My interest in the duchy of Guelders began when I discovered Philippa of Guelders, Duchess of Lorraine and Bar, grandmother of Marie de Guise and great-grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Philippa’s aunt Catherine played an integral role in her upbringing and in the duchy’s history. Guelders fought for many years to maintain its independence against the incursions of the Valois duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, and the Habsburg Empire.
Born c. 1440, Catherine was the fourth and youngest child of Arnold, Duke of Guelders and Catherine of Cleves, a granddaughter of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Catherine of Cleves is memorialized in her commission of the medieval illuminated manuscript known as the Hours of Catherine of Cleves. There is no information available about the early life of Catherine of Guelders. She lives in the shadow of her siblings.
Her brother Adolf engaged in a family feud with their father Arnold, whom he captured and imprisoned in 1465, declaring himself duke of Guelders in his father’s place. Catherine’s sister Mary made a brilliant match by marrying James II, King of Scots in 1449. Her sister Margaret married Frederick I, Count Palatine of Simmern. There is plenty of evidence Catherine’s father tried to find her a husband. When the impoverished Duke Arnold made his will in 1473, he arranged for payment of a dowry for the thirty-three-year-old Catherine.
Her single status may have given rise to the rumors appearing in the seventeenth century of a secret marriage to Louis of Bourbon, Bishop of Liège. Louis was the brother of Catherine’s sister-in-law, Catherine of Bourbon, wife of her brother Adolf. Louis had three natural sons, but the identity of the mothers is unknown. Certainly, Catherine met Louis at some point. The difficulty in verifying the rumors is that we don’t know where Catherine was between 1465 and 1473. Contemporary sources from Gelderland and Liège are silent about any relationship, marital or extramarital, for Catherine.
She emerged from obscurity only in 1477, when the government of Guelders encountered a serious political crisis. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, had captured Duke Adolf and held him prisoner in 1471, and took away his children Philippa and young Charles, sending them to the Burgundian court under the guardianship of his wife, Margaret of York. He released Duke Arnold from captivity and forced Arnold to mortgage the duchy to him and to name him his heir, in effect disinheriting Arnold’s son Adolf. When Duke Arnold died in 1473, Charles the Bold claimed and occupied the duchy of Guelders that summer.
Charles the Bold died at the Battle of Nancy in January 1477, and the Burgundian government in Guelders collapsed, with the estates temporarily assuming control. Charles’ heir, Mary of Burgundy, released Adolf from prison and recruited him to aid in her fight to restore her authority in Flanders, making his imminent return to Guelders unlikely.
The Gelderland estates requested Adolf appoint his sister Catherine as regent. Both Adolf and Catherine were reluctant to approve of the appointment. After considerable negotiations and pleadings over several months by the estates, Catherine and Adolf agreed to the arrangement. Catherine was in Simmern, Germany, visiting her sister Margaret. She arrived by ship in Lobith on May 3, 1477, and assumed the provisional regency pending her brother’s return. She stayed in constant contact with Adolf while performing her duties.
Catherine’s temporary position endured for much longer than she anticipated. In August, news arrived in Guelders that Adolf had died in battle on June 27th at the gates of Tournai. His two children remained in custody at the Burgundian court with little chance of their returning to Guelders. The situation forced Catherine to remain as regent, now in the name of her nephew, Charles.
Pro-Burgundian forces in Guelders united with the Egmont party, named after William IV of Egmont, the brother of the late Duke Arnold. In order to defend the duchy, Catherine sought outside help. The estates appealed to Duke John I of Cleves, but Catherine deemed him to be too pro-Burgundian. The situation became dire when the city of Arnhem fell to the Egmont party in March 1478. Meanwhile, Mary of Burgundy had greatly strengthened her position by marrying Maximilian of Austria.
The Guelderian estates completed an agreement with Duke Frederick of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who would act as a proponent for the duchy. The estates prevailed upon Catherine to marry Frederick, but she declined. Frederick went mad a year later, and his role as advocate ended. The estates then appointed Henry III of Schwarzburg, Bishop of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, guardian of Guelders for a term of six years.
At the end of 1479, Catherine stepped away from politics and completed a peace agreement with Maximilian, and he agreed to reward her with the usufruct of the city and office of Geldern (now in present-day Germany). In 1480, she took part in an alliance along with the Guelders estates with King Louis XI of France against Maximilian. She traveled to France seeking support for Guelders but was unsuccessful. Maximilian conquered more and more of Guelders, with the county of Zutphen submitting to him in 1481.
They excluded Catherine from the peace treaty, and the Bishop of Münster withdrew his support in 1482. Maximilian was in control for the moment, and Catherine reconciled with him, retiring to a secluded life in the castle of Geldern. She continued conspiring to restore her nephew Charles, and he eventually regained his position as duke in 1492. Maximilian could not maintain control in Guelders. Charles asked Catherine to act as his regent temporarily in 1494 while he made a trip to France, but she refused.
Catherine died at the castle of Geldern on January 25, 1497. They buried her in the parish church of St. Mary Magdelene, in the choir of Our Blessed Lady, in Geldern. Her crypt and a brass gravestone with her engraved image are still visible today. The engravings were commissioned from Wilhelm Loemans in Cologne. Catherine appears as an exceptionally independent woman with a highly developed sense of duty, who dedicated herself to the interests of her family and the Duchy of Guelders.
Further reading: “The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage at the Burgundian Court” by Susan Abernethy, article on Catherine of Guelders in the Digital Women’s Lexicon of the Netherlands written by Jan Kuys, “In the Shadow of Burgundy: The Court of Guelders in the Late Middle Ages” by Gerard Nijsten, “Chapter Five: Against Burgundy: The Appeal of Germany in the Duchy of Guelders” by Aart Noordzij in “Networks, Regions and Nations: Shaping Identities in the Low Countries, 1300-1650”
