Katherine

Katherine de Roet enters the English court through her sister Philippa and marries the Lincolnshire knight Hugh Swynford, but widowhood draws her into a lasting relationship with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Their love develops amid dynastic marriages, military campaigns and the political obligations surrounding one of Edward III’s most powerful sons.

Katherine bears John four Beaufort children while living under the scrutiny of court and Church, and their position becomes still more dangerous during the Peasants’ Revolt and the troubled reign of Richard II. The novel follows their separation, reconciliation and eventual marriage, placing an intimate biography at the origins of the Beaufort line and the later Lancastrian and Tudor succession.