Person Page - 1324

     2nd Baron Wigmore.

     Margaret de Bohun, 2nd Countess of Devon (3 April 1311 – 16 December 1391) was an English noblewoman who lived most of her life in the county of Devonshire as the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. She was a granddaughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile. Her eighteen children included an Archbishop of Canterbury and six knights.

Unlike most women of her day, she had received a classical education, and as a result was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.

Lady Margaret de Bohun was born on 3 April 1311 at Caldecote, Northampton, the third daughter and seventh child of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, Lord Constable of England and Elizabeth of Rhuddlan. Her paternal grandparents were Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Maud de Fiennes, and her maternal grandparents were King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile.

Margaret was left an orphan shortly before her tenth birthday. On 16 March 1321 at The Battle of Boroughbridge, her father was slain in an ambush by the Welsh. Her mother had died five years previously in childbirth.

She, along with her siblings, received a classical education under a Sicilian Greek, Master Diogenes. As a result, Margaret became a lifelong scholar, and avid book collector.

At the age of fourteen, on 11 August 1325 Lady Margaret married Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (12 July 1303 - 2 May 1377). She had been betrothed to him since 27 September 1314. He was the son of Hugh Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon and Agnes St.John. Part of her dowry was the manor of Powderham, near Exeter. The agreement for the marriage had been formally made on 28 February 1315, when she was not quite four years old. The first Earl of Devon had promised that upon the marriage, he would enfeoff his son and Margaret jointly with 400 marks worth of land, assessed at its true value, and in a suitable place.[1]

Margaret assumed the title of 2nd Countess of Devon on 23 December 1340.[2]

Her eldest brother John de Bohun (23 November 1306- 20 January 1336) succeeded as 5th Earl of Hereford in 1326, having married Alice Fitzalan of Arundel in 1325. She had a younger brother William de Bohun (1312- 1360), who was created 1st Earl of Northampton in 1337 by King Edward III. He married Elizabeth de Badlesmere, by whom he had two children. Margaret's elder sister Lady Eleanor de Bohun (17 October 1304- 7 October 1363), married in 1327, her first husband, James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormonde. They were the ancestors of Anne Boleyn.

Hugh and Margaret had a total of eighteen children. More than half reached adulthood. Their notable descendants include Charles, Prince of Wales, and British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.¹

     2nd Earl of Devon. Hugh Courtenay (12 July 1303--2 May 1377) was the 10th Earl of Devon in England, born on 12 July 1303, probably in Devon. His parents were Hugh, the 1st Courtenay Earl of Devon by Agnes de St John, daughter of Sir John St John of Basing. He was destined to become a great soldier in the Hundred years war in service of King Edward III. On 11 August 1327, still only 23 years old he was made knight banneret, and joined the elite group of knights who protected the King's body. He was made a founding knight of the Noble Order of the Garter in 1344 on its investiture at Windsor Castle. Courtenay fought with the heroes of Crecy on 26 August 1346 in the famous of the encounters in France. The victory formed the basis for Courtenay's inclusion as a Knight of the Garter in 1348, by personal invitation of the King himself.[1].

Courtenay was summoned to Parliament on the assumption of Edward III to full authority over the usurper Roger Mortimer. The writ issued on 23 April 1337 described him as Hugoni de Courteney juniori styled as Lord Courteney. Two years later he defended the coasts of Cornwall with some distinction from the invasion fleet of France. On the death of his father, Hugh the following year he was granted livery and extensive land ownership in Devon. He was probably present at the Battle of Neville's Cross, in which Henry Percy and Ralph Neville utterly defeated the Scots King David II on 17 October 1346. As the second Courtenay Earl he was honoured in the jousting tournament that took place at Lichfield, one of the many in celebration of Crecy, on 9 April 1347, in which the King himself also took part. As a Knight of the Garter he was given special permission to build the White Friars at Fleet Street, London, which became an impressive religious house near the Palace of Whitehall. Following the completion of this project he returned to Devon, on appointment as Joint Warden of Devon and Cornwall in 1352. In 1361 he and his wife benefited from the will of her deceased brother, Earl of Hereford, greatly increasing his land holdings.

According to which account is read, Courtenay made an important contribution to the outcome of the Battle of Poitiers.[2] The Black Prince had sent the baggage train under Courtenay to the rear. A wise manoeuvre in the event as the long trail of wagons and carts blocked the narrow bridge and the Frenchmen's escape route. The Prince was afraid of a flanking move behind his position over the river, and to the rear. This did not occur with any great effect; which was as well since the route Courtenay took was the long way round and he played little part in the battle as a result of the defensive positions. The French cavalry was cut down by the archers, and then two deep lines of defence of stakes and ditches. He was a veteran of sixty by this period. He retired with a full pension from the King. In 1373 he was appointed Chief Warden of the Forest of Devon.

After a full career he died at Exeter on 2 May 1377. He was buried in Exeter Cathedral. His estate was examined for probate on 28 Jan 1391.

Hugh married Margaret de Bohun daughter of Humphrey De Bohun, Earl of Hereford and of Essex by Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, and a granddaughter of King Edward I of England on 11 August 1325, when he moved into Powderham Castle, although his father was still living. He had been promised to Margaret by contract since 27 September 1314.¹

     Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford and 8th Earl of Gloucester (1291 – 24 June 1314) was a powerful English noble and the grandson of Edward I.

His mother was Joan of Acre, who was the daughter of Edward I and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile. His father was the 6th Earl of Hertford. He succeeded to the titles in 1295, at the age of 4. But he held them for only two years. His stepfather, Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, was allowed, by the grace of Edward I of England, to hold the titles of Earl of Hertford, Earl of Gloucester from 1297 to 1307. The titles were then transferred back to Gilbert, who was now 15, and he held them until his death.

Gilbert was raised with Edward II and proved to be a moderating influence amongst the king and nobility before his death. It was due to his close relation with the king that Gilbert was allowed to succeed to his titles before attaining his majority (which would have been when he was 18).

He died young, being killed in the Battle of Bannockburn. He died without issue, although there was a 2-year dispute with his widow, Maud, who claimed to be pregnant throughout this time. In spite of having the king's backing, after more than a year and a half of litigation, it was acknowledged that there was no possible way that Maud could still be pregnant by Gilbert and his lands were divided amongst three of his sisters, Elizabeth, Eleanor and Margaret.

By the provisions of the marriage contract of his parents, their joint possessions could only be inherited by a direct descendant. Although he had also two older half-sisters, his three full sisters therefore inherited his property.¹

     Edward II, (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327) called Edward of Carnarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. He was the seventh Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II. Interspersed between the strong reigns of his father Edward I and son Edward III, the reign of Edward II was disastrous for England, marked by incompetence, political squabbling, and military defeats.

Widely rumoured to have been either homosexual or bisexual, Edward nevertheless fathered at least five children by two women. He was unable to deny even the most grandiose favours to his male favourites (first a Gascon knight named Piers Gaveston, later a young English lord named Hugh Despenser) which led to constant political unrest and his eventual deposition.

Whereas Edward I had conquered all of Wales and the Scottish lowlands, and ruled them with an iron hand, the army of Edward II was devastatingly defeated at Bannockburn, freeing Scotland from English control and allowing Scottish forces to raid unchecked throughout the north of England.

In addition to these disasters, Edward II is remembered for his probable death in Berkeley Castle, allegedly by murder; and for being the first monarch to establish colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The fourth son of Edward I by his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle. He was the first English prince to hold the title Prince of Wales, which was formalized by the Parliament of Lincoln of 7 February 1301.

Edward became heir at just a few months of age, following the death of his elder brother Alphonso. His father, a notable military leader, trained his heir in warfare and statecraft starting in his childhood, yet the young Edward preferred boating and craftwork, activities considered beneath kings at the time.

The prince took part in several Scots campaigns, but despite these martial engagements, "all his father's efforts could not prevent his acquiring the habits of extravagance and frivolity which he retained all through his life".[2]

The king attributed his son’s preferences to his strong attachment to Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight, and Edward I exiled Gaveston from court after Prince Edward attempted to bestow on his friend a title reserved for royalty. Ironically, it was the king who had originally chosen Gaveston in 1298 to be a suitable friend for his son due to his wit, courtesy and abilities.

Edward I knighted his son in a major ceremony in 1306 called the Feast of the Swans whereby all present swore to continue the war in Scotland.

Edward I died on 7 July 1307 en route to another campaign against the Scots, a war that became the hallmark of his reign. One chronicler relates that Edward had requested his son "boil his body, extract the bones and carry them with the army until the Scots had been subdued." But his son ignored the request and had his father buried in Westminster Abbey.[3] Edward II immediately recalled Gaveston, created him Earl of Cornwall, gave him the hand of the king's niece, Margaret of Gloucester, and withdrew from the Scottish campaign.

On 25 January 1308, Edward married Isabella of France in Boulogne, the daughter of King Philip IV of France, "Philip the Fair," and sister to three French kings in an attempt to bolster an alliance with France. On 25 February the pair were crowned in Westminster Abbey.

The marriage, however, was doomed to failure almost from the beginning. Isabella was frequently neglected by her husband, who spent much of his time conspiring with his favourites regarding how to limit the powers of the Peerage in order to consolidate his father's legacy for himself.

Nevertheless, their marriage produced two sons, Edward, who would succeed his father on the throne as Edward III, and John of Eltham (later created Earl of Cornwall), and two daughters, Eleanor and Joanna, wife of David II of Scotland. Edward had also fathered at least one illegitimate son, Adam FitzRoy, who accompanied his father in the Scottish campaigns of 1322 and died shortly afterwards.¹

     Joan I (also known as Joanna I; 17 April 1271 – 4 April 1305), the daughter of king Henry I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois, reigned as queen regnant of Navarre and also served as queen consort of France.

In 1274, upon the death of her father, she became Countess of Champagne and Queen regnant of Navarre. Her mother Queen Blanche was her guardian and regent in Navarre. Various powers, both foreign and Navarrese, sought to take advantage of the minority of the heiress and the "weakness" of the female regent, which caused Joan and her mother to seek protection at the court of Philip III of France.

At the age of 13, Joan married the future Philip IV of France on 16 August 1284, becoming queen of France a year later. Their three surviving sons would all become kings of France, in turn, and their only surviving daughter queen consort of England. Queen Joan founded the famous College of Navarre in Paris.

Joan led an army against the Count of Bar when he rebelled against her.

Joan died in 1305 in childbirth, though one chronicler even accused her husband of having killed her. Her personal physician was the inventor Guido da Vigevano.¹

     Isabella of Aragon (1247 – 28 January 1271), infanta of Aragon, was, by marriage, Queen consort of France in the Middle Ages from 1270 to 1271.

She was the daughter of King James I of Aragon and his second wife Violant of Hungary, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary.

In Clermont on 28 May 1262, she married the future Philip III of France, son of king Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence. They had four sons:

Louis (b. 1265 – d. 1276).
Philip IV "the Fair" (b. 1268 – d. 1314), King of France.
Robert (b. 1269 – d. 1271).
Charles of Valois (b. 1270 – d. 1325).
She accompanied her husband on the Eighth Crusade against Tunis. On their way home, they stopped in Cosenza, Calabria. Six months pregnant with her fifth child, on 11 January 1271 she suffered a fall from her horse after they had resumed the trip back to France. Isabella gave birth to a premature stillborn son.[1] She never recovered from her injuries and the childbirth, and died seventeen days later, on 28 January. Her husband took her body and their stillborn son and, when he finally returned to France, buried her in Saint Denis Basilica. Her tomb, like many others, was desecrated during the French Revolution in 1793.¹

     Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet, the son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. He worked with the Parlement of Paris in order to improve the professionalism of his administration in regards to legal actions.

He is the only canonized king of France; consequently, there are many places named after him, most notably São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil, St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States and both the state and city of San Luis Potosí, in Mexico. Saint Louis was also a tertiary of the Order of the Holy Trinity and Captives (known as the Trinitarians).[citation needed] On 11 June 1256, the General Chapter of the Trinitarian Order formally affiliated Louis IX at the famous monastery of Cerfroid, which had been constructed by Felix of Valois north of Paris.

Louis was born in 1214 at Poissy, near Paris, the son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. A member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died on 8 November 1226. He was crowned king within the month at Reims cathedral. Because of Louis's youth, his mother ruled France as regent during his minority.

His younger brother Charles I of Sicily (1227–85) was created count of Anjou, thus founding the second Angevin dynasty.

No date is given for the beginning of Louis's personal rule. His contemporaries viewed his reign as co-rule between the king and his mother, though historians generally view the year 1234 as the year in which Louis began ruling personally, with his mother assuming a more advisory role. She continued as an important counselor to the king until her death in 1252.

On 27 May 1234, Louis married Margaret of Provence (1221 – 21 December 1295), whose sister Eleanor was the wife of Henry III of England.¹

     Elizabeth Beauchamp (née de Berkeley), Countess of Warwick (1386 – 28 December 1422) was born in Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England to Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley and Margaret de Lisle, Baroness Lisle.[1]

Elizabeth married Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick before 5 October 1397. He was the son of Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick and Margaret Ferrers. Elizabeth gave birth to three girls:

Lady Margaret Beauchamp (1404 – 14 June 1468) married General John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury
Lady Eleanor Beauchamp (born c. 1407 – died between 4 March 1466 - 8 March 1468) married (1) Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros (2) Sir Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (3) Walter Rokesley
Lady Elizabeth Beauchamp (16 September 1417 - died before 2 October 1480) married (1) George Nevill, 1st Baron Latymer (2) Thomas Wake.¹

     Edward Nevill, de facto 3rd (de jure 1st) Baron Bergavenny (bef. 1414 – 18 October 1476) was an English peer.

He was the son of Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland, daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine de Roet (better known as Katherine Swynford). Nevill was knighted sometime after 1426.[1]

In 1436 he married Lady Elizabeth de Beauchamp (d. June 18, 1448), daughter of the 1st Earl of Worcester and the former Lady Isabel le Despenser, who later succeeded as de jure 3rd Baroness Bergavenny, and they had the following children:

Richard Nevill (bef. 1439 – bef. 1476)
Sir George Nevill (c.1440–1492), later 4th and 2nd Baron Bergavenny
Alice Nevill, married Sir Thomas Grey
Catherine Nevill (b.c.1444), married John Iwardby
Bergavenny, as he was now styled, was a justice of the peace for Durham in 1438.[1]

Shortly after his first wife's death, in the summer or fall of 1448, he married Katherine Howard, daughter of Robert Howard and sister of the 1st Duke of Norfolk, and they had the following children:

Catherine Nevill (b.c. 1452), married Robert Tanfield
Margaret Nevill (b.bef. 1476-1506), married John Brooke, 7th Baron Cobham
Anne Nevill (b.bef 1476-1480/81)
He was a captain in the embattled Duchy of Normandy in 1449.[1] His eldest son Richard was one of the hostages given to the French when the English surrendered the city of Rouen in that year.

After the death of his first wife, he was summoned to Parliament in 1450 as "Edwardo Nevyll de Bergavenny", by which he is held to have become Baron Bergavenny. At the time, however, this was considered to be a summons by right of his wife, and so he was considered the 3rd, rather than the 1st, Baron.

In 1454, he was appointed to the Privy Council assembled by the Duke of York as Lord Protector, along with his more prominent Nevill kinsmen. He was a commissioner of array in Kent in 1461, and was a captain in Edward IV's army in the North the following year. He was again a commissioner of array in 1470, remaining loyal to Edward IV, unlike his nephew, the Earl of Warwick[1].¹

     Joan Butler (neé de Beauchamp), 4th Countess of Ormond (1396- 3 August 1430) was a Cambro-Norman noblewoman, and the first wife of Irish peer, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, and the mother of his five children. Their principal residence was Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Joan de Beauchamp was born in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales in 1396, the daughter of William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny and Lady Joan FitzAlan (1375- 14 November 1435).[1] She had a brother Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester, 2nd Baron Bergavenny ( born before 1397- 18 March 1422). He married Lady Isabel le Despenser (26 July 1400- 1439), by whom he had one daughter Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Lady of Abergavenny.

Joan's paternal grandparents were Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick and Katherine Mortimer. Her maternal grandparents were Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel and Elizabeth de Bohun.

On or before 28 August 1413, Joan married James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond (April or May 1391 Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny- 22 August 1452 Ardee, Co. Louth), the son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond and Anne Welles.[2] He was known as the White Earl, and esteemed for his learning and patronage of the arts. He was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1405, and later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Earl and Joan's principal residence was Kilkenny Castle in Kilkenny, Ireland. They had five children.¹

     George Nevill, 5th and de jure 3rd Baron Bergavenny KG, PC (c. 1469 – 28 September 1535) was an English courtier. He held the office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

He was born in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, the son of George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny and Margaret Fenne. He was an elder brother of Sir Edward Nevill who was executed in 1540 on order of King Henry VIII, charged with "devising to maintain, promote, and advance one Reginald Pole, late Dean of Exeter, enemy of the King, beyond the sea, and to deprive the King". (Reginald Pole was a Catholic exile and a second cousin once removed of Nevill). They had two sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. Jane herself was executed in 1539 along with her husband Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, as he was the elder brother of Reginald Pole. The mother of George and Edward Nevill was Margaret Fenne, who was born in about 1444 at Sculton Burdeleys in Norfolk, England. She was the second of the three wives of the 4th Lord Bergavenny, and is recorded as having died on 28 September 1485.

Sir George Nevill was buried before 24 January 1536 in Birling, Kent, England.

Lord Bergavenny is thought to have been married four times, to: Lady Mary Brooke of Cobham; Mary Stafford, daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham; Joan FitzAlan and Margaret Brent. His daughter, Ursula Neville, married Warham St Leger.[1]

He was succeeded by his son Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny (by wife Mary Stafford).¹

     Sir Henry Neville (c. 1562 - July 10, 1615) was an English politician, diplomat, courtier and distant relative of William Shakespeare.[1][2] In 2005, he was put forward as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

Neville was the first born child of Sir Henry Neville Senior (d. 1593) and Elizabeth Gresham and the great-great-grandson of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland. Joan was daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Katherine Swynford. John of Gaunt was in turn a son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

Henry grew up at Billingbear House, was educated at Merton College, Oxford and sat in Parliament as the member for New Windsor, Sussex, Liskeard, Kent, Lewes and Berkshire.

In 1599, Neville was appointed Ambassador to France and attended the Court of Henri IV. Although knighted for his services in France, he was unhappy with the way he was treated by the French and in 1600, complaining of deafness, he asked to be recalled to the Kingdom of England.

After his return he became involved with the plot of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was stripped of his position and fined £5,000, which he agreed to pay in annual instalments of £1,000. After the death of Elizabeth I of England and the accession of James I a Royal Warrant was issued for his release.

After his release, he played a greater role in the political life of Great Britain and earned the antagonism of King James by advocating the King surrender to the demands of the House of Commons. It was this action that, on the death of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, lost him the possibility of becoming the Secretary of State. Although offered the position of Treasurer of the Chamber he turned it down.

Neville died in 1615 and was buried at the church of St Lawrence in Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire, England.¹

     Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (c. 1379 – 13 November 1440), was the third or fourth child (and only daughter) of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his mistress, later wife, Katherine Swynford. She was born at the Château de Beaufort in Champagne, France (whence the Beaufort children derive their surname). In 1391, at the age of twelve, Joan married Robert Ferrers, 3rd Baron Ferrers of Wemme, and they had two daughters before he died about 1395. Along with her three brothers, Joan had been privately declared legitimate by their cousin Richard II of England in 1390, but for various reasons their father secured another such declaration from Parliament in January 1397. Joan was already an adult when she was legitimized by the marriage of her mother and father with papal approval. The Beauforts were later barred from inheriting the throne by a clause inserted into the legitimation act by their half-brother, Henry IV of England. Soon after this declaration, on 3 February 1397, when she was eighteen, Joan married Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, who had also been married once before.

When Ralph de Neville died in 1425, his lands and titles should, by law of rights, have passed on to his eldest surviving son from his first marriage, another Ralph de Neville. Instead, while the title of Earl of Westmorland and several manors were passed to Ralph, the bulk of his rich estate went to his wife, Joan Beaufort. Although this may have been done to ensure that his widow was well provided for; by doing this, Ralph essentially split his family into two, and the result was years of bitter conflict between Joan and her stepchildren, who fiercely contested her acquisition of their father's lands. Joan however, with her royal blood and connections, was far too powerful to be called to account, and the senior branch of the Nevilles received little redress for their grievances. Inevitably, when Joan died, the lands would be inherited by her own children.

Joan died on 13 November 1440 at Howden in Yorkshire. Rather than be buried with her husband Ralph (who was buried with his first wife) she was entombed next to her mother in the magnificent sanctuary of Lincoln Cathedral. Joan's is the smaller of the two tombs; both were decorated with brass plates — full-length representations of them on the tops, and small shields bearing coats of arms around the sides — but those were damaged or destroyed in 1644 during the English Civil War. A 1640 drawing of them survives, showing what the tombs looked like when they were intact, and side-by-side instead of end-to-end, as they are now.

Joan Beaufort was the grandmother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England, whom Henry VII defeated to take the throne. (Henry then married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and their son became Henry VIII of England). She was also the grandmother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick 'the Kingmaker'.

Joan Beaufort and Ralph Neville had fourteen children.¹

     John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Aquitaine (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was a member of the House of Plantagenet, the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He got his name "John of Gaunt" because he was born in Ghent (in today's Belgium), then Gaunt in English. John exercised great influence over the English throne during the minority reign of his nephew, Richard II, and during the ensuing periods of political strife, but was not thought to have been among the opponents of the King.

John of Gaunt's legitimate male heirs, the Lancasters, included Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. His legitimate descendants also included his daughters Philippa of Lancaster, Queen consort of John I of Portugal and mother of King Duarte of Portugal. John was also the father of Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter through his first wife, Blanche; and by his second wife, Constance, John was the father of Katherine of Lancaster, Queen consort of Henry III of Castile, granddaughter of Peter of Castile and mother of John II of Castile.

John of Gaunt fathered five children outside marriage, one early in life by one of his mother's ladies-in-waiting, and four, surnamed "Beaufort", by Katherine Swynford, Gaunt's long-term mistress and eventual third wife. The Beaufort children, three sons and a daughter, were legitimized by royal and papal decrees after John married Katherine in 1396. Descendants of the marriage to Katherine Swynford included their son Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and eventually Cardinal; their granddaughter Cecily Neville, mother to Kings Edward IV and Richard III; and their great-great-grandson Henry Tudor, who became King of England after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and established the House of Tudor.

When John of Gaunt died in 1399, his estates were declared forfeit to the crown, as King Richard II had exiled John's son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke, in 1398. Bolingbroke and Richard II were first cousins; John of Gaunt and Richard II's father Edward (The Black Prince) were brothers. Bolingbroke returned from exile to reclaim his confiscated inheritance and deposed the unpopular Richard. Bolingbroke then reigned as King Henry IV of England (1399–1413), the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the throne of England.

John of Gaunt was buried alongside his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, in the nave of Old St. Paul's Cathedral in an alabaster tomb designed by Henry Yevele (similar to that of his son in Canterbury Cathedral).¹

     Katherine Swynford (also spelled Synford), née (de) Roet (also spelled (de) Rouet, (de) Roët, or (de) Roelt) (25 November 1350 – 10 May 1403), was the daughter of Payne (or Paen/Paon) de Roet, a Flemish herald from Hainault who was knighted just before his death in battle. Katherine became the third wife of the English prince 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-granddaughter of Katherine Swynford.

Paon (probably christened Gilles) de Roet's children included Katherine, her sister Philippa, a son, Walter, and the eldest sister, Isabel de Roet, (who died Canoness of the convent of St. Waudru's, Mons, c. 1366). Katherine is generally held to have been his youngest child, although, based on her review of the fragmentary evidence, Weir[2] argues that Philippa was her junior, and further that they were his children by his second wife. De Roet came to England around 1327 with Philippa of Hainault, at the time of her marriage to Edward III, and remained in her retinue. He returned to Hainault, probably by 1349, and Katherine was born the following year. Her birth date is assumed to be 25 November, as that is the feast day of her patron, St. Catherine of Alexandria. The family returned to England in 1351, and it is likely that Katherine remained there during her father's continued travels.

Katherine married Hugh Swynford (1340–1372), a knight from the manor of Kettlethorpe in Lincolnshire. Although their marriage is usually held to have taken place in 1366, when Katherine was 15 or 16, Weir argues that the evidence points to no later than 1362[2]; twelve years was a marriageable age at the time. She bore him at least two children: Thomas (21 September 1368 – 1432), Blanche (born 1 May 1367), and likely the Margaret Swynford (born c. 1369) who was nominated a nun at the prestigious Barking Abbey by the command of Richard II in 1377. There may have also been a third daughter named Dorothy. Katherine then became attached to the household of John of Gaunt, as governess to his two daughters Philippa of Lancaster and Elizabeth Plantagenet (the sisters of the future Henry IV) by John's first wife Blanche. Some time before 1373, she became his mistress. Katherine's sister Philippa, a member of the household of Queen Philippa, married the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, whose poem The Book of the Duchess commemorated Blanche's death in 1369.

Two years following the death of his second wife Infanta Constance of Castile, John and Katherine married on 13 January 1396 in Lincoln Cathedral, three years before he died. The four children Katherine had borne John of Gaunt had been given the surname "Beaufort" and were already adults when they were legitimized by this marriage with approval by King Richard and the Pope. The Beauforts were later barred from inheriting the throne by a clause inserted into the legitimation act by their half-brother, Henry IV.

Katherine survived John by only four years, dying on 10 May 1403. She was then dowager Duchess of Lancaster. Her tomb, and that of her daughter Joan Beaufort, are under a carved-stone canopy in the sanctuary of Lincoln Cathedral. Joan's is the smaller of the two tombs; both were decorated with brass plates — full-length representations of them on the tops, and small shields bearing coats of arms around the sides — but those were damaged or destroyed in 1644 during the English Civil War.

The heirs of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt are significant in British history. Their son John was a great-grandfather of Henry VII, who established the Tudor dynasty and based his claim to the throne on the lineage of his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. John (the son) was also the father of Joan, who married the Scots King James I, and thus was an ancestress of the House of Stuart[3]. John and Katherine's daughter Joan Beaufort was the grandmother of the English kings Edward IV and Richard III, whom Henry VII defeated to take the throne; Henry's claim was strengthened by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. John of Gaunt's son — Katherine's stepson — became Henry IV by deposing Richard II (who was imprisoned and died shortly thereafter, in Pontefract Castle, where Katherine's son Thomas Swynford was constable, and was said to have starved Richard to death for his stepbrother). His daughter by Constance, Catherine (or Catalina), was the great-grandmother of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII and mother of Mary I of England.¹

     Thomas Maria Wingfield of Stonley Priory. A Member of Parliament. He married first widow Mrs. Margaret Sabyn and secondly Margaret Kerrye.¹

     4th Baron Strange of Blackmere.