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MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Questions for your reading group

Inspiration for writing The Scandalous Duchess

And After…

Travelling in Katherine Swynford’s footsteps

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author biography

Why I write

Q&A on writing

A writer’s life

A day in the life

The ten best places to read The Scandalous Duchess

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR READING GROUP

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

2. John of Lancaster was a very complex character, both hated and admired by his contemporaries. Why do you think he attracted such widely differing attitudes?

3. John and Katherine were guilty of the sin of adultery in an affair that lasted for twenty-five years and was widely condemned. How do we view this, from a far less religious age?

4. Katherine was on record as a woman of great piety. How was she able to set aside her strong beliefs and engage in a relationship that must destroy all her respectability and undermine the tenets of morality in which she was raised?

5. Constanza of Castile was the third person in this uncomfortable ménage à trois. Do you react to her with sympathy or censure?

6. Katherine reacted with fury to the quitclaim. Is this a typical reaction of a woman scorned?

7. Can you forgive the Duke for rejecting Katherine so publicly?

8. Katherine was forced to decide whether she could absolve the Duke from past infidelities. What, in her shoes, would you have decided?

9. Katherine must have been a remarkably strong-willed woman. Where do we see the best examples of this?

10. The relationship between Katherine and John is often regarded as a great love affair. What do you think? Was it as simple as that? What was it that kept them together for twenty-five years, against all the odds, until John married her?

11. How difficult would it have been for Katherine to leave her Beaufort children to follow the Duke? Could you have made that choice?

12. Katherine was attracted to the Duke from the very beginning. What lessons was she forced to learn in the years as John’s mistress and later his wife? How did her love for him develop?

13. As Duchess of Lancaster, Katherine still yearned for recognition in her own right. Can you understand this? Would it be unusual for a woman of the fourteenth century?

INSPIRATION FOR THE SCANDALOUS DUCHESS

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine Swynford for two reasons.

Katherine’s love affair with John of Lancaster was matter of great scandal, earning her vicious censure as a she-devil and enchantress, yet, despite all the pressures on them to end their liaison, their love did not die under attack. It would have been so easy for them to part and live separate lives, but they didn’t.

What sort of love was it that bound them together, that could survive so many vicissitudes without destroying itself in guilt and despair? I was interested in exploring such a remarkable depth of emotion.

My second reason was based on what we know of the characters of John and Katherine.

Katherine was, on the evidence, strongly religious. A respectable widow, highly principled, raised under the influence of Queen Philippa of Hainault, who was known for her staunch beliefs, Katherine would seem to have been the last woman to ignore her conscience and take up a role that would destroy her reputation and bring her under the dire judgement of God.

John was equally known to hold to strong religious views, with a powerful sense of duty and a reputation for high chivalry despite his affairs outside marriage.

And yet both were prepared to abandon all moral integrity, all sense of responsibility, all thoughts of God’s grace, when embarking on an adulterous affair that lasted on and off for twenty-five years, producing four illegitimate children as evidence of their sin. John was perfectly willing to place Katherine in the ducal household, in effect forcing his wife Constanza to accept his mistress. This was flaunting Katherine under Constanza’s nose, an action that defies most attempts to explain or forgive.

Why did they take such a scandalous step? Was this just a love affair? I think not. I think it was far more powerful, in effect a Grand Passion. Remorseless, relentless, it was not at all a light-hearted romance but an emotion beyond their control, sweeping all before it, all sense of right or wrong. I consider it to be a tale of compulsive desire and need, so much stronger than love.

And, as I came to know them, the breathtaking enormity of what Katherine and John did took over to drive my writing and engage my own emotions.

I hope I have got to the heart of this most famous pair of medieval lovers in The Scandalous Duchess

AND AFTER THE FINAL WORD IN THE SCANDALOUS DUCHESS…

John was buried next to Blanche, as he requested.

The magnificent tomb in Old Saint Paul’s of John and Blanche, Duke and Duchess of Lancaster, was completely destroyed in the Fire of London. We have no trace of it, except for an eighteenth-century etching of what it must have looked like.

Choosing not to live in one of her dower properties, Katherine retired to Lincoln, where she must have been happy, and once again rented a house, now known as the Priory, in the cathedral close. There she lived a quiet life, far from the court and major events in England. She had no connection with the uprising in 1399 that removed Richard from the throne and crowned her stepson Henry as King Henry IV. She probably saw little of her own children, who were fully engaged in their own lives. What did she think about during these quiet years after the Duke’s death?

Katherine died in Lincoln on 10th May, 1403.

She was buried in a tomb of Purbeck marble in the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral.

It is on record that Katherine left a will, but no trace of it remains.

It is Katherine and John’s Beaufort children who make such a mark on English history, carrying as they did the important line of Plantagenet blood.

John Beaufort, Marquis of Somerset: his grand-daughter was Margaret Beaufort, who married Edmund Tudor. Their son was of course Henry Tudor, later Henry VII.

John’s daughter Joan married James I of Scotland, who was the first of the Stuart kings of Scotland.

Henry Beaufort: he had no descendants but was Bishop of Winchester, one of the most astute and gifted politicians of the fifteenth century.

Joan Beaufort: she had a large family with her second husband, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. Her children came to be related to almost every noble family in the realm. Perhaps the most important for posterity was her daughter Cecily Neville, who married Richard of York and became mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter was the only one to leave no lasting legacy, his only son dying at a young age.

For devotees of Katherine Swynford who might like to make a permanent connection with her:

Why not become a member of the Katherine Swynford Society?

www.katherineswynfordsociety.org.uk

There is also an interesting website you may like to visit about Kettlethorpe in Lincolnshire.

www.kettlethorpe.com/katherine.html

FOLLOWING IN KATHERINE SWYNFORD’S FOOTSTEPS

Tempted to travel? Feel an urge to follow in the footsteps of Katherine Swynford and John of Lancaster, even if it’s only through the internet or travel guides, from the comfort of your armchair? Here are some of the best locations associated with them, and I have added website addresses, but of course there are others.

Kenilworth Castle

The jewel in the crown for Katherine and John. We think of Kenilworth in connection with Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, when much building was undertaken, but much of the pre-Tudor construction was planned by John of Lancaster.

Visit his Great Hall and dream…

www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenilworth-castle

Lincoln Cathedral

A magnificent church in its own right, but also the site of the tomb of Katherine and her daughter Joan Beaufort. An essential place of pilgrimage for those following in Katherine’s footsteps.

The cathedral close is where Katherine rented property and lived for many years in the Duke’s absence and in her final years as a widow.

lincolncathedral.com

Pontefract Castle

The most important Lancastrian stronghold in the north of England. Much ruined today, but still with a sense of the past when John of Lancaster used it as his base of northern power.

And of course where Katherine probably took refuge…

www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/ Castlesandmuseums/Castles/PontefractCastle/default.htm

Also a very attractive and useful Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/Pontefractcastle

Tutbury Castle

Much ruined, but one of Duchess Constanza’s favourite places. Katherine must certainly have spent time there with her sister Philippa and the Lancaster household.

www.tutburycastle.com

Hertford Castle

Only the gatehouse survives of the original castle where Constanza spent much time.

www.hertford.net/history/castle

The Savoy Palace