Katherine

Katherine is a historical novel by the American writer Anya Seton, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1954. It tells the story of Katherine de Roet, later Katherine Swynford, and of her long relationship with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the third surviving son of King Edward III.

Katherine begins with very little. Her father is a herald turned knight of no great fortune, and her prospects rest on her sister Philippa, who is a waiting-woman to Queen Philippa and is betrothed to Geoffrey Chaucer, then a minor figure at court. Through that household Katherine meets and marries Sir Hugh Swynford, and she is widowed after bearing him two children. She then becomes the mistress of the Duke of Lancaster and has four children by him, who are given the surname Beaufort from one of his estates, and she is also appointed to look after the duke's daughters from his first marriage. The affair was real, and long, and it was eventually made into a marriage none of the parties could have predicted.

The book has been in print continuously since it appeared, and in the BBC's survey of best-loved novels in 2003 it was ranked ninety-fifth.