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Books : Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess
Rating: 
- Alison Weir never disappoints - an exceptional book on an exceptional medieval woman by an exceptional author
The late Queen Mother is supposed to have said that titled and powerful men do not marry their mistresses. Well, we know that she was very wrong on this her brother-in-law did and her grandson too. But she had point as such men usually did or do not as like the late Sir James Goldsmith said that this "leaves a job vacancy".
One of the few exceptions was Katherine Swynford: she made it from royal mistress to 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 even for a very short period only - England's first lady. What caused scandal today was even more scandalous in the 14th century and this reputation sticked to Katherine. 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.
Alison Weir follows the destiny of Katherine in a brilliant way. She simply has indeed a unique talent to tell a story. Her reputation as one of the foremost popular historians is well justified. As there are limited sources available she put things into perspective, analyses the sources and the "agenda" of the writers. She re-creates the life of Katherine in an understandable way and is academically correct without being scholarly. All this helps to understands better life and times of Katherine Swynford.
I appreciated very much the whole of the book: genealogical tables, the illustrations and the appendix on Anya Seton's novel "Katherine" made the book a great reading experience.
I do not share the criticism other reviewers' on the maybes because Katherine Swynford left nothing behind, we have nothing written by her and nothing about what she thought or said. Well, this is not the 18th century when people tended to write long letters. We are in the 14th century and direct evidence is scare. We have to fill gaps by deduction. And here Mrs. Weir is honest by pointing out when she makes an informed guess. I find it usually more irritating when a guess is presented as a fact.
I feel less happy that she portraits the Duke of Lancaster in a too favourable light. It is a bit of a whitewash. This applies as well to the relationship of Katherine and the Duke which was against the public morale of the time. Maybe she is a bit too one-sided.
But this does devaluated this great book. I enjoyed to 100% and can only recommend it.
Rating: - Long awaited biography
All of us who have read and re-read the Anya Seton novel will have been longing for more information about our heroine. At last Alison Weir treats her as she should be treated, as an important figure in English history and the ancestor of most subsequent royalty.
More than this, the author's style is both academically sound yet accessible. I have enjoyed all of this book and thoroughly recommend it. And if you've never read 'Katherine', do it now.
Rating: - Just brilliant
I could not put this book down. The author's research is of the highest calibre and Katherine & John of Gaunt are brought brilliantly to life.To be able to know so much about them from the original sources made this book superb
Rating:
- An interesting read but based on very little evidence.
I enjoyed this book. It's interesting and informative about the time and the courts of Edward III and Richard II. It's fairly well researched about the time and Weir writes in an engaging style.
However Katherine Swynford left nothing behind, we have nothing written by her and nothing about what she thought or said. We know so very little about her and it shows. Countless times throughout the book Weir has to use phrases such as 'Katherine might have been here or there', 'She may have done this or that' and 'We can only imagine what she felt' because we simply do not have enough evidence about what she was doing or where she was. It's because of this that Katherine's voice simply does not come through in the book. We do not really get much of an idea of what she was like, or what she felt or thought.
Also I noticed that Weir relies heavily (especially in the first few chapters) on the chronicler Jean Frossairt and yet on page 104, when she disagrees with something he's recorded, she tells us that "his sources can hardly have been reliable. He was, after all, writing long after these events." and yet she is happy to rely on him at other times in the book, I'm assuming because there is no other information available.
So although I've taken issue with a couple of things I did, nevertheless, enjoy reading the book and it's as thorough as it can be with so little evidence.
- Alison Weir never disappoints - an exceptional book on an exceptional medieval woman by an exceptional authorThe late Queen Mother is supposed to have said that titled and powerful men do not marry their mistresses. Well, we know that she was very wrong on this her brother-in-law did and her grandson too. But she had point as such men usually did or do not as like the late Sir James Goldsmith said that this "leaves a job vacancy".
One of the few exceptions was Katherine Swynford: she made it from royal mistress to 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 even for a very short period only - England's first lady. What caused scandal today was even more scandalous in the 14th century and this reputation sticked to Katherine. 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.
Alison Weir follows the destiny of Katherine in a brilliant way. She simply has indeed a unique talent to tell a story. Her reputation as one of the foremost popular historians is well justified. As there are limited sources available she put things into perspective, analyses the sources and the "agenda" of the writers. She re-creates the life of Katherine in an understandable way and is academically correct without being scholarly. All this helps to understands better life and times of Katherine Swynford.
I appreciated very much the whole of the book: genealogical tables, the illustrations and the appendix on Anya Seton's novel "Katherine" made the book a great reading experience.
I do not share the criticism other reviewers' on the maybes because Katherine Swynford left nothing behind, we have nothing written by her and nothing about what she thought or said. Well, this is not the 18th century when people tended to write long letters. We are in the 14th century and direct evidence is scare. We have to fill gaps by deduction. And here Mrs. Weir is honest by pointing out when she makes an informed guess. I find it usually more irritating when a guess is presented as a fact.
I feel less happy that she portraits the Duke of Lancaster in a too favourable light. It is a bit of a whitewash. This applies as well to the relationship of Katherine and the Duke which was against the public morale of the time. Maybe she is a bit too one-sided.
But this does devaluated this great book. I enjoyed to 100% and can only recommend it.
Rating:
- Long awaited biographyAll of us who have read and re-read the Anya Seton novel will have been longing for more information about our heroine. At last Alison Weir treats her as she should be treated, as an important figure in English history and the ancestor of most subsequent royalty.
More than this, the author's style is both academically sound yet accessible. I have enjoyed all of this book and thoroughly recommend it. And if you've never read 'Katherine', do it now.
Rating:
- Just brilliantI could not put this book down. The author's research is of the highest calibre and Katherine & John of Gaunt are brought brilliantly to life.To be able to know so much about them from the original sources made this book superb
Rating:
- An interesting read but based on very little evidence.I enjoyed this book. It's interesting and informative about the time and the courts of Edward III and Richard II. It's fairly well researched about the time and Weir writes in an engaging style.
However Katherine Swynford left nothing behind, we have nothing written by her and nothing about what she thought or said. We know so very little about her and it shows. Countless times throughout the book Weir has to use phrases such as 'Katherine might have been here or there', 'She may have done this or that' and 'We can only imagine what she felt' because we simply do not have enough evidence about what she was doing or where she was. It's because of this that Katherine's voice simply does not come through in the book. We do not really get much of an idea of what she was like, or what she felt or thought.
Also I noticed that Weir relies heavily (especially in the first few chapters) on the chronicler Jean Frossairt and yet on page 104, when she disagrees with something he's recorded, she tells us that "his sources can hardly have been reliable. He was, after all, writing long after these events." and yet she is happy to rely on him at other times in the book, I'm assuming because there is no other information available.
So although I've taken issue with a couple of things I did, nevertheless, enjoy reading the book and it's as thorough as it can be with so little evidence.