Katherine Swynford

Katherine Swynford was the daughter of a Hainaut knight and became a member of the household of John of Gaunt. Widowed from Sir Hugh Swynford, she entered a long relationship with Gaunt and bore four Beaufort children. After the death of Gaunt’s second wife, the couple married in 1396, and their children were legitimised. Through the Beaufort line Katherine became an ancestor of the Tudor dynasty and many later European rulers.

Anya Seton’s Katherine is the defining historical novel about Swynford and John of Gaunt and has shaped popular perceptions of their relationship for generations. Katherine also appears in fiction about Chaucer, whose wife Philippa was her sister. Seton’s romantic narrative is influential but necessarily fills substantial gaps in the documentary record concerning Katherine’s motives and emotional life.