Lady Katherine Neville was born in 1442, one of the ten children and the fifth eldest daughterHamilton Rogers, p.50 of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury and Alice Montacute, suo jure 5th Countess of Salisbury. Her mother was the only child and heiress of Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury by his first wife Lady Eleanor Holland. Katherine's eldest brother was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury, also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker". He was the most important and influential peer in the realm, and one of the principal protagonists in the Wars of the Roses. Her aunt, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, mother of future kings and Katherine's first cousins, Edward IV and Richard III, was another key figure in the dynastic civil wars that dominated most of the latter half of 15th century England. Her niece, Anne Neville (youngest daughter of the "Kingmaker") would become Queen of England as the consort of Richard III; Katherine's sister Alice, Baroness FitzHugh, and her other niece, Elizabeth FitzHugh, were personally selected as Anne's chief ladies-in-waiting.Linda Porter. Katherine the Queen, Macmillan, 2010. Her paternal grandparents were Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland, a daughter of John of Gaunt by his third wife, Katherine de Roët, making her a direct descendant of Edward III.
