Descendants: the Beaufort Family

Being born out of wedlock during Medieval times didn't always have to be the disgrace that Victorian dime novelists made it out to be.  If the biological father was royal or noble, children could be provided for with titles, lands, and advantageous marriages that would vault them from illegitimacy to a place among the nobility of England.  This is the story of the Beauforts, and their rise to power, which they have steadily held onto till the present day.

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, one of the sons of Edward III, was married three times.  His first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, a Plantagenet in her own right, was the mother of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV of England.  John's third wife, and the love of his life, was Katherine Swynford, with whom he had at least four children and subsequently married.  In Medieval times, under certain conditions, a subsequent marriage legitimized the children of the marriage, even if they weren't allowed to inherit a place in the line of succession.  John of Gaunt, one of the wealthiest men of his day, had enough land to support John, Jr., Henry, Thomas and Joan.  Their cousin Richard II declared them legitimate under the name of Beaufort, a derivation from an estate held by John of Gaunt in France, Beaufort-Montmorency.  John's half-brother, Henry IV, made him Earl of Somerset in 1397.  His son, another John, became Duke of Somerset in 1443.  And the other Beaufort kids didn't do too bad.  Thomas became Duke of Exeter, and Joan married the Earl of Westmoreland.  Among her descendants were the Dukes of York (ironically), the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham, the Earls of Northumberland, Warwick the Kingmaker and Queen Catherine Parr.  John of Somerset's granddaughter Margaret was the mother of Henry VII. 

And it keeps getting better.  The 3rd Duke of Somerset died during the Wars of the Roses, but his biological son was legitimate under his title and began the Somerset line of the Earls of Worcester.  The Beauforts remained staunch Royalists during the English Civil War.  Charles II, a Plantagenet descendant himself many times over, made Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester into the 1st Duke of Beaufort.  Today, David Somerset, the 11th Duke of Beaufort, carries on the family line.  Plantagenets walk the earth today, even if under a different name. 

 

In-Law: Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster

She's been the subject of numerous novels, romantic paintings and even popular biographies.  Royal mistress, wife and ancestress of Kings, Katherine Swynford (1350-1403) was a nasty woman long before the term was coined.  Intelligent, educated, and willing to fight for the affections of the man she loved and children they brought into the world together.

She was born the daughter of Paon de Roet, a royal herald who later became a knight.  The family had connections.  Katherine's sister Isabel became Canoness of the convent of St. Waudru's in Mons, in an age where a girl had to have a dowry and family references even to join a convent, let alone hold a leadership position.  Katherine's other sister Philippa was a lady in the household of Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III.  Philippa married Geoffrey Chaucer, himself a bureaucrat and royal servant of both Edward III and Richard II.  Katherine herself may have been born in Philippa's home country of Hainault, now part of Belgium, and named for St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was tortured on the wheel for her faith.  The wheel later became Katherine's personal arms, referencing the saint and the fact that Roet meant a small wheel in the French dialect of the age.

Around 1366, Katherine married Hugh Swynford, a knight who had a manor in Kettlethorpe, Lincolnshire.  She and Hugh had three children, one of whom also became a nun and the other two made good marriages.  Katherine was employed as a governess in the household of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, responsible for his daughters, Philippa and Elizabeth.  The Gaunts and Swynfords were close enough that John and Blanche were godparents to Katherine and Hugh's daughter Blanche, who was allowed to grow up with the two Lancaster princesses.  Blanche died in 1368 and John and Katherine became involved in a relationship.  It would produce four children.  Their official relationship lasted from about 1372, the year before their first son was born, and ended in 1381, when the affair was brought to light and ruined Katherine's reputation.  John had remarried, Constance of Castile and Hugh Swynford were very much alive.  It wouldn't be until 1396, two years after Constance's death and sometime after Hugh passed on, that John and Katherine could marry, which they did in Lincoln cathedral. 

Not all was sweetness and light.  Though she was allowed to enjoy the dignity of being John's acknowledged wife and Duchess of Lancaster, her children were barred from any succession to the throne.  Their children were given the name Beaufort, after one of John's properties in France.  This was another common practice for out-of-wedlock offspring in that era, a little less of a giveaway of irregular birth than the more common Fitz.  The children were John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, Henry, Cardinal Beaufort and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland.  John of Gaunt died in 1399, and Katherine lived on until 1403.  It was through their son John, whose granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort, whose son became Henry VII Tudor of England, and John's daughter Joan, who married James I of Scotland, that the Tudors and Stuarts, and thus the present monarchs of England, descended.  Because his great-grandfather had been barred from inheriting any claim to the throne, Henry VII Tudor always made clear that his claim on the throne was by right of conquest, and not right of birth.  A small distinction but very important.  

(Dates adjusted from 1472-81 to 1372-81 thanks to a tip from a reader.)