Enjoyment depends on motivation!!
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This is a truly excellent book, which I read because I stumbled across it in a library catalogue whilst looking up the new bestseller by Alison Weir! It seems very strange that almost no-one outside history experts would ever have heard of Katherine if it weren't for Anya Seton's immortal novel, (written in the 1950's, which I must have read hundreds of times!)and now we have two scholarly books about her within 2 years!
Jeannette Lucraft's book is HIGHLY scholarly, there being probably more footnotes and bibliography than actual book, and it can be hard going at times, hence my headline comment! The big problem that all authors and researchers have with Katherine is that there is almost nothing documented about her, which seems odd, considering she is the ancestress of all our royal houses, beginning from her place among the Plantagenets through the Tudors and Stuarts to our own beloved Windsors. Also, such contemporary accounts as exist are highly prejudiced. Monkish chroniclers, who were just about the only people who wrote down history as it happened, violently dispapproved of her, and so are not exactly trustworthy. The political situation of the time was also somewhat volatile, and in the absence of a literate population with access to information, very little in the way of hard fact came anybody's way.
Rather in the way that astronomers find Black Holes by their effect on their surrounding space, so I think we should judge Katherine by what we DON'T hear rather then what we DO! To have so little written info suggests that she was highly discreet and dignified in her position of mistress, causing no scandal or attracting any accusations of venality. She must have been extremely attractive and intelligent in order to have held on to the affections of John of Gaunt, himself an intelligent and sophisticated man, for so long. The fact that he eventually married her, and undertook the extraordinary process of legitimizing the 4 children he had had with Katherine, proves how attached to her he was. The King, Richard II, was an uncertain friend, insecure, neurotic and vengeful, and yet Katherine managed to steer a secure course for herself and her family at his court.
All-in-all, I would definitely recommend this book, and if you are sufficiently interested in the truth about Katherine Swynford, such as it can be established, then you won't mind the hard work and concentration that it takes to read it. It is an impressive work of scholarship, which manages to paint a reasonably clear picture of the subject without jumping to any meagrely-supported conclusions, and without rubbishing the opposition - well, she only takes one fairly gentle swipe at Alison Wier!
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Katherine revealed
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I eagerly awaited this book as I have wanted to find out more about Katherine ever since I read "that" book by Anya Seton. Ms Lucraft makes a good job of painting a picture of the lady with very little to go on except general information about women of the times. Although Katherine still comes across as a shadowy figure (we don't even know what she really looked like)I feel I know her a little better than I did. Congratulations on a very enjoyable book.
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From Royal Mistress to Royal Wife
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Katherine Swynford was one of the few women who made from a royal mistress to a royal wife. She had been for more than 20 years the mistress of Prince John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Castile, before they were married and she became for a short period England's first lady. Does that sound familiar? CBP and the PoW do spring to mind, don't they? But this is 14th century England...
Like her modern version Katherine's reputation was not all too good and it was regarded as scandalous that a low born married an all powerful royal duke. And this reputation dominates place in history. However, the reality of it all was quite different. Katherine was a well educated woman of her time, who managed her own destiny and estates, managed to hold the love and esteem of the royal duke, her children by him, the Beauforts, were not only legitimated but became well respected and highly intelligent members of England's ruling class and their off-springs became England's monarchs. On top she was held in high esteem by King Richard II and her step-son king Henry IV. This alone, is already quite an achievement.
Jeanette Lucraft's excellent book is a scholarly study of this extraordinary woman. As there are limited sources available she put things into perspective, analyses the sources and the "agenda" of the writers. All this helps to understands better life and times of Katherine Swynford. I enjoyed this book as it brought back to life this out-standing woman of medival England.
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