Mistress of the Monarchy (66 page)

1
Anonimalle Chronicle
. For the Good Parliament, see chiefly
Rotuli Parliamentorum
; Walsingham;
Anonimalle Chronicle

2
Walsingham

3
Goodman:
Honourable Lady

4
Cited by Lindsay

5
Chandos Herald

6
Walsingham

7
Ibid.

8
Collection of All the Wills …,
ed. Nichols

9
McFarlane; Saul

10
Walsingham

11
John of Gaunt’s Register

12
Ibid. It seems, however, that Katherine’s dues from the Sauneby holdings were not paid, for years later, the Duke wrote to his seneschal at Tickhill Castle to say that he was ‘fully informed that our very dear and beloved Dame Katherine de Swynford has certain sums due to her from these lands and tenements’, and commanded him to recompense her in full.

13
Walsingham

14
Collection of All the Wills …

15
Foedera

16
Pearsall

17
Walsingham. He was the son of Henry, Baron Percy, by Mary of Lancaster, a sister of Duke Henry. Henry Percy was created Earl of Northumberland in 1377.

18
Goodman:
John of Gaunt

19
Froissart

20
Anonimalle Chronicle

21
Ibid.; Duchy of Lancaster: DL.28

22
Froissart

23
Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers

24
Armitage-Smith. He suggests that it was Thomas who was born in 1377.

25
Foedera

26
John of Gaunt’s Register

27
Goodman: Redoubtable Countess. I am indebted to Professor Goodman for so generously sending me a copy of the text of this fascinating lecture.

28
Calendar of Patent Rolls

29
Foedera

30
John of Gaunt’s Register
; Foljambe of Osberton MSS.

31
Foedera

32
Catalogue of Seals
; Joy

33
See
www.trytel.com
;
www.rootsweb.com

34
Special Collections: S.C.1

35
McKisack;
Rotuli Parliamentorum
; Wedgwood; Walsingham; Holmes

36
Hardy

37
Walsingham; Froissart;
Anonimalle Chronicle

38
For Wycliffe’s trial, see Walsingham; Murimuth; Tout; Holmes.

39
Stow; Walsingham

40
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Walsingham

41
The others were the earldom of Chester, once held by the Black Prince but now in the hands of the Crown, and the bishopric of Durham.

42
Calendar of Patent Rolls
; Goodman:
John of Gaunt

43
Walsingham

44
Anonimalle Chronicle

45
John of Gaunt’s Register

46
Walsingham, for example.

47
Walsingham. The wooden effigy of Edward III may be seen in the Undercroft Museum at Westminster Abbey.

48
Ibid.

49
Anonimalle Chronicle; Calendar of Close Rolls

50
Froissart

51
Calendar of Close Rolls

52
For Richard II’s coronation, see Walsingham; Wickham Legg.

53
Duchy of Lancaster Records: DL.28

54
McKisack; Walsingham

55
Calendar of Patent Rolls

56
John of Gaunt’s Register

57
Calendar of Patent Rolls
; Chancery Records: C.81

58
Barking Abbey was dissolved in 1539, and its buildings demolished. Some of its ancient fabric was incorporated into the parish church of St Margaret, which originally stood within the Abbey precincts.

59
Loftus and Chettle

60
Calendar of Patent Rolls

61
Walsingham

62
Calendar of Patent Rolls; John of Gaunt’s Register

63
Godwin; Silva-Vigier

64
Rotuli Parliamentorum

65
Ibid. Soon afterwards, Alice married Sir William de Windsor. She died in obscurity in 1400.

66
Goodman:
Honourable Lady

67
Ibid.;
John of Gaunt’s Register

68
Knighton

69
John of Gaunt’s Register

70
Walsingham; Goodman:
Katherine Swynford; Honourable Lady
; Kelly:
Divine Providence

71
Silva-Vigier

72
Costain

73
Knighton

74
Probably Long Stretton, a village near Leicester.

75
Records of the Borough of Leicester

76
Kelly:
Divine Providence

77
Lucraft: ‘Missing from History’

78
Exchequer Records: E.403

79
Duchy of Lancaster Records: PL.3;
Foedera

80
Armitage-Smith

81
Exchequer Records: E.403;
Foedera; John of Gaunt’s Register
; Duchy of Lancaster Records: PL.3

82
Walsingham

83
Cited by Tuchman

84
Armitage-Smith

85
Exchequer Records: E.101, E.401, E.403;
John of Gaunt’s Register

86
John of Gaunt’s Register

87
Crow and Olsen

88
Ackroyd

89
Ibid.

90
Crow and Olsen

91
Waleys Cartulary

92
Cowling

93
Ackroyd

94
John of Gaunt’s Register

95
Goodman:
Katherine Swynford

96
Knighton

97
Ibid.

98
Duchy of Lancaster Records: PL.3

99
He paid the expenses incurred in respect of the obit on 7 November (
John of Gaunt’s Register
).

100
Duchy of Lancaster Records: DL.28;
John of Gaunt’s Register

101
John of Gaunt’s Register

102
Richardson; Cole;
Archaeological Journal
, XXI

103
John of Gaunt’s Register

104
Ibid.

105
Ibid.

106
Ibid.

107
Ibid.

108
Ibid.

109
I am indebted to Joan Potton for this suggestion. The seventeenth-century antiquary, William Dugdale, stated that the Abbess Matilda herself was a daughter of Hugh and Katherine Swynford, but he was probably confusing her with Margaret Swynford. Matilda de Montagu was in fact the daughter of Edward, first Baron Montagu, and related to the earls of Salisbury. Dugdale:
Monasticon

110
John of Gaunt’s Register

111
Froissart;
John of Gaunt’s Register

112
John of Gaunt’s Register
. Lady Mohun’s daughter Philippa later married Edward, Duke of York, the eldest son of Edmund of Langley.

113
John of Gaunt’s Register

114
Ibid.

115
Ibid.

116
Ibid.

117
Calendar of Patent Rolls

118
Lucraft: ‘Missing from History’

119
Deschamps; McDonald; Chute; Goodman:
Honourable Lady

120
Saul; Russell

121
Froissart

122
Calendar of Patent Rolls

123
John of Gaunt’s Register
; Waleys Cartulary

124
Froissart; Holmes;
John of Gaunt’s Register
; Duchy of Lancaster Records: DL.29

125
Walsingham;
Rotuli Parliamentorum

126
John of Gaunt’s Register

127
Ibid.

128
Ibid. These gifts were all paid for on 6 March 1381.

129
Ibid.

130
Rotuli Parliamentorum

131
John of Gaunt’s Register
. Although these gifts were paid for on 6 March at the same time as payment was made for the Duke’s New Year gifts and his wedding gift to Mary de Bohun, the wording of the entry in the
Register
makes it clear that they had not yet been given to their intended recipient, for they were purchased ‘for us to give to Dame Katherine Swynford’.

132
Ibid.

133
Ibid. Sir Thomas’s name is sometimes given as Morrieux, Murrieux or Morreaux. Among John’s wedding gifts to Blanche were twelve silver spoons, twelve silver saucers, two basins with ewers and a basket with a
silver lid. On 1 June 1381, John granted Thomas and Blanche Morrieux a generous annuity of £100 (£37,566), the same amount he had settled on his legitimate daughter Elizabeth the previous year. Further grants and gifts to the couple, ‘for their good services’, would follow in the years to come.

134
For Sir Thomas Morieux, see Nicolas:
Controversy
; Armitage-Smith; Walker.

135
Perroy :
Hundred Years War
; Goodman:
John of Gaunt

136
Foedera

137
John of Gaunt’s Register

138
Ibid.

1
Froissart

2
Froissart was probably exaggerating when he put the figure at 100, 000. For the Peasants’ Revolt, see chiefly Walsingham;
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Knighton.

3
Goodman: Redoubtable Countess

4
Goodman:
Honourable Lady

5
Duchy of Lancaster Records: DL.42, DL.29; Somerville. There is no record of the date on which John of Gaunt granted Wesenham Place to Katherine Swynford, so she may not have owned it at this time. No trace remains of the house today. I am indebted to Roger Joy for his sadly abortive searches in the Norfolk County Record Office and elsewhere in respect of Wesenham Place, and to Sean Cunningham at the National Archives, who tracked down the references to this grant in the Duchy records.

6
Goodman:
Honourable Lady

7
Gower

8
Ibid.

9
Knighton

10
Many records of the Duchy of Lancaster were lost in the blaze (
Calendar of Patent Rolls
). For the sacking of the Savoy, see Stow:
London; Westminster Chronicle
; Knighton;
Anonimalle Chronicle; Calendar of Patent Rolls.

11
John of Gaunt’s Register

12
Knighton

13
Anonimalle Chronicle

14
Goodman:
Honourable Lady
; Gardner; Brewer

15
Exchequer Records: E.37

16
Knighton; Froissart;
John of Gaunt’s Register

17
Knighton

18
John of Gaunt’s Register

19
Foedera

20
Knighton;
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Walsingham; Froissart; Wyntoun. Percy was later to apologise to the Duke for his conduct (
Anonimalle Chronicle
).

21
Knighton;
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Walsingham

22
Knighton

23
John of Gaunt’s Register

24
Ibid.

25
Ibid.

26
Froissart; Knighton; Walsingham;
John of Gaunt’s Register
; Duchy of Lancaster Records: PL.3

27
Knighton

28
Ibid.;
Anonimalle Chronicle

29
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Goodman:
Honourable Lady
; Leland:
Itinerary
. Nothing remains of the palace, which was a ruin by 1658. The site is now occupied by a cemetery.

30
Froissart

31
John of Gaunt’s Register
. The present church of St Mary in Roecliffe was not built until 1843.

32
Ibid.

33
Walsingham

34
John of Gaunt’s Register

35
Goodman:
Honourable Lady
; Lucraft: ‘Missing from History’

36
For these grants and the termination of the wardship, see
John of Gaunt’s Register
. Katherine had to relinquish this wardship on 17 June 1383, because Eustacia, now married to John de Boys, had reached ‘full age, that is to say fourteen years or more’, and John of Gaunt agreed to ‘turn over to her the lands and tenements formerly in our hands’.

37
The Chancery is now No. 11, Minster Yard.

38
Much of this information about Katherine Swynford’s clerical neighbours in the cathedral close comes from notes taken by the author at the excellent and informative lecture on Minster Yard, which was given by the Cathedral Librarian, Dr Nicholas Bennett, at the Katherine Swynford Study Day in June 2006. Regrettably, I have not had access to the full text. Dr Bennett’s research will be a valuable addition to our knowledge of Katherine’s life at the Chancery, and hopefully it will be published in the near future — too late, sadly, for this book.

39
This is the earliest brick frontage in Lincoln, and dates from
c.
1485.

40
For the Chancery, see Hill:
Mediaeval Lincoln
; Goodman:
Katherine Swynford
; Jones, Major, Varley and Johnson; Major; Pevsner and Harris;
A Visit to the Chancery
(pamphlet prepared for the annual Katherine Swynford Study Day, Lincoln Cathedral Library); Mee; Jones:
Four Minster Houses; Registrum Antiquissimum.

41
Knighton

42
McKisack;
Rotuli Parliamentorum

43
Walsingham;
Anonimalle Chronicle
; Knighton

44
John of Gaunt’s Register

45
Westminster Chronicle

46
I am indebted to Abigail Bennett and other experts in Mediaeval Latin at the University of York for translating the quitclaim deed. Roger Joy, who has made an extensive study of the subject, also believes that this quitclaim was intended to preserve the security of Katherine’s tenure of her property, but I have reached my own conclusions independently.

47
John of Gaunt’s Register
. A similar gift was sent on that day to Amy de Melbourne.

48
Ibid.

49
See, for example, Perry; Lucraft: ‘Missing From History’.

50
John of Gaunt’s Register

51
Ibid.

52
Bishop Buckingham’s Register; McFarlane; Knighton

53
Knighton

54
John of Gaunt’s Register

55
Hicks

56
Walsingham

57
Monk of Evesham; cf. Walsingham; Adam of Usk

58
Monk of Evesham

59
Walsingham

60
For Richard II, see, for example, Walsingham; Adam of Usk; Black; Schama; McHardy; Mosley; Hicks; Stow:
Annals
; Armitage-Smith; McDonald.

61
John of Gaunt’s Register

62
Rotuli Parliamentorum

63
Calendar of Patent Rolls

64
Harriss; Perry

65
Jane may have been the daughter of — or related to — Nicholas de Crophill, who was Mayor in 1348–9 and 1360–1. Her more exalted connections are revealed in a petition of 1349 in the
Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers
, wherein an Alan de Crophill is referred to as the kinsman of Edward III, David II of Scotland (who had married King Edward’s sister Joan), Henry, Duke of Lancaster, and Ralph, Baron de Stafford, among other notable persons. This kinship has exercised several genealogists. Alan de Crophill was the son of Sir Ralph de Crophill, who died around 1332, by his wife Matilda, who married, as her second husband, John, Baron Verdun. Matilda, whose maiden name is not recorded, appears in the
Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers
as one of three persons to whom a plenary indult (an indulgence bestowed by the Pope) was granted in 1345; the others were Sir James de Pipe (or Pype) and Sir Richard de Stafford (flourished 1337–69), the brother of Ralph, first Earl of Stafford. Given that there must have been some association between these persons, it has been suggested that Matilda was Earl Ralph’s sister, but she is nowhere listed among his seven known siblings. A Matilda de Stafford is listed among Sir Richard’s children, but she could not have been born until after 1337, and as there are no other Matildas in the Stafford family tree, we can safely assume that Matilda de Crophill was not born a
Stafford. Sir James Pipe, however, was certainly Ralph’s half-brother, being the son of Sir Thomas de Pipe by the Earl’s mother, Margaret Basset, widow of Sir Edmund de Stafford.

The Crophills did have a proven royal connection by marriage, but later than 1345. Sir Ralph de Crophill’s grandson (probably by a former wife), Sir John de Crophill of Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire, who died in 1383, married in 1371 Margery, daughter of Theobald, Baron Verdun, whose second wife had been Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I and a cousin of Edward III. Thus, although the familial relationship referred to in the petition of 1349 cannot be established, by the time Thomas Swynford married Jane Crophill in 1383, the Crophills could again claim kinship, albeit distantly, with the King. It is interesting to note that John, Baron Darcy of Knaith, is listed in the 1349 petition as another of the men to whom Alan de Crophill was kinsman. Years later, Sir Thomas Swynford was to marry, as his second wife, Margaret Grey, the widow of Baron Darcy’s grandson. Clearly there were enduring social links between the Darcys, the Crophills and the Swynfords.
www.rootsweb.com
; Erdeswick;
Complete Peerage
; Weir: English Aristocratic Pedigrees;
Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers

66
John of Gaunt’s Register

67
Calendar of Patent Rolls; Rotuli Parliamentorum
; Armitage-Smith; Perry

68
Calendar of Patent Rolls

69
Higden; Monk of Evesham; Walsingham; Goodman:
John of Gaunt
; Armitage-Smith;
Westminster Chronicle
; Tuck

70
Walsingham; McKisack

71
Calendar of Patent Rolls
; Hill:
Mediaeval Lincoln

72
McHardy; Hill:
Mediaeval Lincoln

73
Hill:
Mediaeval Lincoln
; Goodman:
Katherine Swynford
; Lincoln Cathedral, Dean and Chapter Muniments, Bj12/8

74
Street;
Grantham House

75
Westminster Chronicle
; Walsingham

76
King;
Westminster Chronicle
; Higden; Walsingham

77
Knighton

78
Hicks; Knighton; Walsingham

79
Ackroyd

80
Froissart;
Westminster Chronicle

81
Complete Peerage; Dictionary of National Biography
; Goodman:
John of Gaunt; Rotuli Parliamentorum

82
Rotuli Parliamentorum; Westminster Chronicle
; Froissart;
Foedera