Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of King Edward III.
Katherine Swynford, from her tomb
Katherine's tomb, the larger tomb, next to the tomb of her daughter, Joan Beaufort. Drawing by William Dugdale.
Restored in the 17th century, the tomb of Katherine Swynford and her daughter Joan Beaufort in one of the choirs of Lincoln Cathedral.
Geoffrey Chaucer reciting Troylus and Criseyde: early 15th-century manuscript of the work. Currently at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Because of Gaunt's royal origin, advantageous marriages, and some generous land grants, he was one of the richest men of his era, and was an influential figure during the reigns of both his father and his nephew, Richard II. As Duke of Lancaster, he is the founder of the royal House of Lancaster, whose members would ascend the throne after his death. His birthplace, Ghent in Flanders, then known in English as Gaunt, was the origin of his name.
A portrait commissioned c. 1593 by Sir Edward Hoby for Queenborough Castle, Kent, probably modelled on Gaunt's tomb effigy in Old St Paul's Cathedral. His tabard shows the royal arms of Castile and León impaling his differenced Plantagenet arms, while on the shield Castile and León is shown as an inescutcheon of pretence, representing his claim to that kingdom by right of marriage to Constance of Castile.
Marriage of John of Gaunt to Blanche of Lancaster at Reading Abbey in 1359: painting by Horace Wright (1914)
Kenilworth Castle, a massive fortress extensively modernised and given a new Great Hall by John of Gaunt after 1350
The tomb of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in St. Paul's Cathedral, as represented in an etching of 1658 by Wenceslaus Hollar. The etching includes a number of inaccuracies, for example in not showing the couple with joined hands.
