The Scandalous Duchess

INSPIRATION FOR THE SCANDALOUS DUCHESS

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine Swynford for two reasons.

Katherine’s love affair with John of Lancaster was matter of great scandal, earning her vicious censure as a she-devil and enchantress, yet, despite all the pressures on them to end their liaison, their love did not die under attack. It would have been so easy for them to part and live separate lives, but they didn’t.

What sort of love was it that bound them together, that could survive so many vicissitudes without destroying itself in guilt and despair? I was interested in exploring such a remarkable depth of emotion.

My second reason was based on what we know of the characters of John and Katherine.

Katherine was, on the evidence, strongly religious. A respectable widow, highly principled, raised under the influence of Queen Philippa of Hainault, who was known for her staunch beliefs, Katherine would seem to have been the last woman to ignore her conscience and take up a role that would destroy her reputation and bring her under the dire judgement of God.

John was equally known to hold to strong religious views, with a powerful sense of duty and a reputation for high chivalry despite his affairs outside marriage.

And yet both were prepared to abandon all moral integrity, all sense of responsibility, all thoughts of God’s grace, when embarking on an adulterous affair that lasted on and off for twenty-five years, producing four illegitimate children as evidence of their sin. John was perfectly willing to place Katherine in the ducal household, in effect forcing his wife Constanza to accept his mistress. This was flaunting Katherine under Constanza’s nose, an action that defies most attempts to explain or forgive.

Why did they take such a scandalous step? Was this just a love affair? I think not. I think it was far more powerful, in effect a Grand Passion. Remorseless, relentless, it was not at all a light-hearted romance but an emotion beyond their control, sweeping all before it, all sense of right or wrong. I consider it to be a tale of compulsive desire and need, so much stronger than love.

And, as I came to know them, the breathtaking enormity of what Katherine and John did took over to drive my writing and engage my own emotions.

I hope I have got to the heart of this most famous pair of medieval lovers in The Scandalous Duchess