This book was the biggest disappointment to me. I bought it as my favorite category of historical fiction, but it certainly doesn't read as a story. It's full of if this happened, then we can believe this to be true and "credible sources". I understand liberties taken with history for the sake of a good story and that is what I thought I was getting. It is a rare book that I buy and then put down after thirty pages, but that's exactly what I did with this one

As well as good history, this work is a reality check for those enthralled with Anya Seton's "Katherine," a highly-acclaimed historical fiction work about the subject of Weir's book. If you are just looking for a "whopping good yarn," read Seton. If Seton doesn't satisfy you, or you want to know what historical evidence of the real Katherine Swynford suggests, read Weir. The author does a good job of stating her evidence and putting it in its proper historical context. The reading can be a bit tedious, at least at first, since Weir takes it upon herself to debunk myths as well as interpret facts. The text is sometimes hard to follow from a chronological perspective. However, considering the impact John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford's offspring have had on world history, the book has more than ample justification for being written. Historians should pay attention to the objectivity Weir brings to the lineaments of her subject's character. Although Weir is clearly sympathetic to her subject, it does not blind her to Katherine's human failings. Some equally competent historian should try this objectivity with Richard III (hint to Alison). This work is a good example of a popular history written to scholarly standards.
Sirlexman

My entree into the Plantagenet era was Anya Seton's fictional account of Katherine Swynford, Katherine. As a teen, I enjoyed the story of a woman who was first the mistress of a prince of England, mother of five of his children, and eventually, his wife. Remarkably, her lover, John of Gaunt, managed to have their illegitimate children legitimized, and they were powerful forces in during the type of Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. It is from Katherine Swynford that the Tudor dynasty had a claim to the throne. Katherine Swynford was also sister-in-law to Geoffrey Chaucer. Katherine was well researched and told for a historical novel, but this book goes far deeper.

In Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, Alison Weir tells the true tale of Katherine Swynword. It is beautifully and lovingly researched, and provides a fine level of detail for a period in which there is limited information. Weir, a noted British historian, makes clear that this book was a labor of love, and that shows - I much prefer it to some of her more generic books about the Tudors.

For anyone interested in the details of life for the Court of Edward III and Richard II, this is a fine book, which I heartily recommend. It draws strongly from the Court Rolls, administrative grants and the chronicles to describe the actions and activities of John of Gaunt, his wives, Katherine Swynford, and her family, including her extended family of her sister, Phillipa Chaucer, and her brother-in-law Geoffrey Chaucer.

However, this is not a "rollicking good tale" for someone who's looking for a casual read, and definitely not for the Phillipa Gregory fans looking for sexual scandal.

A very fine piece of historical reporting, Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster

I first learned of historical heavyweight Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, from Anya Seton's biographical novel, "Katherine" over 30 years ago. I'm one of many readers who swooned over a romantic story set in violent times, 14th century England. Seton's novel fleshed out a period in medieval English history, giving life to people who were previously just names in dusty history books; I grew to care deeply about Katherine Swynford and her man, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the legacy they created and their profound role in the English monarchy. Seton's novel inspired in me a decades-long, active interest in medieval English history that I still enjoy and pursue.

So it was with some trepidation that I clicked the "buy" button for Alison Weir's "Mistress of the Monarchy; The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster." I was reluctant to gain new information that might dispel my romantic notions of Katherine and re-invent an important piece of my own history. Well, there was some reinvention but it worked out okay; I'm just a little sad but very well informed. Remember, this is a biography - not a novel.

The first thing noticed is the astounding amount of research that went into this book. It must truly have taken years to do the preparation and it's clear there was no fooling around with facts. The book includes photographs as well which aid in understanding the characters and their physical and religious surroundings and are just plain interesting. This book reads as almost a line item inventory of the lives Katherine and those around her. It can be somewhat dry but never pedantic and never boring. Informed conjecture keeps the facts from becoming tedious and keeps things lively and interesting, and in fact is the warmth of this book. Weir presents the credible theories and accepted fact of other historians and manages to poke holes in them with her keen understanding, knowledge and fresh perspective. I won't give away secrets, but some of the key events we've grown to love can be missed if you aren't paying attention, and I longed for emotional detail of those key events that wasn't much present in this biography nor really belonged.

All that being said, "Mistress of the Monarchy" was fascinating, rewarding and a terrific read. I do recommend it and believe Anya fans can handle it. Interestingly, Weir has included a mini-biography of Anya Seton and Seton's characterization of Katherine; it's a bit unsettling for Seton fans. But I still love Seton's Katherine, appreciate Weir's Katherine and may ultimately re-read Weir's biography as many times as I have Seton's historical novel. I am as much fascinated as I have ever been with Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, founder of Europe's monarchies from the 14th century to today.

As noted by earlier reviewers, there are quite a lot of "we might imagines", "we could guesses"; and "since so and so was there, Kathryn was probably theres". As a History buff and former teacher of same, this leap of faith type language jarred me every time I read some of it (and there were a lot of jars). Considering the book jacket blurbs about Ms. Weir being a deeply researching writer, I, as a student of British History, would not describe her this way. Her research of it is deep, but her use of it is shaky. It is true that records of medieval times are sparse, but if records are sparse, one doesn't imagine what they might have been.

To add to my dismay, is a section, several pages long, "dissing" Anya Seton's book about Kathryn as a ancestor of the bodice slasher romance novels of more recent times as if to distance "Mistress of the Monarchy" from Ms. Seton's book. Ms. Weir is on shaky ground considering her own writing.

Having said this, I should add that this is a good read. I own several Weir books and have and will enjoy them all. All in all, I would recommend this book and any other of Ms. Weir's writings as long as you approach them with a grain of salt.

I thoroughly enjoy the works of Alison Weir, as they often read more as interesting stories than works of scholarship. This is the first Weir book that I have read that has disappointed me, though not due to the author's lack of skill.

The problem is that there is simply not a lot of primary sources for Weir to refer to. Though well written, it often reads like a laundry list of John the Gaunt's expenses, with Weir building in the story around entries and offering up her theories as to how they were related to Katherine. It was a real struggle to continue reading as my interest waned and my eyes glazed over at yet another list of Lancaster's expenses.

The book is well researched and provides information that many who read Anya Seaton's novel will enjoy. It is, in my judgement, badly written: "could have," "may have," "we must leave her for now," "as we will see later." Just the facts please and if not available, the alternatives.

Judie in Oregon

I've been waiting for a new biography from Weir for a long time, and in an interview a while ago she had said it would be on John of Gaunt. I couldn't have been more excited. So to my surprise I found that she had changed the idea of a bio on John of Gaunt to one of his mistress and eventual wife, Katherine. Of course in doing so Weir would invariably have to write abbreviated bios of all the important men in her life, John of Gaunt included.

As with other medieval women their lives are not that easy to uncover. Most often the only way to flesh the real lives of medieval women is to analyze the registries and accounts of significant others, of churches and other organizations. Weir applied this same method with her bio on Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella, so I knew what to expect. The view of Katherine is rather flighty and inconsequential for the most part. We are told a lot about the manors she held, the gifts given and received, where she was and where she went according to references from other chroniclers.

We also find a very well rounded picture of Katherine with safe assumptions and assertions that seem accurate and telling. Her love for John of Gaunt, her relations with her Swynford and Chaucer relatives and, just as important, her Beaufort descendents. When it all comes down to it I think I enjoyed the abbreviated bios of John of Gaunt, Richard II and her Beaufort descendents more than the main bio of Katherine, and in many ways we read more about them than we do of her.

All in all I enjoyed Weir's bio of Katherine de Swynford, especially since I knew that we would be treated to the people that surround her just as much. An enjoyable read and a recommend.

4 stars.

How do you write the biography of a woman who died six hundred years ago, has no extant letters or even a will, and is only mentioned briefly in official documents and occasionally and mostly negatively in contemporary accounts? It might seem an impossible task, but the well regarded historian Alison Weir has accomplished it, and successfully, in this account of the life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster in the reigns of Kings Richard II and Henry IV of England.


Katherine has had a bad press through the centuries. Although widely praised for her beauty and charm, she was regarded as a courtesan and practically a prostitute because she was the mistress of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and son of King Edward III, for many years, bearing him four children before finally marrying him in middle age. After her death she became a target for political opponents of the Lancastrian Kings and of her own Beaufort descendants, many of whom felt ashamed of her. Nevertheless, Katherine is a distant grandmother of every British monarch since 1461, of at least six US Presidents, and of countless other people (including me, I'm proud to say).

Alison Weir accomplished her herculean task by amassing an enormous amount of data. This yielded much material, such as where Katherine must have been living, when her children were most likely born, what she was wearing, and what her emotions were at different times. Of necessity Weir includes many "must have beens" and "perhaps she felts" and "possiblys" in her reconstruction of Katherine's life. Fortunately Katherine lived her life in the well documented English court as companion of John of Gaunt, one of the most important men in at least two kingdoms for much of his life, so there's a lot of information available. I was pleased to read that Katherine was well liked by many people and that she was indisputably as intelligent and shrewd as she was beautiful. I also enjoyed Weir's appendix discussing Anya Seton's novel Katherine, which I read many years ago but have never forgotten.

Mistress of the Monarchy will appeal to students of English and women's history. Its another worthy production by Alison Weir, who I hope will continue to chronicle English medieval history for many years to come.

I love Alison Weir, and have been enjoying her books for 15 years. This biography of Katherine Swynford didn't rate as highly for me as her other books. I suspect it's because there is so little information about her, but I struggled through some of this, which really surprised me. I didn't count, but it seems like nearly every page has some information about a payment made from someone to someone else, with the values in today's money in parentheses, and it really did my head in. I was a history major, not a math major! I'm sure these are the most available records, but man, seeing payments with parenthetical references and then the conclusions that could be reasonably deduced by what that payment meant, all the time, was just difficult to fight through. And then there's the fact that everybody has the same name. Seriously. It seems like any woman is named either Isabella, Philappa, or Katherine. And the men are all named Henry, John, Richard or Thomas. And then with the fact that once they become an earl or duke of something, they are referred to as that, so you'd see stuff like "Warwick, previously the earl of Leicester" or something, and combined with the fact that everybody has the same first name, it was tough to keep up with.

So I guess her other books focus more on the stories because there is more research that's been done already and there's more to work with and get more stories from. Still, I enjoyed this book - she was a fascinating and inspirational woman, and definitely a worthy subject. Just be prepared to refer to the family trees in the back a lot!

I recently read Katherine, by Anya Seton, and this experience prompted me to read this biography of Katherine Swynford, third wife of John of Gaunt and Duchess of Lancaster. I enjoyed this biography because Katherine Swynford's story is compelling, but I must say that the historical record is so thin that the book contains an awful lot of "may have," "could have," "probably," and "one must conclude." There is nothing Alison Weir could do in order to speak more definitively--I do not mean to disparage her scholarship--but if you are looking for a biography that is sure of itself, this is not it.

The story of Katherine and John lives on because it is so unusual. The two were lovers for many years following the death of Katherine's first husband, producing four surviving children. They separated for a time, and then reunited following the death of John's second wife. This is a love story with staying power, as the two lovers finally tied the knot well into their advanced years. Marriage was not the typical outcome for a royal mistress, so everyone assumes she must have been one special woman. John legitimized his children by Katherine following his marriage to her, and through these offspring, Katherine and John are ancestors of the kings and queens of England from Henry VII through the present day. Not bad for the daughter of a knight from Hainault!

I recommend this biography for readers who would like to learn about the real Katherine, as opposed to Anya Seton's portrayal of her. My one caveat is that you should be prepared for a sketchy image at best.

Katherine Swynford was long the mistress and eventually the third and final wife of the immensely powerful and wealthy John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third (and oldest surviving) son of Edward III of England and a leading figure in medieval Europe. His illicit relationship with her unquestionably contributed to his unpopularity under Richard II and endangered his life. His later marriage to this commoner and "whore" was also a scandal. This suggests that they probably loved one another, not a normal consideration for marriages in the high nobility of the time.

Through the children she bore as Gaunt's mistress (the Beauforts, later recognized by Gaunt) Swynford is an ancestor of not only the last Yorkist kings but of the Tudors and of all the British royals since. Not bad for a woman who was a foreigner in England as well as a commoner.

Weil does an excellent job of following the traces of Swynford's life, and they are traces. We know next to nothing of the personal lives and views of even major figures of the time let alone of commoners such as Swynford. Even with kings and princes it is largely a matter of formal records of various kinds (deeds, wills, church records, court records, treaties, proclamations, lists of gifts and transactions, occasional formal letters) and mentions in chronicles. For commoners, hard information is virtually non-existent unless they owned property of some kind. Of Swynford personally we know that she was pious, was said to be beautiful, was probably literate and cultured and sufficiently compelling that clerical chroniclers said she was an enchantress. Her relatively few appearances in the records are mostly associated in various ways with Gaunt (many of them relating to gifts and other property that Gaunt gave to her).

Formal records are narrow in scope. Chronicles were usually written to prove a point (often moral) and can be unreliable. No one kept personal diaries or journals, and there was no "media" to cover the notables of the day. An historical novelist can depart from the bare record to fill in the thoughts and personalities as she deems fit (and novelist Anya Seton does that with Swynford's life in her hugely popular--and historically inaccurate-- novel "Katherine"); but an historian must stick to the record.

So it is with Alison Weir, a very competent historian. She has mined the contemporary records and has used this, other research and her knowledge of the time to convey an apt sense of the period. But her book is not a novel and it is inevitably replete with "may have," could have," "might have," and Gaunt dominates the story (he's just much more visible in the sources). Yet her book succeeds. She does a good job of recreating salient personalities from the sparse records and presents a compelling story about a strong, competent and (probably) very passionate woman and her times.

I have read books on Katherine Swynford previously that is why I ordered this book. It is everything I expected it to be. EXCELLENT !!!!

This is a win-win book for me. I am a big fan of Alison Weir's books, and the fact that she wrote one on Katherine Swynford made it all the more enjoyable. Not much archival information is available on Katherine specifically, but Ms. Weir did a tremendous job researching the period of the time and constructing a clear picture of Katherine and the time in which she lived. Like Ms. Weir, I came to know about Katherine through the book by Anya Seton and wished to know more about her. She also did a great job on exploring the life of John of Gaunt, who had been the target of such venom by past chroniclers. As mentioned above, even though there is an absence of written verification of particular events, Ms. Weir's skill as a writer does not allow the absence to interfere with the flow and enjoyment of this book. I highly recommend this book, not only to Katherine Swynford fans, but to those who wish to know more about a very turbulent time in English history.

I so enjoyed the first book, but this is ethe same book with a different title.

Billed as a look the the life and times of Katherine Swynford, first mistress and later wife to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and third son of Edward III, this carefully-crafted history necessarily emphasizes Katherine's "times" rather than her life, very little trace of which remains today.

It is a tribute to Weir's historical research skills and writing ability that only rarely does this prevent the reader from savoring the story of Katherine, her extended family and the dramatic times in which she lived. It's a glimpse inside the final decades of the 14th century, a time in which feudal society was changing in response to the devastation of the Great Plague of 1348. Katherine inhabited that world, and her rise to prominence was part of the social upheaval against which the privileged and the conservatives reacted vehemently. (John of Gaunt's siblings and the Benedictine monks who chronicled the era were just some of those who reacted with incomprehension and fury to John's 1396 decision to wed his erstwhile mistress and make her the de facto first lady of England.)

Many of the female readers of this book will pick it up because, like Seton and myself, they discovered Anya Seton's famous historical novel about Katherine Swynford, nee Katherine de Roet. This could have been a feeble attempt to capitalize on that novel's enduring popularity, but instead stands on its own as a strong work of history. Indeed, I found it to be as lively a work of history as Seton's novel is a work of historical fiction, and far from spoiling my pleasure in the novel, Weir's careful winnowing out the likely truth of Katherine's youth and marriage added to my enjoyment of both books. I had long been curious about the 'real Katherine', who became the ancestress of so many English monarchs (as well as a slew of American immigrants -- if you can trace your roots back to New England in the 1600s, there's a decent chance Katherine will pop up in your family tree).

Some readers may find frustrating the frequent use of "may have", "could have" or "it seems likely that..." in this biography. Their use is necessary, because of the relative dearth of solid information about Katherine. But I found as much pleasure as frustration in this, as I followed Weir's historical detection and watched her pull together what strands remained of Katherine's life in an effort to present a coherent picture. For instance, Weir addresses what Katherine may have looked like with reference to the tomb sculptures and portraits of her children, noting which features in those resembled John's and deducing what they may have inherited from Katherine. Similarly, she assembles what little evidence of Katherine's role within the Lancaster household may have been, and uses her knowledge of the society of the time and the other personalities involved to reach a "possible" or "probable" conclusion. She never tries to make sweeping claims or assertions based on this kind of flimsy evidence, but instead gives the reader what evidence exists and allows us to see into her reasoning. That helps make this a richer reading experience than many historical biographies that are able to draw on a far wider array of source material.

Ultimately, the book is a biography not only of Katherine the person, but a biography of her place, her times and the characters that peopled her world, from her brother-in-law Geoffrey Chaucer, to the the clergy of Lincoln Cathedral (she lived in a house in its precincts for a long time), the landed gentry of the 14th century and what it meant to be a knight's daughter.

Strongly recommended to anyone interested in the era as well as the subject. To anyone who has read Barbara Tuchman's magisterial work, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, this would be an interesting (albeit much slighter) additional book to read. And anyone who hasn't read Tuchman's view of the world Katherine inhabited should do so immediately!