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103 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, unavoidably limited glimpse into the life of Katherine Swynford, January 29, 2009
Billed as a look the the life and times of Katherine Swynford, first mistress and later wife to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and third son of Edward III, this carefully-crafted history necessarily emphasizes Katherine's "times" rather than her life, very little trace of which remains today.
It is a tribute to Weir's historical research skills and writing ability that only rarely does this prevent the reader from savoring the story of Katherine, her extended family and the dramatic times in which she lived. It's a glimpse inside the final decades of the 14th century, a time in which feudal society was changing in response to the devastation of the Great Plague of 1348. Katherine inhabited that world, and her rise to prominence was part of the social upheaval against which the privileged and the conservatives reacted vehemently. (John of Gaunt's siblings and the Benedictine monks who chronicled the era were just some of those who reacted with incomprehension and fury to John's 1396 decision to wed his erstwhile mistress and make her the de facto first lady of England.)
Many of the female readers of this book will pick it up because, like Seton and myself, they discovered Anya Seton's famous historical novel about Katherine Swynford, nee Katherine de Roet. This could have been a feeble attempt to capitalize on that novel's enduring popularity, but instead stands on its own as a strong work of history. Indeed, I found it to be as lively a work of history as Seton's novel is a work of historical fiction, and far from spoiling my pleasure in the novel, Weir's careful winnowing out the likely truth of Katherine's youth and marriage added to my enjoyment of both books. I had long been curious about the 'real Katherine', who became the ancestress of so many English monarchs (as well as a slew of American immigrants -- if you can trace your roots back to New England in the 1600s, there's a decent chance Katherine will pop up in your family tree).
Some readers may find frustrating the frequent use of "may have", "could have" or "it seems likely that..." in this biography. Their use is necessary, because of the relative dearth of solid information about Katherine. But I found as much pleasure as frustration in this, as I followed Weir's historical detection and watched her pull together what strands remained of Katherine's life in an effort to present a coherent picture. For instance, Weir addresses what Katherine may have looked like with reference to the tomb sculptures and portraits of her children, noting which features in those resembled John's and deducing what they may have inherited from Katherine. Similarly, she assembles what little evidence of Katherine's role within the Lancaster household may have been, and uses her knowledge of the society of the time and the other personalities involved to reach a "possible" or "probable" conclusion. She never tries to make sweeping claims or assertions based on this kind of flimsy evidence, but instead gives the reader what evidence exists and allows us to see into her reasoning. That helps make this a richer reading experience than many historical biographies that are able to draw on a far wider array of source material.
Ultimately, the book is a biography not only of Katherine the person, but a biography of her place, her times and the characters that peopled her world, from her brother-in-law Geoffrey Chaucer, to the the clergy of Lincoln Cathedral (she lived in a house in its precincts for a long time), the landed gentry of the 14th century and what it meant to be a knight's daughter.
Strongly recommended to anyone interested in the era as well as the subject. To anyone who has read Barbara Tuchman's magisterial work, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, this would be an interesting (albeit much slighter) additional book to read. And anyone who hasn't read Tuchman's view of the world Katherine inhabited should do so immediately!
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73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5 stars) Fairly good, January 27, 2009
Like Alison Weir, I was first introduced to the story of Katherine Swynford through Anya Seton's romanticized 1954 novel, Katherine. Weir's biography is a pretty comprehensive look at this enigmatic, lesser-known medieval woman.
I have a love-hate relationship with Weir's books: I loved The Six Wives of Henry VIII; liked Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, and Eleanor of Aquitaine; but detested Queen Isabella and Innocent Traitor (Weir doesn't do fiction all that well). I put Mistress of the Monarchy in the "like for the most part" category.
Katherine Swynford was born Katherine de Roet in 1350, one of the daughters of Sir Paon de Roet. She then married Hugh Swynford, and spent time in the Lancastrian household as the governess to John of Gaunt's children. Katherine's affair with him probably began around the year 1372, and, after producing a number of illegitimate children, married John in 1396. Katherine is the ancestor of most of the royal houses of Europe, plus at least five American presidents. History has seen Katherine as bit of a homewrecker, but in this book, Weir attempts (and mostly succeeds) in portraying her in a more sympathetic light.
This biography of Katherine Swynford is, as with all of Weir's books, meticulously researched. It's less overtly feminist and partisan than some of her other biographies. Pay attention to the subtitle of this biography: the book is more about John of Gaunt than it is about Katherine (in fact, we don't even get a physical description of Katherine until after one is given of John). We also get very detailed biographies of everyone who was related or connected to her, especially Geoffrey Chaucer, her brother-in-law. After finishing this book, I still didn't have a concrete impression of what Katherine was really like. And, because so little is actually known about Katherine's life, Weir makes an awful lot of assumptions here about what her subject "might," "perhaps," or "probably" have done/ thought/ felt.
However, Weir does a wonderful job bringing the details of the period to life. It's an accessible, readable work of history that doesn't get bogged down in pretentious language. For someone who doesn't know medieval Latin or Norman French, Weir does an incredible job of interpreting her sources. And the style of this book is far more lively and engaging than other books written on the Lancasters that I've read. I look forward to reading what comes next from Weir (according to her website, the next book is about Anne Boleyn, though she may be re-treading familiar water with that one).
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The fascinating story of a medieval mistress who became a duchess, November 28, 2007
This review is from: Katherine Swynford (Hardcover)
Alison Weir's new biography of Katherine Swynford (1350-1403) is compelling and almost novelistic in detail, fleshed out with information about the people around Katherine, including the English royals and Geoffrey Chaucer (her brother-in-law).
Weir paints a nicely detailed picture of the late fourteenth century (including feudalism, the plague, the Church, capitalism, national and international politics, and social mores)--and an impressionistic portrait of Katherine and even her character emerges. (This is a pleasant contrast to Jeannette Lucraft's continual complaints about the paucity of information about Katherine and her character in another recent, but much less enjoyable, book on Katherine.) Weir weaves in details of the royals' financial records to good effect, for instance, drawing out patterns associated to the births of Katherine's illegitimate children. Weir also speculates candidly and sometimes persuasively on details that can't be ascertained from the sources.
Katherine was born into the knightly family of Roet in Hainault (a historical county in what is now Belgium and France). The Roets probably had connections to the ruling family of Hainault, and Katherine traveled to England as a young girl in the train of Philippa, daughter of the Count of Hainault and future queen of Edward III. Thus Katherine had the best upbringing possible in the 14th century--one in the royal court--and that she was able to rise to such an important position from relatively humble birth.
In her late teens, Katherine also married a knight in the royal circle, Hugh Swynford, who had a little property and by whom she had three or four children. Around this time Katherine became attached to the household of Blanche, heiress to the Lancastrian duchy and cousin to the King. In 1359, Blanche married John of Gaunt (1340-1399), the third son of Edward III and Philippa. Much like the marriage of the King and Queen, theirs was a love match as well as a dynastic one--Blanche had seven children, including the future Henry IV. The material aspect of their marriage was soon fulfilled when Blanche's father and sister died and John inherited the Lancastrian lands in his wife's right; soon after, the king created him Duke of Lancaster in 1362.
Unfortunately for John, Blanche died shortly after giving birth in 1369. Hugh Swynford died several years later, leaving Katherine a widow just when John of Gaunt was arranging his political marriage to Constance of Castile, who had a claim to that throne through her father. This marriage was not a happy one--Katherine became the governess of the Duke's children and his mistress within months of his wedding. (This was after Swynford's death, Weir persuasively argues.)
During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, John's London palace was destroyed, and understanding this as God's judgement on his immoral private life, he pubicly renounced Katherine. Arguing against the Lucraft's claim that the affair resumed quietly when the furor died down, Weir makes a convincing argument that John and Katherine resisted temptation and did not become lovers again until their marriage more than a decade later. She cites in particular the fact that Katherine had no more children by John--she'd borne four Beauforts in the nine years of their affair, and she was still young enough to bear more.
After Constance's death, John obtained a papal dispensation, married Katherine in 1396 (the obstacle was that he had stood godfather to one of her Swynford sons), and legitimated their Beaufort children. Her marriage to the most powerful man in England put Katherine in a very select society--only a few other mistresses who married their royal lovers spring to mind: Anne Boleyn, Madame de Maintenon (Louis XIV's second wife), and the current Duchess of Cornwall. Richard II had always liked Katherine, and the nobility gradually accepted her.
After John of Gaunt's death in 1399, Katherine retired to the country, probably due to ill health (maybe the venereal disease that probably killed the Duke), and kept out of the political turmoil that followed. Her children were quite involved, but on the side of Henry IV (at least privately). She died in 1403, the mother of rich and powerful children (one was almost elected Pope) who would have illustrious descendants of their own. Her granddaughter Joan Beaufort married James I of Scotland; another granddaughter, Cecily Neville, married Richard, Duke of York, and was the mother of two kings; her great-great-grandson Henry Tudor ended the Wars of the Roses in 1485 and founded the Tudor Dynasty. Several American presidents are descended from Katherine.
Two things mar this otherwise enjoyable book: an annoying occurence of wrongly placed hyphens (perhaps from a previous typesetting), and overly precise modern equivalents of ancient monetary amounts (e.g., on page 41, she has 4000 pounds back then being equivalent to 1,075,396 pounds now--surely the uncertainty of the conversion factor is large enough that saying "about 1 million pounds" would be better).
Notwithstanding those small criticisms, Weir should be applauded for elucidating the life of an unfamiliar but important figure in English history. I would recommend this book to fans of Weir's books and Anya Seton's Katherine--and to anyone interested in medieval society.
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