Catherine was the daughter of Duke Charles I of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy. Agnes was the daughter of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria. Catherine of Bourbon was the great-great grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Born in Liège, c. 1440, she grew up under the care of her mother and was given an education worthy of her rank. She had many brothers and sisters.
Catherine spent a great deal of time at the French and Burgundian courts while growing up. She attended the wedding of her sister Isabella in 1454 to Charles, Count of Charolais (the future Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy) as his second wife. Both before and after King Edward IV of England’s accession to the throne, there were discussions of a marriage between him and Catherine. These negotiations were never completed, and Edward ended up making a surprise marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464.
When her father died in 1456, Catherine, along with her mother and sisters, went to live at the Burgundian court of Philip the Good, where she met her future husband, Adolf of Egmont. Adolf was the son of Arnold, Duke of Guelders, and Catherine of Cleves, another niece of Philip the Good. Adolf visited the Burgundian court regularly and took part in tournaments. In 1461, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Philip the Good arranged marriages for political and diplomatic purposes for four of his sister Agnes’ daughters. Following extensive negotiations, Catherine and Adolf were married in Bruges on December 18, 1463, with Philip the Good and Adolf’s mother in attendance. Catherine of Cleves promised her daughter-in-law a pension to be paid from her own income in the event Catherine was widowed. Adolf departed while Catherine stayed on, with Adolf visiting her regularly.
Her daughter Philippa, named after the Burgundian duke, was born in Brussels in March 1465. Philip the Good, Catherine’s mother Agnes and Adolf’s mother Catherine of Cleves, all attended the baptism. Philippa would marry René II, Duke of Lorraine and Bar and was the great-grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots through her son.
Burgundian influence grew in Guelders, and the duchy had to fight for its independence. At first, Adolf sided with Philip the Good and his mother in a scheme to overthrow his father Arnold. Following a prolonged and contentious feud, Adolf took his own father prisoner and had himself named duke in his place in 1465.
In September 1466, Catherine, along with an entourage of fifty-seven, departed to join Adolf in Grave. In March 1467, while pregnant, Catherine and Adolf visited the Burgundian court in Brussels. Weeks later, Catherine dined with her niece, Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of her sister Isabella and Charles the Bold. Catherine’s son was born on November 9, 1467, and named Charles after his uncle.
Catherine preferred to live in Nijmegen with her two children. After a few months of illness, Catherine died at the Valkhof Castle on May 21, 1469, at 29. Adolf, highly involved in ducal business, entrusted the guardianship and education of his two children to his sister Catherine of Egmont. They buried Catherine in a private crypt in St. Stephen’s Church that was originally intended to be the mausoleum for her husband and children.
In the end, they buried Adolf in the cathedral of Tournai. They interred Catherine’s son in the Eusebius Church in Arnhem, and Philippa would be buried in the Church of the Cordeliers in Nancy. In 1475, Catherine’s money, as specified in her will, elevated St. Stephen’s Church’s status to a collegiate church. Adolf would turn against Burgundy when Philip the Good died and was succeeded by his son Charles the Bold. Charles released Arnold from prison, restored him to power and pressured him to mortgage his duchy to him. Charles also forced Arnold to designate him as his heir to the duchy of Guelders, disinheriting Adolf from his rightful position.
In 1473, Charles the Bold besieged Nijmegen and captured Adolf’s children Philippa and young Charles, placing them in the Burgundian court in the custody of his wife Margaret of York. When Arnold, Duke of Guelders, died that same year, the people of Guelders recognized young Charles as their duke. Finally, in 1477, Charles the Bold died in the Battle of Nancy in January. After being liberated, Adolf led Flemish troops in the siege of Tournai, but he died in battle that same year.
Young Charles, now the Duke of Guelders, only took over as reigning duke in 1492 and would continue to fight for independence and for power over his duchy against the Habsburgs until 1538. In 1512, young Charles commissioned a monument to be placed directly over his mother’s remains in the crypt of St. Stephen’s.
The most prestigious place for a tomb in a medieval church is the center of the choir before the main altar, and he had the monument placed there. It has a covering of richly engraved brasses, a rare survival in the Netherlands, and Catherine herself appears among the engravings. Her remains rest in a coffin in a specially constructed vault under the church floor. The inscription reads:
In the year of our Lord, 1469, on the 22nd day in May, died the high-born, illustrious, wealthy princess, the lady Catherina of Bourbon, duchess of Guelders and Gulik, countess of Zutphen; pray for the soul.
Further reading: “The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage at the Burgundian Court” by Susan Abernethy, “Valois Burgundy” by Richard Vaughan, “Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy” by Richard Vaughan, “Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen” by Arlene Okerlund, “In the Shadow of Burgundy: The Court of Guelders in the Late Middle Ages” by Gerard Nijsten, “Philippa van Gelre, hertogin van Lotharingen, (1465-1547), De ‘vergeten’ oudere zus van hertog Karel van Egmond – deel I”, by Pauline Zwetheul in the Arnhem Historical Society magazine Arnhems Historisch Tijdschrift, April 2023, pgs. 205-14, “Philippa van Gelre, hertogin van Lotharingen, (1465-1547), De ‘vergeten’ oudere zus van hertog Karel van Egmond (deel II)”, by Pauline Zwetheul in the Arnhem Historical Society magazine Arnhems Historisch Tijdschrift, March 2024, pgs. 3-13, “A Son’s Delayed Memorial to His Dead Mother” by Sophie Oosterwuk and Trudi Brink
