Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess
by Alison Weir
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List Price: ££8.99
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Manufacturer: Vintage
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780712641975
ISBN: 0712641971
Label: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-08-07
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book that lives up to the subject herself...
Comment: Katherine Swynford is a bit of enigma. She's arguably one of the most important figures in British history; she's the ancestress of every monarch since Edward IV, no less than five US presidents and Winston Churchill, among others; and yet most people, if they know of her at all, have only heard of her because of an historical romance, Anya Seton's Katherine. That's largely because so little is known of her, and Alison Weir does a good job piecing together what few fragments of information can be found about her. It's clear she has an affection for her subject, which I always like to see in biography. It may not be entirely unbiased, but I hate reading biographies written by people who clearly have an axe to grind or preconceived conceptions. This is a very good book and, as I said, brings to life a pretty obscure character from medieval England.
Customer Rating:
Summary: (3.5 stars): Insightful, but with a few problems
Comment: Like Alison Weir, I was first introduced to the story of Katherine Swynford through Anya Seton's romanticized 1954 novel, Katherine. Weir's biography is a pretty comprehensive look at this enigmatic, lesser-known medieval woman.
I have a love-hate relationship with Weir's books: I loved The Six Wives of Henry VIII; liked Mary Queen of Scots: And the Murder of Lord Darnley, and Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England; but detested Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England and Innocent Traitor (Weir doesn't do fiction all that well). I put Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess in the "like somewhat" category.
Katherine Swynford was born Katherine de Roet in 1350, one of the daughters of Sir Paon de Roet. She then married Hugh Swynford, and spent time in the Lancastrian household as the governess to John of Gaunt's children. Katherine's affair with him probably began around the year 1372, and, after producing a number of illegitimate children, married John in 1396. Katherine is the ancestor of most of the royal houses of Europe, plus at least five American presidents. History has seen Katherine as bit of a homewrecker, but in this book, Weir attempts (and mostly succeeds) in portraying her in a more sympathetic light.
This biography of Katherine Swynford is, as with all of Weir's books, meticulously researched. It's less overtly feminist and partisan than some of her other biographies. Pay attention to the subtitle of this biography: the book is more about John of Gaunt than it is about Katherine (in fact, we don't even get a physical description of Katherine until after one is given of John). We also get very detailed biographies of everyone who was related or connected to her, especially Geoffrey Chaucer, her brother-in-law. After finishing this book, I still didn't have a concrete impression of what Katherine was really like. And, because so little is actually known about Katherine's life, Weir makes an awful lot of assumptions here about what her subject "might," "perhaps," or "probably" have done/ thought/ felt.
However, Weir does a wonderful job bringing the details of the period to life. It's an accessible, readable work of history that doesn't get bogged down in pretentious language. For someone who doesn't know medieval Latin or Norman French, Weir does an incredible job of interpreting her sources. And the style of this book is far more lively and engaging than other books written on the Lancasters that I've read. I look forward to reading what comes next from Weir (according to her website, the next book is about Anne Boleyn, though she may be re-treading old water with that one).
Customer Rating:
Summary: if the information isnt there don't write it
Comment: Having read most of Alison Weir's historical works [which i would give 5 stars to] I have to say that this one is a real miss. Her writing style, usually so fluid, just did not flow for me in this book; she is severely hampered by the lack of accurate historical information available on her subject and i found the endless supposition made for a very trying read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Absorbing as ever but difficult to get a real feel for the main subject
Comment: Absorbing and well researched as ever, but, due to the paucity of available information on its subject, this reads in many places more like a biography of John of Gaunt, as suggested by the book's subtitle. It does give a good feel for 14th century and life and mores, though. Annoyingly, the details/dates in the family trees at the back sometimes contradict the main text.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story stitched together from very little cloth
Comment: Although Weir has written historical biographies of women who were intrinsically interesting -- Eleanor of Acquitaine and Isabella (the She Wolf) of France -- I have always found them a little dry. It's surprisingly, then, that her most lively and readable book so far should be about a woman about whom so little is known.
We can conjecture who Katherine de Roet's father was but the identity of her mother remains unknown; we cannot be sure how many children she bore, assuming that some died young, as was almost inevitable; Weir makes silly statements such as 'Katherine may well have been there that day but there is no evidence of it' a little too often.
Even so, the character of Katherine shines through, the first royal mistress ever to achieve the status of wife, ancestor of every English monarch since 1461, loving the larger-than-life John of Gaunt.
Weir mischievously quotes the late Queen Mother as saying that men of status do not marry their mistresses.
I suspect that most British people would say 'Katherine Who?' I'm delighted that Weir has introduced Katherine back into history, where she belongs and whence some of her descendants, a little ashamed of her humble birth, tried to expunge her.
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