The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster

by Alison Weir

The Short Take:

Weir writes very informative and beautifully researched biographies. With Katherine Swynford, she took on a real challenge — there is so little solid documentation about this important woman; but Weir did an excellent job of capturing Katherine’s world and the repercussions of her scandalous romance with John of Gaunt, a prince of England.

Why?

I admit to already being an Alison Weir fan and have read a number of her royal biographies. This one posed more of a challenge to the reader as Katherine Swynford is such a will ‘o the wisp in historical documents.  She seems to flit around the edges of this story about her life. After all, some of the strongest records of her life come from the financial account books of her lover, John of Gaunt, and the highly biased ravings of people who despised either John, the affair, or both.

Weir taps every resource to flesh out this remarkable story of a woman who lived through plague, a deadly revolt, and carried on a public affair with a married prince of England. Even better, she makes sure we understand that emotions, expectations, and life styles in the late 14th century were nothing like today. Her admonishments to remember that difference make this love story for-the-ages even more amazing.

A Little Plot:

Beware. Unlike my other reviews, I’m giving away the whole story here.  Katherine grew up in the royal court of England’s King Edward III and Queen Philippa. She probably knew John of Gaunt since childhood, but there is no evidence there was any early spark between them. The queen arranged for Katherine to marry Sir Hugh Swynford, a respectable though rather impoverished knight.  John of Gaunt, the royal couple’s second son, was married to a very wealthy English heiress, Blanche of Lancaster.

When John’s beloved Blanche died, he married Constance of Castile, the heir to the crown of Spain. Unfortunately, someone else had usurped that crown. John planned to win the crown in battle for himself and Constance. The marriage was strictly business.

And so the affair with Katherine (now widowed) began. Even after several bastard children it was still a subtle and ongoing affair, but it eventually became widely known. However, it wasn’t until their lives were in extreme jeopardy during a deadly peasant revolt that he abandoned Katherine.

But not forever. Once Constance died, he actually married Katherine — an act that was strictly unimaginable at the time. And their children became the direct forbears of the Royal Houses of York, Tudor, Stuart, and every British sovereign since 1461 (plus six U.S. presidents). Wow!

Caveats:

Because I want you to love Alison Weir, I suggest starting with another of her books before trying this one: The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Not only is there a lot more solid documentation for Weir to draw on, most people have at least a passing knowledge of Henry, Ann Boylyn and others. That all makes for more solid ground.

If you find Katherine interesting but want a more romanticized version of her life, I highly recommend Anya Seton’s Katherine. Written in the 1950s, it does apply modern concepts of love to Medieval lives and traces a full life where little is actually known, but Seton does a great job on capturing the grime and grueling lifestyle of the era. Yes, it’s a romance, but it’s one with a goodly amount of research behind it as well as imagination.

Finally, if you want to know more about Alison Weir, her outstanding biographies, or her royal novels, visit her site here.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.