Katherine Swynford

published	September 6th 2007 by Jonathan Cape
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0224063219 (isbn13: 9780224063210)
ebook
pages	288
date added	03-30-07 edit book

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Ascexis rated it:

11/02/07

bookshelves: history, medieval, non-fiction, reviewed

Read in October, 2007

I picked up a book thinking huh, Christmas present for my mother, and then somehow it was gone 1 in the morning and I'm still. reading.it.

I read the Anya Seton book, and I knew it probably wasn't quite like that, so when I saw a book on Katherine Swinford I may have pounced on it. I have mixed feelings about it.

Alison Weir takes a very small amount of cloth and cuts an exceedingly large coat from it. The cultural and political stuff is fascinating -- I remember enough from socio-economi...more I picked up a book thinking huh, Christmas present for my mother, and then somehow it was gone 1 in the morning and I'm still. reading.it.

I read the Anya Seton book, and I knew it probably wasn't quite like that, so when I saw a book on Katherine Swinford I may have pounced on it. I have mixed feelings about it.

Alison Weir takes a very small amount of cloth and cuts an exceedingly large coat from it. The cultural and political stuff is fascinating -- I remember enough from socio-economic history of the middle ages that this all slots neatly into the hundred years war, the black death and the Lollards.

And of course, there's Chaucer, and Lancaster and it's all good fun with 700 years distance :-). I did get a certain amount of whiplash from her attitude to Froissart -- depending on whether she likes the inferences or not he's reliable ... or not. And the whole business of taking a possibility and then treating it as established fact and relying on it for the next rather flimsy assumption -- and then taking to task other historians doing the exact same thing (such as assuming that every gift to Katherine related to her relationship with John, and then when similar or greater gifts are handed to other women then no, no those aren't evidence of affairs. Except when they are. *sigh*) is annoying and frustrating. Also, dishonest.

The fire which destroyed the Savoy Palace also destroyed key financial records. More importantly, so little remains from the fourteenth century that much of our history of that period is anecdotal and based on accounts never intended for the purposes to which they are now put, and which bear the weight of historical enquiry with varying degrees of success.

Weir makes no real attempt to derive Katherine's character except from the facts, and from a scattering of maybe fewer than fifty points it's hard to really feel that yes, this was the woman who captivated John of Gaunt. I was left fascinated but ultimately unsatisfied.

That said, it's a riveting read. Flimsy fabric and all.
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Lynn rated it:

10/19/07

bookshelves: biography-and-memoir, british-history, john-and-katherine, non-fiction

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: Anya Seton fans

This biography is based on the life of the namesake of Anya Seton's wonderful novel on 14th Century England, Katherine. In fact, Weir admits she likes the novel - although she doesn't hesitate to let you know what's historically inaccurate about it.

Katherine lived in interesting times - and with an interesting man, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, a younger son of King Edward III. Weir ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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Katherine Swynford

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