In 1552, Katherine Willoughby, duchess of Suffolk, her family, servants, and neighbors gathered at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire to hear Hugh Latimer preach on the ‘right understanding and meaning’ of the Lord's Prayer. Full of enthusiasm, he delivered six more lectures on the topic to his Grimsthorpe audience. He called the prayer ‘a most perfect schoolmaster’ that taught men and women the lessons necessary for their spiritual welfare. His sermons described how it supported reform doctrines on sin and salvation and refuted traditional worship practices like the cult of saints and the observance of mass. To keep his audience's interest and encourage them to learn the prayer in English, Latimer invited them to repeat it before and after each sermon. What prompted Latimer's visit to Grimsthorpe, a remote residence in a county known for its religious conservatism? And why had he chosen the Lord's Prayer as his theme? According to Latimer, his patroness Willoughby had invited him to Grimsthorpe and requested a sermon on the subject. In doing so, she hoped that her servants and neighbors might be brought to a better understanding of this key scripture passage and would hear Protestant doctrine preached by one of its most popular ministers.

As recent work indicates, Willoughby's social status and her interest in religious reform placed her at the center of the political and religious developments that shaped the English Reformation. She was born in 1519 to William, lord Willoughby de Eresby, and Maria de Salinas, a Spanish lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. At Lord Willoughby's death in 1526, Katherine, his solesurviving child, inherited his title and substantial holdings in Lincolnshire and East Anglia. Although this inheritance was immediately disputed by her uncle Sir Christopher Willoughby, her mother utilized her powerful connections at court to secure her daughter's inheritance. In 1533, Willoughby, at the age of fourteen, became the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. As Brandon's wife, Willoughby was one of the highest-ranking women in England and had privileged access to royal patronage. From the 1540s she began to be associated with court reformers and developed evangelical views on the centrality of scripture. After Brandon's death in 1545, her commitment to reform deepened, and she gradually adopted Reformed views in the 1550s. In 1552, she married her second husband Richard Bertie, her gentleman usher and another godly Protestant.