Before reading this book, I had never heard of Katherine
Swynford and her lifetime lover-turned-husband John of Gaunt, both ancestors of
the Tudors, so I became eager to read it, especially after reading the positive
reviews on Anya Seton’s accurate historical research.
Katherine de Roet was a young girl who grew up in a convent
because her father and mother had passed away during the Black Death and her
sister was taken to live as a lady in waiting to Queen Philippa of Hanualt,
queen of England, because their father was a knight of her retinue. As Katherine became of a marrying age, fifteen,
she too was sent to the court since she didn’t wish to become a nun.
