanism.

Current Profile

Catherine fled Paris with the French royal family as English pressure increased. Her June 1420 marriage to Henry joined the Valois and Lancastrian houses and was meant to make their descendants heirs to separate English and French kingdoms under one crown.

Her coronation in England and the birth of a son in December 1421 appeared to complete that design. Henry’s death when the child was nine months old instead turned the settlement into an infant inheritance.

Key Characteristics

• Daughter of Charles VI and member of the displaced French royal court.
• Dynastic bride at the center of the Troyes settlement.
• Queen crowned in England after entering the Anglo-French regime.
• Mother of the infant heir on whom the dual-monarchy project depended.

Evidence

• Dynastic role: 490. Hundred Years’ War: England Triumphant (Part 4) links Catherine’s marriage directly to Henry’s designation as French heir.
• English queenship: 490. Hundred Years’ War: England Triumphant (Part 4) records her arrival and coronation in England.
• Succession fragility: 490. Hundred Years’ War: England Triumphant (Part 4) notes her son’s infancy at Henry’s death.

Qualifications

The episode treats Catherine chiefly as part of the settlement’s dynastic architecture and offers little evidence about her personal preferences or independent political action.

What Changed

• Created Catherine as the marriage and maternity link connecting treaty design to an infant Anglo-French succession.

Relationships

• Charles VI of France - father whose succession settlement defined Catherine’s marriage.
• Henry V of England - husband and English-French heir under the treaty.
• Treaty of Troyes - agreement operationalized through Catherine’s marriage.
• Anglo-French Dual Monarchy - governing project intended for Catherine’s descendants.