
and His Scandalous Duchess - Alison Weir (2007) Alternatieve titel: Mistress of the Monarchy. Weir brilliantly retrieves Katherine Swynford from the footnotes of history and gives her life and breath again. The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir (1991).

She was an important person in her own right, a woman who had remarkable opportunities, made her own choices, flouted convention, and took control of her own destiny - even of her own public image. Although Katherine's story provides unique insights into the life of a medieval woman, she was far from typical in that age. She knew loss, adversity, and heartbreak, and she survived them all triumphantly. She lived through much of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants' Revolt. 1989s Britains Royal Families, Weirs first published work, was a genealogical overview of the British Royal Family. Her existence was played out against the backdrop of court life at the height of the age of chivalry and she knew most of the great figures of the time - including her brother-in-law, Geoffrey Chaucer. Katherine herself was enigmatic and intriguing, renowned for her beauty, and regarded by some as dangerous. Katherine Swynford's charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the 14th century, the effective ruler of England behind the throne of his father Edward III in his declining years, and during the minority of his nephew, Richard ll. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman, Katherine Swynford, who became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.


In her remarkable new book, Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest love stories of medieval England.
