The Scandalous Duchess (51 page)

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The Scandalous Duchess

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Travelling in Katherine Swynford's footsteps

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The Scandalous Duchess

 

1. What do you think of Katherine Swynford? What appeals to you about her and what doesn't?

2. John of Lancaster was a very complex character, both hated and admired by his contemporaries. Why do you think he attracted such widely differing attitudes?

3. John and Katherine were guilty of the sin of adultery in an affair that lasted for twenty-five years and was widely condemned. How do we view this, from a far less religious age?

4. Katherine was on record as a woman of great piety. How was she able to set aside her strong beliefs and engage in a relationship that must destroy all her respectability and undermine the tenets of morality in which she was raised?

5. Constanza of Castile was the third person in this uncomfortable
ménage à trois
. Do you react to her with sympathy or censure?

6. Katherine reacted with fury to the quitclaim. Is this a typical reaction of a woman scorned?

7. Can you forgive the Duke for rejecting Katherine so publicly?

8. Katherine was forced to decide whether she could absolve the Duke from past infidelities. What, in her shoes, would you have decided?

9. Katherine must have been a remarkably strong-willed woman. Where do we see the best examples of this?

10. The
relationship between Katherine and John is often regarded as a great love affair. What do you think? Was it as simple as that? What was it that kept them together for twenty-five years, against all the odds, until John married her?

11. How difficult would it have been for Katherine to leave her Beaufort children to follow the Duke? Could you have made that choice?

12. Katherine was attracted to the Duke from the very beginning. What lessons was she forced to learn in the years as John's mistress and later his wife? How did her love for him develop?

13. As Duchess of Lancaster, Katherine still yearned for recognition in her own right. Can you understand this? Would it be unusual for a woman of the fourteenth century?

 

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine Swynford for two reasons.

Katherine's love affair with John of Lancaster was matter of great scandal, earning her vicious censure as a she-devil and enchantress, yet, despite all the pressures on them to end their liaison, their love did not die under attack. It would have been so easy for them to part and live separate lives, but they didn't.

What sort of love was it that bound them together, that could survive so many vicissitudes without destroying itself in guilt and despair? I was interested in exploring such a remarkable depth of emotion.

My second reason was based on what we know of the characters of John and Katherine.

Katherine was, on the evidence, strongly religious. A respectable widow, highly principled, raised under the influence of Queen Philippa of Hainault, who was known for her staunch beliefs, Katherine would seem to have been the last woman to ignore her conscience and take up a role that would destroy her reputation and bring her under the dire judgement of God.

John was equally known to hold to strong religious views, with a powerful sense of duty and a reputation for high chivalry despite his affairs outside marriage.

And yet both were prepared to abandon all moral integrity, all sense of responsibility, all thoughts of God's grace, when embarking on an adulterous affair that lasted on and off for twenty-five years, producing four illegitimate children as evidence
of their sin. John was perfectly willing to place Katherine in the ducal household, in effect forcing his wife Constanza to accept his mistress. This was flaunting Katherine under Constanza's nose, an action that defies most attempts to explain or forgive.

Why did they take such a scandalous step? Was this just a love affair? I think not. I think it was far more powerful, in effect a Grand Passion. Remorseless, relentless, it was not at all a light-hearted romance but an emotion beyond their control, sweeping all before it, all sense of right or wrong. I consider it to be a tale of compulsive desire and need, so much stronger than love.

And, as I came to know them, the breathtaking enormity of what Katherine and John did took over to drive my writing and engage my own emotions.

I hope I have got to the heart of this most famous pair of medieval lovers in
The Scandalous Duchess

 

John
was buried next to Blanche, as he requested.

The magnificent tomb in Old Saint Paul's of John and Blanche, Duke and Duchess of Lancaster, was completely destroyed in the Fire of London. We have no trace of it, except for an eighteenth-century etching of what it must have looked like.

Choosing not to live in one of her dower properties,
Katherine
retired to Lincoln, where she must have been happy, and once again rented a house, now known as the Priory, in the cathedral close. There she lived a quiet life, far from the court and major events in England. She had no connection with the uprising in 1399 that removed Richard from the throne and crowned her stepson Henry as King Henry IV. She probably saw little of her own children, who were fully engaged in their own lives. What did she think about during these quiet years after the Duke's death?

Katherine died in Lincoln on 10th May, 1403.

She was buried in a tomb of Purbeck marble in the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral.

It is on record that Katherine left a will, but no trace of it remains.

It is Katherine and John's Beaufort children who make such a mark on English history, carrying as they did the important line of Plantagenet blood.

John Beaufort
, Marquis of Somerset: his grand-daughter was Margaret Beaufort, who married Edmund Tudor. Their son was of course Henry Tudor, later Henry VII.

John's daughter Joan married James I of Scotland, who was the first of the Stuart kings of Scotland.

Henry Beaufort:
he had no descendants but was Bishop of Winchester, one of the most astute and gifted politicians of the fifteenth century.

Joan Beaufort:
she had a large family with her second husband, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. Her children came to be related to almost every noble family in the realm. Perhaps the most important for posterity was her daughter Cecily Neville, who married Richard of York and became mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

Thomas Beaufort
, Duke of Exeter was the only one to leave no lasting legacy, his only son dying at a young age.

For devotees of Katherine Swynford who might like to make a permanent connection with her:

Why not become a member of the Katherine Swynford Society?

www.katherineswynfordsociety.org.uk

There is also an interesting website you may like to visit about Kettlethorpe in Lincolnshire.

www.kettlethorpe.com/katherine.html

 

Tempted to travel? Feel an urge to follow in the footsteps of Katherine Swynford and John of Lancaster, even if it's only through the internet or travel guides, from the comfort of your armchair? Here are some of the best locations associated with them, and I have added website addresses, but of course there are others.

Kenilworth Castle
The jewel in the crown for Katherine and John. We think of Kenilworth in connection with Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, when much building was undertaken, but much of the pre-Tudor construction was planned by John of Lancaster.

Visit his Great Hall and dream…

www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenilworth-castle

Lincoln Cathedral
A magnificent church in its own right, but also the site of the tomb of Katherine and her daughter Joan Beaufort. An essential place of pilgrimage for those following in Katherine's footsteps.

The cathedral close is where Katherine rented property and lived for many years in the Duke's absence and in her final years as a widow.

lincolncathedral.com

Pontefract Castle
The most important Lancastrian stronghold in the north of England. Much ruined today, but still with a sense of the past when John of Lancaster used it as his base of northern power.

And of course where Katherine probably took refuge…

www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/ Castlesandmuseums/Castles/PontefractCastle/default.htm

Also a very attractive and useful Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/Pontefractcastle

Tutbury Castle
Much ruined, but one of Duchess Constanza's favourite places. Katherine must certainly have spent time there with her sister Philippa and the Lancaster household.

www.tutburycastle.com

Hertford Castle
Only the gatehouse survives of the original castle where Constanza spent much time.

www.hertford.net/history/castle

The Savoy Palace
Sadly destroyed and with nothing extant to see. But the Savoy Hotel is built on the site and, viewed from the Thames, it gives a superb idea of the extent and dominance of this incredible building that was completely laid waste. One of the finest palaces in Europe with a wealth of valuable items collected by the Duke, it remains a matter of great regret that it is lost to us along with all its treasures.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Palace

Kettlethorpe
There is little left of the manor that Katherine would have known, but the gateway arch to the present Kettlethorpe Hall, an eighteenth-century building, is certainly fourteenth century and so probably constructed by Katherine. There are also the remnants of a deer park that Katherine acquired.

The church was much rebuilt in the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries and sadly has no Swynford memorials.

www.britainexpress.com/counties/lincs/churches/Kettlethorpe.htm

 

I was born in the West riding of Yorkshire. After gaining a BA honours degree in history at Manchester university and a Master's degree in education at hull, I lived in beverley in the east riding for many years as a teacher of history. Always a prolific reader, I enjoyed historical fiction and was encouraged to try my hand at writing. Success in short story competitions spurred me on.

Leaving teaching—but not my love of history—I wrote my first historical romance, a regency, which was published by Mills & boon in 2005. To date ten historical novels and a novella, ranging from medieval through the english Civil War and restoration and back to regency, have been published in the UK, North America and Australia, as well as in translation throughout europe and in Japan.

I now live with my husband in an eighteenth-century timber-framed cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in herefordshire. It is a wild, beautiful place on the borders between england and Wales, renowned for its black-and-white timbered houses, ruined castles and priories and magnificent churches. It is steeped in history, famous people and bloody deeds, as well as ghosts and folklore, all of which give me inspiration and sources for my writing, particularly in medieval times.

My previous historical novels published by MIRA:

Virgin Widow
, the story of Anne Neville, wife of richard III. What if there truly was an emotional connection between Anne and richard…?

Devil's Consort
, the marvellous story of a medieval queen, eleanor of Aquitaine, who fought to hold her own power in a world dominated by men.

Dynamic, charismatic, she divorced one husband to claim another. As for going on crusade…

The King's Concubine
, the dramatic ‘rags to riches' tale of Alice Perrers, infamous mistress to King Edward III.

The Forbidden Queen
, telling the story of beautiful yet tragic Katherine de Valois, wife of Henry V and, of course, of Owen Tudor, with whom she founded the Tudor dynasty.

For my next book I am writing about Elizabeth of Lancaster, younger daughter of John and Blanche of Lancaster. Spoilt, wilful, but talented, Elizabeth had to learn the high price her royal blood demanded. How could she choose between love for her husband, John Holland, Duke of Exeter, or loyalty to her brother, Henry IV, when rebellion against Richard II put them on opposite sides? Would it be possible for Elizabeth to escape heartbreak?

 

I recall the days, when I was still teaching history, when I wanted to write but found it difficult. What to write, how to construct a plot, how to make it interesting—I never seemed to make any progress. What do I write about? That was the real problem. I felt an urge to write, but the subject matter defeated me. When I did, short stories were as much as I could cope with and I admit to still finding it hard to write stories set in contemporary situations. The inspiration hit me when I realised that I could use what I knew: when I discovered the rich vein of history as subject matter, my imagination was fired. Now I find writing a compulsive necessity in my life, the ideas springing from a combination of events, characters and conflicts that enable me to visualise a situation. When my interest is caught, I feel a need to breathe life into a scene or situation by allowing the characters to speak. I particularly enjoy writing about medieval women. Their lives may be very different from our own, the pressures of family and politics and religious mores of the day, the place they are expected to occupy in society, yet their emotions are no different. What a delight it is to make these women come alive again.