Katherine Rouet (K. Swynford, 3rd wife of John of Gaunt)
The number to the left of each child (e.g. "+4") indicates the total number of children for that person.
View Family Tree
List Ancestors
List Descendants
| |
|
|
|
| Family Name: |
Rouet |
Given Names: |
Katherine |
| |
| Born: |
About 1350
Unknown place
|
Died: |
10 May 1403
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
(Age 53, Natural Causes)
|
| |
English/Scottish Royal Blood: 0% [?] |
Buried: |
Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire, England
|
| |
| Father: |
Payne Rouet (father-in-law of John of Gaunt)
|
Unknown birth/death dates
|
| |
|
Marriage:
|
Hugh Swynford (1st h. of Katherine, 3rd w. of John of Gaunt)
|
? - 1371
|
| |
Date: About 1366 |
His Age: Unknown |
Her Age: 16 |
| |
Place:
Unknown place
|
| |
Offspring:
|
|
+0
|
Thomas Swynford (son of Katherine, 3rd w. of John of Gaunt)
|
1368 - 1432
|
| |
|
Marriage:
|
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
|
24 Jun 1340 - 3 Feb 1399
|
| |
Date: 13 Jan 1397 |
His Age: 57 |
Her Age: 47 |
| |
Place:
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
|
| |
Offspring:
|
|
+6
|
John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (son of John of Gaunt)
|
About 1373 - 16 Mar 1410
|
|
+0
|
Henry Beaufort (Cardinal Beaufort)
|
About 1375 - 11 Apr 1447
|
|
+1
|
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter
|
About Jan 1377 - 27 Dec 1426
|
|
+15
|
Joan Beaufort (daughter of John of Gaunt)
|
About 1379 - 13 Nov 1440
|
| |
|
View Family Tree
List Ancestors
List Descendants
|
| |
| Notes: |
Katherine had been John of Gaunt's mistress for many years. After they married, their four grown children were legitimized by Richard II as the Beaufort family. Katherine must have been a fascinating person, and perhaps one of the most interesting women in English history. Certainly she and John have one of the most romantic stories.
First, it was very rare for nobility, let alone royalty, to marry anyone with whom premarital relations had taken place, let alone been acknowledged. In the 300 years the Plantagenets ruled England, history records only three Plantagenet couples about whom anything like that was even rumoured: Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine; John and Katherine; and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and Eleanor Cobham. John and Katherine represent the only indubitable case--and even if the other two couples did have premarital relations, it would have been for just a few months. (See notes about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Duke Humphrey for discussions of whether premarital relations were likely.)
John and Katherine, in contrast, had four grown children, ranging in age from 17 to 24, when they married.
Katherine went from being the widow of an obscure knight to being the highest ranked woman in England (she dropped to second several months after the wedding when King Richard married his second wife). Their marriage was not received well by the nobility, particularly by Katherine's royal sisters-in-law, but was very popular with the lower and middle classes.
|
Katherine's sister Philippa was married to the great poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Katherine may have been the model for Criseyde in her brother-in-law's Troilus and Criseyde. It is possible that Chaucer owed at least some of his civil service advancement to Katherine's influence with John of Gaunt.
|
Katherine must have been very beautiful. Although she was buried in Lincoln, the now-destroyed tombstone of John of Gaunt in the old St. Paul's Cathedral described her as: "eximia pulchritudine feminam" (exceedingly beautiful woman).
|
Katherine was the subject of one of the great historical novels, "Katherine," by Anya Seton, a warm and historically accurate version of Katherine's remarkable life.
|
Join the History Book Club and get 4 books for $4 + FREE Tote Bag.
|
| |
Bookmark this page with
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Google
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo!
|
| |
Products of Interest:
Where shown, prices are accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of these products. Click a title for further details or to purchase.
|
|
Katherine
Anya Seton
Paperback
(2004-05-01)
This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history-that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets-Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II-who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king's son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Price From: $8.96
(as of 2010-02-08 22:17:24 PST)
|
|
Katherine Swynford
Alison Weir
Hardcover
(2007-10-23)
In her remarkable new book, Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest love stories of medieval England. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman, Katherine Swynford, who became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Katherine Swynford?s charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the 14th century, the effective ruler of England behind the throne of his father Edward III in his declining years, and during the minority of his nephew, Richard ll. Katherine herself was enigmatic and intriguing, renowned for her beauty, and regarded by some as dangerous. Her existence was played out against the backdrop of court life at the height of the age of chivalry and she knew most of the great figures of the time ? including her brother-in-law, Geoffrey Chaucer. She lived through much of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants? Revolt. She knew loss, adversity, and heartbreak, and she survived them all triumphantly. Although Katherine?s story provides unique insights into the life of a medieval woman, she was far from typical in that age. She was an important person in her own right, a woman who had remarkable opportunities, made her own choices, flouted convention, and took control of her own destiny ? even of her own public image.
Weir brilliantly retrieves Katherine Swynford from the footnotes of history and gives her life and breath again. Perhaps the most dynastically important woman within the English monarchy, she was the mother of the Beauforts and through them the ancestress of the Yorkist kings, the Tudors, the Stuarts, and every other sovereign since ? a legacy that has shaped the history of Britain.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Price From: $26.78
(as of 2010-02-08 22:33:10 PST)
|
|
The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era
Norman F. Cantor
Hardcover
(2004-05-25)
There may be no more fascinating historical period than the late fourteenth century in Europe. The Hundred Years' War ravaged the continent, yet gallantry, chivalry, and literary brilliance flourished in the courts of England and elsewhere. Chaucer wrote brilliant satire, lords and ladies invented courtly rituals of love and romance, yet the vast bulk of Europe's population struggled with plague, economic uncertainty, and violence. It was a world in transition, soon to be replaced by the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration -- and John of Gaunt was its central figure. Norman F. Cantor, the best known and most popular historian of the Middle Ages, brings Gaunt to life brilliantly in his newest work, The Last Knight. John of Gaunt was the richest man in Europe, apart from its monarchs, and he epitomized and surpassed the ideals of the late Middle Ages. From chivalry -- he was taught at a young age to fight on horseback like the knights of old -- to courtly love -- his three marriages included two romantic love-matches -- he was an ideal leader. He created lavish courts, sponsoring Chaucer and proto-Protestant religious thinkers, and he survived the dramatic Peasants' Revolt, during which his sumptuous London residence was burned to the ground. As the head of the Lancastrian Branch of the Plantagenet family, he was the unknowing father of the War of the Roses, for his son Henry Bolingbroke usurped the crown from Gaunt's nephew, Richard II, after Gaunt had died. He passed away just as one great era gave way to the next: His grandson Henry the Navigator launched the Age of Exploration. Gaunt's adventures represent the culture and mores of the Middle Ages as few others' do, and his death is portrayed by Cantor as the end of that fascinating period. Shakespeare put into Gaunt's mouth the most patriotic speech in the English language: "this sceptre'd isle...This other Eden, demi-paradise." Yet Shakespeare's version of Gaunt is an old and doddering man whose son took center stage. In fact, in Cantor's capable hands, this great man and those fascinating times are ready for their own starring roles.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Price From: $3.55
(as of 2010-02-08 23:25:18 PST)
|
|
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King
Ian Mortimer
Hardcover
(2007-08-07)
An author with a strong track record now tackles the turbulent reign of Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king.
By 1405, King Henry IV had already survived at least eight plots to dethrone or kill him in the first six years of his reign. Henry had not always been so unpopular. The son of John of Gaunt, he was courteous, confident, well-educated, musical and spiritually fervent. In 1399, at the age of thirty-two, he was enthusiastically greeted as the saviour of the realm when he ousted from power the insecure and tyrannical King Richard II.
Therein lay Henry?s weakness. By making himself King he had broken God?s law and left himself starkly open to criticism. Enemies everywhere tried to take advantage of his questionable right to the crown. Such overwhelming threats transformed him from a hero into a duplicitous murderer: a king prepared to go to any lengths to save his family and his throne.
But against all the odds, what Henry achieved was to take a poorly ruled nation, establish a new Lancastrian dynasty, and introduce the principle that a king must act in accordance with Parliament. He might not have been the most glorious king England ever had, but he was one of the bravest, and certainly the greatest survivor of them all.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Price From: $42.49
(as of 2010-02-08 23:17:20 PST)
|
|
Henry IV
Bryan Bevan
Paperback
(1994-11-15)
This is a powerful new study of Henry IV as man and King, containg his virtues and faults.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Price From: $22.99
(as of 2010-02-08 22:43:15 PST)
|
| |
Click here for more products
|
|
| |
|
|
