Katherine de Valois merely fits into this pattern of medieval land transference, as a woman silent and generally unimpressive.

Nor have historians been complimentary to Katherine. We receive the notion of a young woman who was beautiful and gracious but lacking in more than basic intelligence and with a very limited education. The archetypal ‘dumb blonde’ in fact, who had little to say and no opinion to give.

Was this all that could be said for Katherine?

Solid evidence for much of her life is lacking, but what it lacks in hard fact, it gains in rumour, myth and legend, particularly in her falling in love with Owen Tudor. The blatant romance of it has been open to wide speculation.

In writing The Forbidden Queen I have made use of the outline of Katherine’s history as far as we know it. I have placed her firmly in the centre of English politics, as she undoubtedly was, making sense of what is not recorded. As for the romantic myths, I have made use of them, and make no excuses for doing so.

By the time I wrote my final sentence, I had decided that Katherine, rather than a rather dim but lovely creature, must have been a remarkable woman.

I am always delighted to keep in touch with my readers who are interested in my writing, both the process and the content. I enjoy receiving feedback and readers’ thoughts and insights into my heroines.

You can keep up to date with events and signings on my website and contact me: http://www.anneobrienbooks.com

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I also have my own blog where I write about history in general and what I am investigating in particular. Or anything historical that takes my interest…

http://www.anneobrienbooks.com/blog/2012/11/katherine-swynford/

Read all about it…

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

2     Questions for your reading group

4     Inspiration for writing

The Forbidden Queen

6     And After…

8     Further reading

9     Travelling in Katherine de Valois’s footsteps

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

12   Author biography

14   Why I write

15   Q&A on writing 20 A writer’s life

22   A day in the life

23   Top Ten Books

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR READING GROUP

1.     What do you think of Katherine? What appeals to you about her and what doesn’t?

2.     Apart from Katherine, who is your favourite character in the book and why?

3.     What influence did Katherine’s childhood have on her as a young adult? To what extent do you consider our adult characters to be formed in these earliest years?

4.     Katherine was described as ‘tall, fair and beautiful.’ Yet history has written her off as the archetypal ‘dumb blonde.’ Do you, from the decisions she made and the way she responded to influences at the English court, think this does justice to Katherine?

5.     After Henry’s death, Katherine is left with no role to play, her part in the childhood of her son is restricted by those placed in authority over him and her. How does Katherine react? What would you have done in a similar situation?

6.     Shakespeare wrote a wonderful love scene for Katherine with King Henry. Do you think that the evidence merits it? If not, why did he do it? Can we forgive authors for writing their own version of history?

7.     What is your feeling about Henry V’s relationship with Katherine? Could she have done anything to improve it?

8.     Katherine lived though a period of bloody warfare and yet seems untouched by it. Can we excuse her for this, even when the war is between the two sides of her family, English against French? Would we expect her to have more sympathy with her disinherited brother?

9.     Katherine’s relationship with Edmund Beaufort was at best foolhardy, at worst politically dangerous. Can we have any compassion for her? Is her falling in love with Owen Tudor just as foolish and lacking in judgement?

10.   Do you consider that Katherine deserved the punishment and restrictions inflicted on her by the Duke of Gloucester and the Royal Council?

11.   In what manner does Katherine’s character develop when she falls in love with Owen Tudor? Is she a better or worse person? Does your reaction to her change throughout the novel?

12.   What do you think of Owen Tudor? Is he hero or villain? Did he fall irrevocably in love with Katherine, or merely use her to improve his own lot in life?

13.   At the end, faced with impossible pressures, Katherine retires to Bermondsey Abbey. Could you have done the same in similar circumstances?

INSPIRATION FOR THE FORBIDDEN QUEEN

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine de Valois because although history records her as being very much a fairy-tale princess—fair and beautiful and greatly loved by King Henry (indeed contemporaries believed them to be the perfect couple)—the historical evidence did not quite stack up for me.

But why not? Their love story in Shakespeare’s Henry Vis legendary. On his betrothal Henry ‘kissed her with great joy’ and on the day of their marriage he is said to have looked proud and emotional, as if he were ‘king of all the world.’ As well he might, of course. By marrying Katherine, Henry would take possession of the kingdom of France, without having to waste one more drop of English blood in battle.

But their marriage—lasting only a little more than two years—is a sorry tale of absence. Katherine’s honeymoon was spent on campaign. Back in England Henry went on royal progress, only taking Katherine with him for part of the journey. As soon as she was pregnant he left for France to renew the war. They only met once more, briefly in France, and Henry never saw his son. Dying, Henry made no attempt to contact his beautiful wife.

So what sort of relationship was it? I had to find out, just as I had to discover if Katherine truly was the weak, manipulated young woman who appears between the pages of history books. It seemed to me that there was far more to say about this youngest of the French Valois princesses. After Henry’s death, Katherine fell into a dangerous relationship with Edmund Beaufort. And then there was her scandalous marriage to Owen Tudor when she quite deliberately married below her station, Owen being no more than her servant.

All of this did not sound to me like the lifestyle of a young woman mourning the lost love of her life. Nor did Katherine, in her relationship with Owen, give the impression of being perpetually under the influence of stronger characters.

Was such contrast and ambiguity not a gift to an historical novelist?

In the light of this I decided that Katherine deserved a re-evaluation, allowing her a life of her own within her two marriages. I hope I have done her justice in writing The Forbidden Queen, allowing us to see the woman behind the façade.

AND AFTER THE FINAL WORD IN THE FORBIDDEN QUEEN…

There is nothing but tragedy to record for Katherine. In her own words she suffered from ‘a grievous malady, in which I have been long…troubled and vexed.’ Whether physical or mental is not clear, but she died at Bermondsey Abbey on 3rd January 1437, aged thirty-five years. Her infant daughter, sometimes named Margret, sometimes Katherine, was born and died at Bermondsey.

Katherine was buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1503 her body was placed in Henry V’s tomb on the orders of her grandson Henry VII, but—what a terrible, gruesome custom—was often displayed as a curiosity. In 1669 Samuel Pepys viewed Katherine’s body, held it and planted a kiss on her mouth—and was proud to record it. It was not until 1871 that her remains were moved to their present spot in Henry V’s chantry. There is a striking, wooden, painted effigy, used in her first funeral in the Abbey Museum. I recommend that you go to see such an accurate likeness, taken from her death mask.

As for Owen… As soon as Katherine was dead, Gloucester took his revenge on Owen, resulting in Owen’s being arrested without due process of law, his possessions seized and he was incarcerated in Newgate prison. It took a year before his innocence was recognised; he was released, pardoned of all offences.

But with the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, Owen, fighting beside his son Jasper on the Lancastrian side at Mortimer’s Cross in the Welsh Marches, was apprehended after the battle and taken to Hereford and there he was beheaded by the Yorkists. His head was placed on the base of the market cross in High Street, where ‘a madde woman’ combed his hair and washed away the blood from his face and then set a hundred candles about his head. Owen did not expect to die. When he saw that this would be his fate, he is recorded as saying ‘that head shall lye on the stock that was wont to lye on Queen Katherine’s lap.’ A sad end.

Owen’s body was taken to be buried in the chapel of the Greyfriars Church in Hereford but Greyfriars suffered at the Dissolution, the building demolished and the land sold off for other purposes. All trace of his grave has disappeared.

But of course, the careers of the children of Katherine and Owen should be on record:

Edmund Tudor: married Margaret Beaufort. Their son Henry Tudor was to become King Henry VII and the founder of the Tudor dynasty. (See Family Tree)

Jasper Tudor: was created Earl of Pembroke, later Duke of Bedford. He married Katherine Woodville, one of Elizabeth Woodville’s sisters.