a little battle at Munkaiser, and peacefully waited for news. After the death of Pitt the ministry recalled Cathcart's army from Germany, and he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, but in May 1807 he was suddenly summoned to London by Lord Castlereagh, and appointed to command an army in the Baltic. Cathcart had merely the easy duty of bombarding an almost defenceless town when in command of an irresistible army, and on 6 Sept. Copenhagen surrendered. Cathcart was on 3 Nov. 1807 created Viscount Cathcart of Cathcart and Baron Greenock of Greenock in the peerage of the United Kingdom, and a sum estimated at 300,000l. of prize money was divided between him and Admiral Gambier.
Cathcart again took up his command in Scotland, and was promoted general on 1 Jan. 1812. In May 1813 Castlereagh, now the leader of Lord Liverpool's cabinet, appointed him ambassador to the court of Russia, and British military commissioner with the army of the czar. The success of the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 is a matter of history, but the immense labours of the three ambassadors to Russia, Austria, and Prussia in maintaining military and diplomatic unity between the allies is comparatively unknown, and buried in the archives of the foreign office or in the Castlereagh Despatches. Cathcart had also to act as a military adviser to the German and Russian generals, and maintain harmony between them. When, therefore, in 1813 he received the order of St. Andrew, and in 1814 that of St. George from the czar, aud was, on 16 July, created Earl Cathcart, it was universally acknowledged that his services had been of the greatest importance in the overthrow of Napoleon. After receiving the rewards of his labours and the governorship of Hull, Cathcart proceeded to St. Petersburg, where he resided as ambassador in close communication with Castlereagh, until the suicide of the latter in 1821, when he at once resigned and returned to England. He continued to take an interest in politics as a strong tory until the passing of the Reform Bill, when he retired from political discussion and lived peacefully at his seats in Scotland, Schaw Castle, co. Clackmannan, and Gartside, near Glasgow, until his death at the latter on 16 June 1843, in his eighty-eighth year.
[There is no good life of Lord Cathcart: the Memoirs published on his death are very inferior, and for military details based on the Royal Military Calendar; for his embassy, however, see the Castlereagh Despatches, vols, ix-xii., and Sir A. Alison's Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir Charles Stewart, 1862; see also Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, i. 345-9.]
CATHERINE of Valois (1401–1437), queen of Henry V, was the youngest daughter of Charles VI of France by Isabel of Bavaria. She was born at the Hôtel de St. Pol, Paris, on 27 Oct. 1401. Her father was subject to long and frequently recurring fits of lunacy, and her mother, a woman of low character, shamelessly neglected her children. At an early age Catherine was sent from home to a convent at Poissy, In 1413 Henry IV proposed a marriage between the princess and his son Henry, afterwards Henry V. The prince had already made advances—which had been rejected—to Catherine's two elder sisters, Isabella, the widow of Richard II, and Marie, who was destined for the cloister. While the negotiations with regard to Catherine were pending Henry IV died, and when Henry V was firmly seated on his father's throne he renewed the suit. He demanded a dowry of two million crowns and the restoration of Normandy and the French territory which had been the inheritance of Eleanor of Aquitaine. These exorbitant terms were naturally rejected, and Henry V made their rejection a pretext for declaring war with France (1415). The English army was signally victorious in northern France, and when Rouen fell into Henry's hands (1419) negotiations for peace were opened. Queen Isabel had meanwhile obtained full control of Catherine, and had endeavoured in the course of the war to keep Henry in remembrance of his former suit. She had sent him the princess's portrait, and at the peace conference held at Meulan (1418-19) both Isabel and Catherine saluted Henry V, who treated the latter with much gallantry. In accordance with the terms of the treaty of Troyes, which practically made France over to Henry V, Henry and Catherine were betrothed on 21 May 1420 and married at Troyes on 2 June following. After visiting Sens and spending their Christ mas at Paris, Henry und his bride arrived at Dover on 1 Feb. 1420-1. On 24 Feb. the queen was crowned at Westminster; she accompanied the king on a northern tour later in the year, and on 2 Dec. 1421 gave birth to a son (afterwards Henry VI) at Windsor. On 21 May she and Henry were at Harfleur, and on 30 May at Paris. Catherine returned a widow from this visit to France. Henry V died at Vincennes on 31 Aug. 1422. The queen accompanied the funeral cortège to London and afterwards took up her residence at Windsor Castle with her infant son. She was at Hertford Castle with James I of Scotland as her guest at Christmas 1423, and in the following year Parliament granted her Baynard's Castle as her permanent home. She tried to compose
