Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Alison Weir

Random House, Mar 28, 2011 - History - 496 pages

'Weir combines high drama with high passion while involving us in the domestic life of a most remarkable woman in an equally remarkable book' Scotland on Sunday

The first full-length biography of an extraordinary love affair between one of the most important men of English History and a thoroughly modern woman.

Katherine Swynford was first the mistress, and later the wife, of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. Her charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the fourteenth century and Katherine was renowned for her beauty and regarded as enigmatic, intriguing and even dangerous by some of her contemporaries.

In this impressive book, Alison Weir has triumphantly rescued Katherine from the footnotes of history, highlighting her key dynastic position within the English monarchy. She was the mother of the Beaufort, then the ancestress of the Yorkist kings, the Tudors, the Stuarts and every other sovereign since - a prodigious legacy that has shaped the history of Britain.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - briandrewz - LibraryThing

An excellent book about an obscure figure in British history. Alison Weir does a good job in trying to piece together the life of Katherine Swynford, mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt. It must ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - wealhtheowwylfing - LibraryThing

We don't know when Katherine Swynford was born, how many siblings she had, what she looked like, what she wrote or spoke like, what her seal looked like, or why she died. In fact, she is a complete ...

About the author

Alison Weir is one of Britain’s top-selling historians. She is the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction, specialising in the medieval and Tudor periods. Her bestselling history books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth of York and, most recently, The Lost Tudor Princess. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession. She is an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces. She is married with two adult children and lives and works in Surrey.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess
• Author: Alison Weir
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Random House, 2011
• ISBN: 1446449076, 9781446449073
• Length: 496 pages
• Subjects: History / General