The New Murrey and Blue blog

In the Wiki article on Lady Catherine Gordon, I found the following remarkable statement:

“In February 1503, Lady Catherine was a mourner at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, arriving in a “chair”, a carriage, with Lady Fitzwalter and Lady Mountjoy. The train of her dress was carried by the Queen’s mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Lady Catherine made the offerings at the masses and with 37 other ladies placed a pall, an embroidered cloth, on the coffin at Westminster Abbey.^[15]“

I found this very hard to believe. The custom was that only the highest-ranking woman in a company had her train carried by another woman (as opposed to a page or herself) and the train was by definition carried by an inferior, albeit quite possibly a lady of high rank. For Lady Catherine Gordon to be judged the highest-ranking woman at Elizabeth of York’s funeral and superior to the King’s mother was literally incredible.

So I checked the source which is The Antiquarian Repertory. Now, this is quite a confusing account, I must admit. (Read it for yourself and feel free to judge.) However, the Chief Mourner was Lady Katherine Plantagenet (the late Queen’s sister) and her train was carried by Lady Elizabeth Stafford and later the Marchioness of Dorset (aka Cecily Bonville, I think). I can’t see any mention of Catherine Gordon’s train being carried by anyone and no mention of Margaret Beaufort at all.

The moral is, don’t believe everything you read in Wiki. Though if you want a nice intellectual exercise, you might amuse yourself for a few days by identifying all the men and women mentioned in this account.