Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster

Summary (from the publisher): Acclaimed author Alison Weir brings to life the extraordinary tale of Katherine Swynford, a royal mistress who became one of the most crucial figures in the history of Great Britain. Born in the mid-fourteenth century, Katherine de Roët was only twelve when she married Hugh Swynford, an impoverished knight. But her story had truly begun two years earlier, when she was appointed governess to the household of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and fourth son of King Edward III. Widowed at twenty-one, Katherine became John's mistress and then, after many twists of fortune, his bride in a scandalous marriage. Mistress of the Monarchy reveals a woman ahead of her time—making her own choices, flouting convention, and taking control of her own destiny. Indeed, without Katherine Swynford, the course of English history, perhaps even the world, would have been very different.

 

Review: Born Katherine de Roet, she married an impoverished knight at the age of twelve. Yet upon her death she was the Duchess of Lancaster and even today, nearly every monarch in Europe is descended from her. Despite her illustrious title and the rank of many of her descendants, Katherine was largely forgotten to time and because her four children with John of Gaunt, the fourth son of King Edward III, were born when she was his mistress. In a rare move, John married Katherine after they were both widowed and helped elevate the status of their four illegitimate children. John was willing to risk scandal to marry Katherine, indicating the great bond that they must surely have shared.

 

Because Katherine Swynford lived during the mid 1300s, many of the details of her life have not survived, particularly since given her status as a mistress, her royal descendants in later generations were not keen to boast about her. However, Weird does an excellent job of sifting through the existing archives and making intelligent deductions about her life. We know that Katherine was born to a relatively prominent family in Hainault, then an independent principality in what is now Belgium. Because of her status, she was placed in the household of Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III of England. This placement allowed her to receive an education that helped form her into a lady of many accomplishments that later allowed her to seamlessly mingle with the elite of the kingdom. Sometime between 1360 and 1366, the Queen had her placed in her daughter-in-law Blanche, the Duchess of Lancaster's household. Blanche was the first, and much beloved wife, of John of Gaunt. It was likely Blanche who helped arrange Katherine's marriage to the knight Hugh Swynford. The couple had at least three children before his death. Meanwhile, Katherine's younger sister Philppa was married to Geoffrey Chaucer, the great English poet.

 

After Blanche's death, John of Gaunt made an advantageous, though far less happy second marriage to Constance, the daughter of King Pedro of Castile. Between his own royal background and his two wives, its hard to comprehend the wealth and power held by John of Gaunt, although Weir makes it clear that he seems to have been an honorable and greatly loved man. At the time of his death he "was in possession of a landed inheritance worth more than 43 billion pounds in modern terms" (276). Sometime after Hugh's death and John's marriage to Constance, John and Katherine began an affair that would produce four Beaufort children. Yet Weir makes it clear that both John and Katherine had been exceedingly fond of his first wife Blanche, and there is no indication that they had a relationship before this time or before the death of Katherine's first husband.

 

After his second wife Constance's death, John defied social convention and public scorn to marry Katherine, indicating his high esteem and love for her. Even more telling, Katherine had a very close relationship with John's children by his first marriage. In fact, after John's death, John's son by Blanche eventually became King Henry IV and is known to have officially referred to Katherine as "the King's Mother - a term he was under no obligation to use" (284). The marriage of John and Katherine also gave their illegitimate children a higher standing. Katherine found herself "the mother of a marquess, a countess, and a bishop - attainments she could never at one time have dreamed of for her bastard children" (266).

 

Katherine died in 1403 around the age of fifty-three. Over time, the John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster royal line became extinct and the Beaufort line born of the relationship between Katherine and John of Gaunt took over the throne, making Katherine, the great-grandmother of kings. In fact, Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York were both Katherine's great-great-grandchildren. Other descendants include the "present Queen Elizabeth II; the late Diana, Princess of Wales; nearly every monarch in Europe; six American presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush; Sir Winston Churchill; the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and the philosopher Bertrand Russell, 'besides many other potent princes and eminent nobility of foreign parts'"(306).

 

For many years, Katherine was largely only remembered thanks to the bestselling novel by Anya Seton. Although many details of Katherine's life have been lost to history, Weir does an excellent job of fleshing out a historical portrait of this ancestor that gave the world the royalty we have today. Before reading this work, I'd only ventured as far back into the history of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and grandmother to the infamous Henry VIII. Margaret was a great-granddaughter of Katherine so it was interesting to further extend my knowledge of the royal family tree.

 

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