---
product_id: 4537818
title: "Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster"
brand: "alison weir"
price: "KSh8584"
currency: KES
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/4537818-mistress-of-the-monarchy-the-life-of-katherine-swynford-duchess
store_origin: KE
region: Kenya
---

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

**Brand:** alison weir
**Price:** KSh8584
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster by alison weir
- **How much does it cost?** KSh8584 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.ke](https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/4537818-mistress-of-the-monarchy-the-life-of-katherine-swynford-duchess)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The fascinating story of a medieval mistress who became a duchess
  

*by K***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2007*

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.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Mistess of the Monarchy...
  

*by M***O on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 20, 2012*

When I want to read a book on a topic that interests me and I don't know much about the author, I really enjoy reading the reviews - both for and against.  I especially value the reviews that summarize the contents briefly so I can get some idea of how the topic is treated.  Sometimes the evaluations for are unbelievably favorable, and I could well believe they are written by friends and relatives.  On the other hand, the negative reviews go far in the other direction, especially when the author has hit nerves on sensitive issues or debunked a point of view.  The negative reviews of this book are good illustrations of that.I read KATHERINE by Anya Seton in the late 1950s, and I loved it.  I reread it many times.  I've been fascinated by medieval England since I first read Howard Pyle's stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood when I was in grade school.  As I grew older and started reading nonfiction and histories, I started putting myth and legend into perspective with historical research.  I went through a period of almost sadness to learn my favorite stories had maybe just a smidgen of fact, but I quickly shifted into appreciating the imagination of the storytellers who could bring dry records to life to form a picture of what life was like in the distant past.One of my college professors in a history of England class gave us a beginning assignment - write your version of the conquest of England using only sources dating no later than 100 years (I think - maybe 200 years) of 1066.  These included the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Bayeaux tapestry, three or four other chroniclers - when we looked at them, there was maybe five or six pages of information mostly from Norman French sources.  None of us had brains enough in gear to attempt to evaluate who the writers of these "histories" were and who they were trying to impress or were paid by, or to think that just maybe none of them even attempted to give us the whole story.  Yup, I was one of those who flunked the paper big time.Historical research is not for sissies.  I knew even back in the late 50s that KATHERINE was a romance.  It wasn't until maybe 10-15 years later when I had studied the sociology as well as the history of the middle ages that I realized just how romanticized it was.  We surely don't think about ourselves and our values today as did people living centuries ago.  Ms Seton's book is still a good story (I still own it and reread it with pleasure), and it fed my interest in studying history.  Thank you, Anya Seton.  And thank you, Alison Weir.  You have both made my life much richer.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Fascinating historical character, disappointing biography
  

*by J***E on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 26, 2022*

Alison Weir's scholarship is in no doubt, and the immersive detail she brings to her historical biographies cannot be faulted, but her writing style can be, not to put too fine a point on it, quite boring. I have always loved the story of Katharine Swynford, the mistress, then wife, of John of Gaunt, one of medieval histories most formidable, fascinating, and flamboyant characters. My introduction to Katherine, like many before me including actress Hayley Mills, was the novel by Anya Seton, and I really enjoyed the novel.This biography does not capture the beautiful woman whose influence and capability, perseverance and tact through scandal and intrigue, deserves a more dramatic treatment. Alison Weir not only dispels the myths, she bogs the reader down in rather boring domesticity and confuses with conjecture and dubious possibilities. While Weir herself admits that Anya Seton's novel was also inspirational to her, she unfortunately drowns in detail, and reading this book becomes a chore rather than a fascination.However, not to over-criticise, Alison Weir's research does mean that her descriptions of medieval courtly life, the personages and events of this turbulent time after Edward III died and John of Gaunt effectively rules England, offer the reader a comprehensive history of a time of such different mores and standards than today's. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the period at the turn of the 13th into 14th century, when Chaucer was writing his tales, chivalry still alive, and high-born women tolerated mistresses. Just don't expect a lively portrayal of one of the more interesting women of the Middle Ages. If Katherine Swynford interests you, read the novel.

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*Last updated: 2026-02-05*