As Gilbert and Sullivan might have written, a mistress’s lot is not a happy one.
Hidden away
during her tenure, she is typically abandoned and left alone and penniless
later in life.
One great
exception to this story is Katherine Swynford, longtime mistress of John of
Gaunt, son of King Edward III of England.
She became his third wife, with the title of Duchess of Lancaster, and
her descendants sat on the throne of England.
Her story,
fictionalized in Anya Seton’s KATHERINE, is responsible for my life-long
fascinating
in the Fourteenth Century English royal family. In my May release, RUMORS AT COURT, a Royal
Wedding story, I finally have the opportunity to use her as a secondary
character.
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| Katherine is a character in RUMORS AT COURT |
When seeking the
facts of Katherine’s life, however, we come up against a void, typical of women’s
lives in the past.
Two historians
have tackled her story. Alison Weir
wrote Mistress of the Monarchy
and Jeanne Lucraft authored The HISTORY OF A MEDIEVAL MISTRESS. Even their dedicated, professional interest
left many questions, even facts, open to speculation.
We do know that Katherine
was daughter of a knight (Paon de Roet) who was a native of Hainault, (now part
of Belgium) the original home of Phillipa, queen of King Edward III of England. As a result, the queen took an interest and
brought young Katherine to court, where she was exposed to its manners and
culture.
In 1366, at 16
or 17, she was married to Hugh Swynford, a Lincolnshire knight in the service
of John of Gaunt. Gaunt the third living
son of the king, had married Blanche, the Duchess of Lancaster, and assumed the
title Duke of Lancaster, along with the associated lands and riches.
By all accounts,
Gaunt loved his wife and during the course of their marriage, Katherine became
attached to the household as a governess to the Duchess’ children. The Duke stood as godfather to her daughter
by Hugh, named Blanche in honor of the Duchess.
This suggests that Katherine and Hugh were held in high esteem by the
Lancaster household.
By all accounts,
the widowed Duke was one of the most admired men of his day. He was tall, lean, and handsome, chivalrous,
rich, politically astute and a great warrior. He had all the traits and talents necessary to
be a king. He lacked only a country.
A father, two
brothers and a nephew stood between him and the English crown and throughout
his life, he supported them fully.
But when his
Duchess died, he chose Constanza of Castile, who held claim to the crown of
Castile, as his wife. (Note that Constanza was the daughter of Maria de Padilla, covered earlier this month on this blog: https://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2017/02/mistresses-maria-de-padilla-practical.html ) Despite her lofty
ambitions, Castile, and its throne, were actually in control of her
(illegitimate) uncle. The struggle to
regain the tile went on for more than fifteen years.
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| From the frontpiece to Chaucer's Trolius and Criseyde. May be image of Katherine. |
Sometime after
Blanche’s death, John and Katherine began an affair. Her husband died three years after Blanche,
and very close to the time of John’s marriage to Constanza. Katherine, 22, was a widow with at least three
children. John was ten years older than
she. While we cannot be certain of the
date, 1372 seems the most likely, as their first child together was born by
1373 and in their petition to the pope to confirm their marriage stated that
both Blanche and Hugh had died before they began their liaison.
John may not
have loved his new wife, Constanza, but she was the key to his goal of assuming
the throne of Castile so initially, the lovers were discreet. Certainly by 1375, however, their affair was
public knowledge.
During their
affair, Katherine bore him four children, but largely stayed out of the
attention of the chroniclers. What does
emerge from the record, however, is almost universally flattering. She was beautiful, educated, pious, and
comfortable at the highest levels of court.
She also,
apparently, kept all the children, John’s and her own, in touch and in some
blended family, to the extent that they remained, by in large, friendly for the
rest of their lives.
By 1388, Gaunt’s
dreams of kingship in Castile were gone. In exchange for giving up Constanza’s claim to
the throne, he gained a marriage of their daughter to the heir, so that she became
Queen of Castile.
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| Katherine's tomb as it appeared in 1809. |
Constanza lived
for another six years, but by this time, John and Katherine, were together
publically. After Constanza’s death, John,
contrary to all advice and to the horror of several of the highest born ladies
of the court, petitioned the Pope for dispensation to marry Katherine and to
legitimize their children.
So at 46 and 56,
they became husband and wife and, Katherine informed the Pope, they celebrated
their wedding with “carnal copulation.”
John lived three
years after their marriage. Katherine
lived another four years after his death.
Until King
Richard’s marriage to his second wife, Katherine, one time mistress, now a
Duchess, was the highest ranking woman in England.
And from John
and Katherine’s Beaufort children were descended the Tudor and Stewart kings.
After many years in public relations, advertising and marketing, Blythe Gifford started
writing seriously after a corporate layoff. Ten years and one layoff later, she became an overnight success when she sold her first book to the Harlequin Historical line. Since then, she has published eleven romances set in England and on the Scottish Borders. RUMORS AT COURT, a Royal Wedding story, is a May, 2017 release from the Harlequin Historical line. For more information, visit
www.blythegifford.com 
Author photo Jennifer Girard. Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ®and T are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license. Copyright 2017
