area and the owner of a large estate, so that she could lead a lifestyle consistent with her origin. Catherine died at Tiverton Castle at the age of forty-nine and was buried with great ceremony in the adjacent parish church St. Peter. Of all the grandchildren of Edward IV, Catherine's children became the only ones who inherited claims to the English throne from the House of York. Life Birth and early years The exact date of Catherine's birth is unknown. Documents have been preserved related to the manufacture of a baptismal font for her by Piers Draper; based on them, historians date the birth of the princess on 14 August 1479 or a little earlier. The alleged birthplace is Eltham Palace in Greenwich. Catherine was the sixth daughter and the ninth of ten children of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. The princess' wetnurse was Jane or Joanne, wife of Robert Coulson, who in November 1480, received from the king an annuity payment of £5 per year for her services. Catherine had six sisters, of whom only four reached adulthood –three older (Elizabeth, Cecily and Anne) and one younger (Bridget)–; Mary, born in 1467, died at the age of 14 from some illness, and Margaret, born in 1472, died in infancy. Catherine also had five brothers: three elder full brothers who were sons of Edward IV, and two elder half-brothers from her mother's first marriage to John Grey of Groby: Thomas and Richard Grey. The youngest of Catherine's full brothers, George, died at the age of about two years, while the other two brothers, Edward V and Richard, disappeared from the Tower in 1483 during the reign of their uncle Richard III. Her paternal grandparents were Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (who claimed the rights of the House of York to the English throne) and Cecily Neville, and her maternal grandparents were Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Dowager Duchess of Bedford. Childhood Almost from birth, Catherine was a desirable bride and in the future could become a pawn in the politics of dynastic marriages. Soon after her birth, in August 1479, was received a marriage proposal with the heir to the Catholic Monarchs –John, Prince of Asturias, who was a year older than the princess. On 28 August 1479, a preliminary marriage agreement was concluded; on 2 March 1482, this agreement was