The Duchess: Blanche of Lancaster, c 1345-1368

For most people, the only love of John of Gaunt's life was his long-term mistress and 3rd wife, Katherine Swynford.  However, he may have had a loving relationship with his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, c 1345-1368.

Blanche was born at Bolinbroke Castle, Lincolnshire.  She, too, had lion's blood.  Her great-great grandfather was Henry III.  She was, thus, a Plantagenet through Henry's son, Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster.  Blanche was the younger of two sisters, and both were heirs to their father's estates, which included the Earldom of Lancaster, the Earldom of Leicester, the Earldom of Derby and the Earldom of Lincoln.  Maude of Lancaster also married well, but died childless, leaving Blanche the sole heir of their father.  In 1359, at Reading Abbey, Blanche married her third cousin John of Gaunt.  When Blanche's father died in 1361, the Lancaster inheritance was recreated as a Duchy.  In 1362, with Maude's death, John, through Blanche, inherited the other earldoms to add to his own considerable wealth.  He later became Lord High Steward of England.  He and Blanche had three surviving children, Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, Philippa, Queen of Portugal and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter.  Four other children died as invents.

Blanche was a beautiful woman.  Chronicler Jean Froissart described her as young and pretty.  Geoffrey Chaucer, who began his court career in John of Gaunt's patronage, wrote his first major work, the Book of the Duchess, at her encouragement and with the central character being inspired by her.  Like many women of that era who endured multiple pregnancies, Blanche's health began failing.  It was about that time that Gaunt began his relationship with Katherine Swynford, though they wouldn't marry until years later.  Blanche died at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire in 1368, while Gaunt was overseas on military service.  John of Gaunt arranged a beautiful tomb for her in Old St. Paul's Cathedral.  Each year, he arranged for special commemorative masses to be said for her soul.  When John of Gaunt himself died, he chose to be buried beside Blanche at St. Paul's, where he'd commissioned a chantry chapel for perpetual prayers for their souls.  When the tomb was completed, it was scene that his right hand clasped her right hand on the double effigy, rather than the two simply lying side by side.  Had love's dart struck twice for John of Gaunt?

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.) 

Royal Family: Children of Edward III

An appropriate subtitle for this post might be "where it all began", since it was from the various lines of Edward III's children that the competing families of York and Lancaster would originate and battle for their various claims to the throne.  Here, then, are the underpinnings of the Wars of the Roses.

Edward III married Philippa of Hainault, an area of what is now Belgium, in 1328.  She would bear him 13 children, of whom 9 lived to grow up.  The four unfortunate ones were William of Hatfield (b and d 1337), Blanche (b and d 1342), Thomas of Windsor (b 1347-d 1348, another plague victim), and William (b and d 1348).  Their sons were Edward, the Black Prince (1330-1376), whose only surviving son Richard II we'll deal with in a later post.  Lionel of Antwerp (1338-1368), whose only daughter Philippa married into the powerful Mortimer family, who will play their parts in the ensuing drama.  John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399), whose son Henry of Bolingbroke became Henry IV, the first of the Lancastrian kings.  John of Gaunt had a large family of both legitimate and illegitimate children, some of whom will also factor in later, particularly the Tudor family.  Edmund of Langley, Duke of York (1341-1402), ancestor of Edward IV (and sons) and Richard III, and also ancestor of the Tudors through his great-granddaughter Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII.  And, finally, Thomas of Woodstock (1355-1397), whose daughter married into the Stratford family.  All of these men and their descendants would either launch their own competing claims for the throne, or marry into families close enough to the royal line to be a threat. 

Edward's daughters also carried his bloodline and their own potential claims, which fortunately for the main lines of the Plantagenet dynasty, none of them had the opportunity to exploit.  Isabella (1332-1382).  Her daughter, Marie de Coucy, became ancestress of several European royal dynasties, including the Bourbons and, through Mary of Scotland, every English King or Queen since James I.  Joan (1334-1348), affianced to Pedro of Castile but died of plague before they could marry and beget children.  Also Mary (1344-1362), who married John IV of Brittany, and Margaret (1346-1361), who married in the Hastings family of the Earls of Pembroke.  Neither of these two had children, or at least any children who survived.