Katherine Swynford

Katherine Swynford was a medieval English noblewoman, the daughter of one of Edward III's heralds. Marrying into a leading aristocratic family, she became part of the household of Blanche of Lancaster, and mistress to Blanche's husband, John of Gaunt. She bore him four illegitimate children - from one of whom Henry Tudor was descended - and eventually married him, thus becoming Duchess of Lancaster and step-mother to Henry Bolingbroke, who later ascended the throne. But beyond her starring role as the sexual temptress, the immoral governess who diverted her lover from his political concerns, what can we know about her? Katherine Swynford emerges from the ground-breaking historical biography as a powerful figure in the politics of fourteenth-century England, an example of how a woman could manipulate the social mores of the time for her own interests.