Mistress of the Monarchy (38 page)

There is evidence that John of Gaunt was in contact with Katherine Swynford at this time, the first on record since he had sent her wine in 1382. During the November Parliament, the Duke petitioned for the removal of Sir John Stanley from the manors of Lathom and Knowsley in Lancashire. Sir John had recently married Isabel, the daughter of Sir Thomas Lathom; upon Lathom’s death in 1370, those manors had passed to his heir, another Sir Thomas, who died underage in 1383. Because Thomas had been a minor, John of Gaunt, as his feudal lord, had taken him and his manors into wardship, and although Isabel was her brother’s heiress, her husband had taken possession of Lathom and Knowsley on Thomas’s death without first establishing his right to do so in the Duke’s palatine chancery. There was, of course, more to this than met the eye: Sir John Stanley, who became Robert de Vere’s deputy in Ireland the following year, appears to have been a client of the favourite, and almost certainly de Vere was behind this slight to the Duke and upheld Stanley’s possession of the manors in Parliament.

But the law was on the Duke’s side. After John of Gaunt complained that Stanley had been in ‘grave contempt’ of his ducal rights, Parliament decreed that Stanley’s entry into the manors had been illegal and ordered him to vacate them and to lodge his claim in the palatine chancery. In the end, John of Gaunt was just. He had vindicated his right to the manors, but he was aware that they should pass to Stanley in right of his wife. So he granted them to Katherine Swynford, who in turn, at his behest, sold
them to Stanley. The Duke even returned to Stanley a substantial part of the price.
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Thus we have evidence that John and Katherine were in contact, indeed, in collaboration, at this time, and that she was willing to support him in such matters.

The King, eager to get rid of his troublesome uncle, now lent him money for his Castilian venture,
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and from January 1386, preparations for the great invasion went ahead.

N
early five years on from the end of their affair, Katherine could perhaps view the prospect of John leaving England for a long period with equanimity. After all, it would not be forever — there is some evidence to suggest that he never intended to take up permanent residence in Castile, but anticipated that England would remain his chief base.
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Thus their children would not be permanently deprived of a father, nor Katherine of the occasional contact with him.

Inwardly, she might have worried about John, for he was no longer young. Fernño Lopes, whose description of him as he appeared in Portugal in 1386–7 may derive from the reminiscences of Philippa of Lancaster and other contemporaries, says he was still tall, lean and upright, but estimated him to be ‘about sixty years old, with fewer white hairs than is normal for one of his age’ — unsurprisingly, as he was still only forty-six. It does appear, though, that a lifetime of care and campaigning had prematurely aged him, and his experiences in Spain would doubtless leave their mark as well.

The Duke spent the months prior to his departure putting his affairs in order, and his provision extended to Katherine’s family. He took Thomas Chaucer into his service.
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He betrothed nine-year-old Joan Beaufort to Sir Robert Ferrers of Willisham, heir through his mother to the Boteler estates in Wem.
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And on 19 February, on the day after the standard of the Cross was raised in St Paul’s Cathedral and his Castilian venture was preached as a crusade, he was in Lincoln.

John was there to attend an impressive ceremony in the chapter house of Lincoln Cathedral, in which, in the presence of nine canons, ‘the Lord Henry, Earl of Derby, son of the Lord John, the most high Prince, King of Castile and Duke of Lancaster’ was to be admitted by Bishop Buckingham to the cathedral’s confraternity, just as John himself had been
admitted at the age of three. Alongside Henry, John Beaufort, now about thirteen and already knighted, Sir Thomas Swynford, Philippa Chaucer and Sir Robert Ferrers were also made members.
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Sir Thomas Swynford, in company with another Lincolnshire knight, Sir William Hauley, was officially in attendance on the Duke that day.
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The inclusion of Katherine’s sons, her sister and her future son-in-law in this important Lancastrian ceremony demonstrates how highly regarded, and how important, she and her family were within the Duke’s closest circle.

Admission to the cathedral’s ‘order of the brotherhood’ — which it claimed had been founded ‘when the Bible was written’,
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but which in fact dated from
c
.1185
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— was a socially prestigious privilege that enabled members of the laity to benefit from the prayers of the clergy in perpetuity, and to be buried in the cathedral; in return, it was piously hoped, they would be generous benefactors and patrons.
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The Duke no doubt felt that he and those dear to him needed such intercessions at this crucial time. His visit to Lincoln Cathedral would have afforded him the opportunity to pray at the three altars where his name-saints were worshipped, and to the Holy Virgin, to whom the church was dedi-cated.
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After the ceremony, wine and comfits were served, then the company repaired to the castle for a feast hosted by the Duke.
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Professor Goodman is probably correct in suggesting that John made this auspicious day the occasion for a farewell gathering prior to his departure. And with the focus on two of her sons, her sister, her former charge and her patron, there can be little doubt that Katherine Swynford, whose house was nearby, was also present with her other children. Nor that her long association with the cathedral, and the omission of her name from the list of new members of its confraternity, suggest that she herself already belonged to it, and perhaps had done for some years, for Sir Hugh Swynford may also have been a member.
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Philippa Chaucer’s admission suggests that she was still resident in Lincolnshire at this time and living apart from her husband. She was probably preparing to go to Castile in the train of the Duchess Constance: after all, her son Thomas was going with the Duke, and with her daughter in a convent and her husband living apart from her, there was little to keep her in England.

John of Gaunt returned to London immediately after the ceremony; his Duchess was then away on a pilgrimage to various shrines, praying for the success of her husband’s great enterprise. She can hardly be blamed for not attending the ceremony in Lincoln, at which the Swynford connections were so prominent.
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Instead, she was received into the confraternity of St Albans Abbey, home of the chronicler Walsingham,
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a place
where she was much admired for her piety, which might account in part for Walsingham’s past hostility towards the Duke.

On 8 March, Richard II formally recognised John of Gaunt as King of Castile, placing him next to himself at the council table.
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At Easter, the Pope again proclaimed the enterprise a crusade, and sent John a holy banner.
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By then, the Duke had begun assembling his fleet, and there was a ceremony of farewell at court, with the King and Queen solemnly placing golden diadems on the heads of John and Constance. After that, John departed on his own pilgrimage to various shrines in the West Country.
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On 8 April, as King of Castile, he agreed a treaty of perpetual friendship with Richard II, and on the 20th, the King ordered the impressing of every ship in the realm for John’s fleet.

By 14 June, the Duke had arrived in Plymouth; four days later, his fleet was finally assembled. Preoccupied as he was with the myriad aspects of his venture, he yet had to find time to deal with the unseemly conduct of his strong-willed
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daughter, Elizabeth of Lancaster. Bored with her child husband, who was still only fourteen to her twenty-three years, Elizabeth had willingly allowed herself to be seduced by the King’s half-brother, Sir John Holland,
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a volatile schemer who in 1384 had been involved in the plot hatched against John of Gaunt at the Salisbury Parliament; it was he who in 1385 had caused outrage — and grief to his mother, the Princess Joan — by killing Stafford’s son, as a result of which he had been forced to flee to sanctuary until the King’s wrath abated. Holland was licentious too, and around 1380, he had reputedly enjoyed a torrid affair with the flirtatious Isabella of Castile, Constance’s sister and the wife of Edmund of Langley.
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Now, Higden says, he had been ‘struck down passionately’ by his love for Elizabeth of Lancaster, ‘so that day and night he sought her out’.

When John of Gaunt learned that Elizabeth was pregnant by Holland, he arranged for her unconsummated marriage to Pembroke to be annulled; that unfortunate boy was to remarry, but he would die horribly, pierced through his genitals, in a jousting accident at Christmas 1389.
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On 24 June 1386, Elizabeth and Holland were hastily wed
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in or near Plymouth, narrowly averting a scandal and effecting his complete rehabilitation. The Duke was to show great favour to this son-in-law, so obviously the scoundrel had charm and ability. The couple’s daughter Constance was born the following year, and four other children — the eldest being named John, after the Duke — would follow.

Clearly the headstrong Elizabeth had inherited her father’s sensual nature; it may have seemed to her that there was no harm in following the example set by her former governess Katherine Swynford in giving herself outside marriage to the man she loved. But Katherine was not a
princess of the blood — Elizabeth was, and the corruption of her virtue was a more serious matter. It seems that Katherine had failed, by precedent or precept, to impress upon Elizabeth the need for a girl in her position to conduct herself virtuously. Fortunately, her father had dealt with her leniently and advantageously, and her marriage turned out to be successful.

In July 1386, the Duke’s retinues began to embark. Having appointed his son Henry to serve as Warden of the Palatinate of Lancaster during his absence, John entertained him to a farewell dinner on board his flagship on the 8th. The following day, a fair wind sprang up; father and son bade each other a hasty farewell, and the fleet set sail on its glorious venture.
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With it went the Duke’s three daughters, his sons-in-law John Holland, who had been appointed constable of his army, and Sir Thomas Morieux, serving as marshal; Thomas Chaucer and probably his mother Philippa; and the Duchess Constance, now in high hopes of occupying her father’s throne and continuing his dynasty.

For Constance was possibly pregnant at this time, with a child doubtless conceived primarily for dynastic purposes. The arrival of a male heir on Castilian soil would signify divine approval of her cause and inspire the loyalty of her subjects. It would also serve to proclaim that she and her husband were fully reconciled, and go some way towards obliterating the scandal of his former life. Alas, the child — if there was a child at all — was not of the desired sex: the contemporary chronicler Monk of St Denis says that the Duchess was delivered of a daughter soon after she and the Duke disembarked at Corunna on 25 July.
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No further mention is made of the infant, so either she did not live, or the Monk’s information was inaccurate and she never existed.

Katherine Swynford was probably living quietly in Lincolnshire when John went away — she was still renting the Chancery in 1386 —7, for at that time she was having repairs done to the house.
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Perhaps she went to the cathedral and offered up prayers for the success of the Duke’s enterprise, as Bishop Buckingham requested of his flock on 28 July.
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There is later evidence to suggest that she and John were in touch while he was abroad, so probably at some stage she and her Beaufort children received word of his arrival in Compostela and his decision to winter in Galicia before attempting to take Castile. In his absence, she busied herself with domestic matters and continued to administer her son’s lands. In 1386, Henry de Fenton granted Katherine tenements in Kettlethorpe, further improving the Swynford inheritance.
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Katherine cannot have seen much of her brother-in-law, Geoffrey
Chaucer, these days; maybe, with Philippa possibly gone overseas, they now had little to say to each other. Chaucer did not fare well after the Duke’s departure. In 1386, he was a man of substance and status, and in the summer of that year he was nominated to sit in Parliament as Knight of the Shire for Kent, taking his seat in October. But towards the end of the year, he either resigned from, or was deprived of, his lucrative controllerships, and he gave up — or was evicted from — his house in Aldgate. He possibly took lodgings in Greenwich or Deptford,
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but his only income now was his royal pension, which he continued to collect himself twice a year from the Exchequer.

The loss of his house and offices coming only months after John of Gaunt’s departure argues that they had indeed been granted to him through the Duke’s influence. But the absent John was now
persona non grata
in England, for the King was relieved to be rid of his too-powerful and intimidating uncle, and his favourite Robert de Vere now reigned triumphant at court. This might explain why Chaucer — whose wife was sister to the Duke’s former mistress — had lost his offices and would not regain favour until Richard realised just how much he needed John of Gaunt’s support.

Meanwhile, the Duke had met up with his ally, João I of Portugal, and both were trying to enforce John’s claims through diplomacy before resorting to war. To cement their friendship, Philippa of Lancaster was given in marriage to King João in February 1387 in Oporto Cathedral.

Philippa was to prove a model — and much-loved — queen consort. She was devoted and obedient to her husband, bore him eight children (two were named after her parents; another was the great explorer prince, Henry the Navigator), had them well educated, and set a deeply pious and charitable example.
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In every way she was a credit to her father, and also to Katherine Swynford, who had been in overall charge of her from the time Philippa was thirteen, and who had evidently succeeded with her where she had failed with her sister. And it was perhaps Philippa’s fondness for Katherine and the Beauforts that led her to treat her husband’s bastard children with kindness and tolerance.
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