Sutton Publishing first edition - 2006
Although there is a 600 year gap between the last 'biography' I have read (on King Offa, see Blog for 4th October) and this one, there is the same problem of a lack of facts for the respective lives. Only Chapter I Katherine's Life and Family really tries to get to grips with this fascinating, but still obscure, woman. The author quotes Anthony Goodman in her Introduction, saying that his claim is correct: Katherine is enigmatic, famous and controversial. But what else can be said about her? The aim of this book is to reveal more of the real Katherine Swynford. There are obstacles in the way, notably a lack of evidence for her life. Her will is frustratingly, and curiously unavailable...no personal letters or diaries remain for us to use to establish her personality. Her thoughts and feelings are not available....she is the appendage of other notables...I am interested in her as a medieval woman and with what she can tell us about medieval society. So, bluntly, there lies the rub. Such a book will, inevitably, be the Times of rather than the Life of.
The first Chapter (pp.1-37) takes the reader at a canter through what little is known of Katherine.` The daughter of Gilles or Paon Roet, even Katherine's birthdate is argued over. Conventionally, it is c.1350, making her Paon's youngest child, but it might be earlier than 1348, making her the older sister to Philippa, who married Geoffrey Chaucer. It is from the writings of Froissart that the details of Katherine's early life are known. She grew up within the English court and joined the household of Blanche of Lancaster after the latter's marriage to John of Gaunt in 1359. The earliest public record related to Katherine in in 1365, where she is mentioned in the accounts of Bishop Buckingham as Katherine Swynford, 'ancille' or servant, of Blanche. She is granted permission to hear mass in a private ceremony. She had probably married Hugh Swynford, retainer to Gaunt, c.1363-5. Little is known of that marriage; Hugh's background was not of high estate. They had at least two children - Thomas, born in September 1368, and Blanche, born either c.1366 or c.1370 (!) Katherine possibly became governess of Gaunt's children, Philippa and Elizabeth, c.1366, taking charge of the ducal household after the death of Blanche of Lancaster in 1368-9. Katherine's husband Hugh died in November 1371 while fighting in Aquitaine under Gaunt. Most historians suggest Katherine's relationship with Gaunt started in the spring of 1372. She appears regularly in Gaunt's registers during the 1370s as nostre tres chere et bien amee. By 1375 the affair was seemingly public knowledge. Gaunt's register includes many instances of gifts to Katherine.
Lucraft then traces what information survives of Katherine's daughter and son by Hugh Swynford; followed by a section on the Chaucer family; before turning to the four illegitimate children sired by Gaunt. They were John (born 1373), Henry (1375), Thomas (1377) and Joan (1379). Gaunt recognised them officially from the first, granted them the name Beaufort. They were clearly included in the Richardian and Lancastrian worlds. John showed military ability and accompanied his father on campaign in France; he also showed political skill by appearing loyal to both Richard II and Henry IV. He married Margaret Holland and died in March 1410, being buried in Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas also did well under Henry IV and Henry V, the latter making Thomas responsible for Henry VI's upbringing. Kenneth McFarlane, the 15th century Historian, describing Thomas as the most trusted personal friend and minister of Henry V. Joan married as her second husband, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and had 13 children and worked hard to ensure her children received the lion's share of the Neville inheritance. She died in November 1440. Most politically astute, powerful and wealthy of all of Katherine and John's children was Henry. Bishop of Lincoln, Chancellor of England under Henry IV, then Bishop of Winchester in 1404 and Cardinal in 1426 - and rumours of one day the Papacy. His death in 1447, deprived England of its wisest and most experienced administrator at a time when his guiding hand was sorely needed. Gaunt and Katherine's descendants became the Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III; Henry VII; and James I of Scotland - i.e. the royal houses of York, Tudor and Stuart.
Chapter 2, The Historiography of Katherine Swynford, is simply a study of how she was viewed through the Chronicles and Histories of the 15th century and beyond. Her image underwent a revival under the Tudors (Vergil, Rous, Fabyan, Hayward); the 17th century historians followed suit (Weever, Biondi); but in the 18th and 19th centuries a more negative view gained strength (Rapin, Wylie); however, Armitage-Smith in his extensive biography of Gaunt (1904) was more positive. Anya Seton's novel of 1956, (rather like Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time of 1951, for Richard III's reputation) produced the seminal romance which possibly has had more effect than any historian's efforts. Similarly, Chapter 3, Contemporary Opinion just details the works of chroniclers such as Thomas Walsingham (c.1340-c.1422) and Henry Knighton (d.c.1396), where Katherine is seen, above all, as a temptress, the now familiar stereotype of the clerical view of base and lewd women. Lucraft also discusses whether Chaucer portrayed Gaunt and Katherine's affair in his works - The Physician's Tale, The Monk's Tale, Troilus and Creiseyde are all commented upon.
Chapter 4, Katherine's World is on more solid ground. It discusses the art, the fashion, the courtly behaviour of the time, and the importance of books and education - for women as well as men: women were among the more important consumers of vernacular literature. Katherine's Beaufort sons are known to have been highly educated and owners of numerous manuscripts. The last two Chapters - 5 Construction of Identity and 6 Saintly Appropriations, I found less interesting and 'solid', but I understood what the author was trying to do. After discussing the SS collar and Gaunt/Lancaster links, coats of arms and funerary emblems in general, the author focuses on Katherine and her identification with St. Katherine (and her wheel). She argues that this was a desire to create for herself an image of royalty and respectability. The final chapter spends overlong on the story of Margery Kempe (12 pages), which I didn't think advanced the case as a 'biography' of Katherine Swynford. There was also, on more than one occasion, repetition - of whole sections not just a sentence.
There are useful Notes and a decent Bibliography, as well as some photographic illustrations. All in all, a typical Sutton Publishing 'popular history' book which is well worth reading.
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