Ancestral Glimpses » Katherine (Swynford) de Roet Duchess of Lancaster (1350-1403)

Personal data Katherine (Swynford) de Roet Duchess of Lancaster 

• She was born on November 25, 1350 in Picardy, Hainault, FRANCE.
• She died on May 10, 1403 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, ENGLAND, she was 52 years old.
• She is buried in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, ENGLANDLincoln Cathedral.
• A child of Payne de Roet and Catharine de Hainault
• This information was last updated on November 1, 2017.

Household of Katherine (Swynford) de Roet Duchess of Lancaster

She is married to John (of Gaunt) Plantagênet.

They got married on 13 JAN 1395–96 at Lincoln, Lincolnshire, ENGLAND, she was 44 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Henry de Beaufort  ± 1376-1447 
2. Joan de Beaufort  ± 1377-1440

Notes about Katherine (Swynford) de Roet Duchess of Lancaster

Young Katherine Swynford was beautiful, sensitive and intelligent. However, she was md. off at fifteen to Hugh Swynford, a plain and mediocre man who could never appreciate her intellect. Although it was considered an advantageous match, her marriage was not a happy one. Katherine Swynford resisted temptation for many years, but after the death of her husband she was eventually drawn into a liaison with the love of her life, John of Gaunt, the great Duke of Lancaster. This illicit romance with John of Gaunt was to change the course of history. If Katherine had not said "yes" to love, the Tudor dynasty would not have existed; George Washington would not have been there to fight for American independence; and Alfred Lord Tennyson would not have written his famous poetry.

Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster
"Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (also spelled Synford), née (de) Roet (also spelled (de) Rouet, (de) Roët, or (de) Roelt) (probably 25 Nov 1350 – 10 May 1403), was the dau. of Sir Payne (or Paen/Pain/Paon) (de) Roet (also spelled (de) Rouet, (de) Roët or (de) Roelt), originally a Flemish herald from County of Hainaut, later knighted.
"Katherine became the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and their descendants were the Beaufort family, which played a major role in the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII, who became King of England in 1485, derived his claim to the throne from his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was a great-grand-dau. of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford."
Katherine was governess to one of Duke John's daus. by his first wife and became John's mistress in 1388. All their children were born before they were md. The Pope later made the children legitimate after Katherine and John md.

Sources:
Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), p. 102. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Family.

G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 vols. in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 vols., Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), vol. XII/2, p. 547. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.

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#1325 Ogle and Bothal; or, A history of the baronies of Ogle, Bothal, and Hepple, and of the families of Ogle and Bertram, Ogle, Henry A., (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England : Reid, 1902), 929.242 Og5o., Pedigree XIV.
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Richard III, Ross, Charles Derek, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), JWML book DA260 .R67 1981, p. 238.

#240 Collins's Peerage of England, Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical, Greatly Augmented, and Continued to the Present Time (1812), Brydges, Sir Egerton, (9 vols. London: [T. Bensley], 1812), FHL book 942 D22be., vol. 1, p. 222.

Magna Carta Ancestry: A study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Richardson, Douglas, (Kimball G. Everingham, ed. 2nd edition, 2011), vol. 2, p. 535.

#374 The Lineage and Ancestry of H. R. H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (1977), Paget, Gerald, (2 vols. Baltimore: Geneal. Pub., 1977), FHL book Q 942 D22pg., vol. 1, pp. 22, 24.

#379 [7th edition, 1992] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, Who Came to America Before 1700 (7th edition, 1992), Weis, Frederick Lewis, (7th edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, c1992), FHL book 974 D2w 1992, p. 3 line 1:31.

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org, Katherine Swynford: Sources: Katherine Swynford is the subject of Anya Seton's novel Katherine (published in 1954) and of Alison Weir's 2007 biography Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess. Swynford is also the subject of Jeanette Lucraft's historical biography Katherine Swynford: The History of a Medieval Mistress. This book seeks to establish Swynford as a powerful figure in the politics of fourteenth-century England and an example of a woman's ability to manipulate contemporary social mores for her own interests.

NOTES: Mistress, Tomb is by the High Altar in the Cathedral in Lincoln,
AF 4.15: Encl. 233 Name is spelled de Roet, dau. of King of Arms - Sir Knight Guienne.

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