Shake the Excess

It should be impossible to get bored when we live on such a beautiful planet.

Since the summer I had taken a deep interest in the historical figure of Katherine Swynford, mistress and (arguably) the love of the famous John of Gaunt’s life (Duke of Lancaster). They lived in the 1300s in England. As I talked about with my reading of Alison Weir’s biography of her, from Katherine and John’s “bastards” (later legitimized with the surprising marriage of John and Katherine in their middle aged years) the line of the British Monarchy (Tudors to today) are descended from them. What I find fascinating about Katherine is her story of humble beginnings to finding the love of the most powerful man in England. I believe and history tells us that they were truly in love as they always came back to each other after long, long seperations and hate from the clergy/people of England and in the end married each other. Which was strange for their “old” age in that time and how the Duke of Lancaster married a commoner. I thank Alison Weir for suggesting this book by Anya Seton in her biography.

This book is now one of my top favorites, it is a beautifully written historical fiction that I found refreshing and different from the crappy historical romances that are churned out today. The character Katherine is amazing, Seton makes her believable and realistic! I connected with the emotions and feelings that Katherine felt. Seton did stray away from hardships in her life such as her reputation and the opinions of the clergy, the disgust and uncomfortablness of her first marriage, her feelings of guilt, her feelings over her “sinful” life she was leading, her love for the Duke and what that meant, and being a mother-enduring the hatred of one of her children and the guilt of losing her. She was realistic and not idealized and the love between her and the Duke was beautiful. I also enjoyed how this book did not have explicit sex scenes (rather implied) as that contributed to the beauty of the writing, having no explicit, detailed sex scenes made it (in my opinion) more romantic and more about the actual relationship between these two people; not about desire and lust as so many historical novels are. She was a real woman living in the struggles of her time. All the characters are like that and it is an interesting book, rich with historical research and as much accuracy as was possible. 

I loved (for the few scenes he is in) Seton’s portrayal of Geoffrey Chaucer (as he was Katherine’s brother in law). He was a thinker and noticed things that the most people couldn’t and Seton employed that. His dialog and thoughts were poetic and well thought out that to me he really seemed like that great writer that we know of him today. I enjoyed his intelligence and wit in this book. This book takes you through reigns of Edward III and Richard II, the wars of the black prince, issues with Castile, and the peasant revolt. I learn about the time without escaping the rich story and characters we love.

I felt a personal connection to this book as I am in a distance relationship. I always look to John and Katherine’s relationship when I am feeling down about being apart from my boyfriend. With John being the busy man that he was they were parted often for months on end, yet everytime kept the same spark between them. At one point they were parted for over 10 years due to John (or maybe Katherine’s decision as put for by the text) feeling guilt over cheating on his wife and wanting to concentrate on winning the throne of Castile. Yet, after those long years and both of them in their 40s and 50s (old person to Medieval standards) they came back together and remarried. I could empathize with the feelings and just makes me think that if their love could endure mine can, so these figures hold a personal connection with me.

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340 – 1399) was the sixth child and fourth son of Edward III of England and his wife, Queen Philippa of Hainault. He was called ‘John of Gaunt’ because he was born in Ghent, then rendered in English as Gaunt. In 1359, he married his third cousin, Blanche of Lancaster; at the death of his father-in-law in 1361, John inherited his lands and became one of the greatest landowner in England as well as one of the richest men of his era. Blanche died in 1368, possibly of the Black Death, aged twenty-three; John held annual commemorations of her death for the rest of his life and asked to be laid to rest beside her despite his two subsequent marriages. Among his surviving children were Queen Philippa of Portugal, Duchess Elizabeth of Exeter, Queen Catherine of Castile and the future Henry IV of England. The illegitimate children he had with Katherine Swynford, who later became his third wife, were legitimized in 1397. The three succeeding houses of English sovereigns from 1399 — the Houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor — were descended from John through Henry IV, Joan Beaufort and John Beaufort, respectively.

“I only know that from wherever it is that we’re going there can be no turning back”