Katherine de la Pole

Katherine de la Pole (1410/1411 – 1473) was the abbess of Barking Abbey.

Life Katherine de la Pole was born about 1410. She was the eldest daughter of Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and Katherine de Stafford.

She became abbess of Barking Abbey in January 1433. Katherine persuaded King Henry VI to take an interest in the boys, who were his half-brothers. Henry later ennobled them, thereby instigating one of the important steps to Edmund's son Henry Tudor later claiming the English throne. Edmund's wife Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, had been a ward of Katherine's brother, William de la Pole, steward of the royal household.

There is a story about a slippery priest named Robert Colynson who managed to cheat her out of five pounds. He had offered to go to Rome and to say prayers for the nuns. He was paid five pounds in 1453 but he never went.

She died at Barking Abbey in 1473 and is presumed to have been buried there.