#elizabeth of lancaster countess of huntington

[une-sanz-pluis]

Lucraft has even suggested that Constance and Katherine had a positive relationship. Constance would have crossed paths with Katherine socially: Richard II issued Garter robes to both women between 1388-90. In 1390, at least, both were in the country and may have been present. An entry in the Register from April 1373 may also be informative. It orders Robert atte More, receiver at Tutbury, to repair and supply Tutbury castle for the arrival of Constance ‘and of our very dear children and others of our meinie’. This indicates that Constance was bringing her daughter Catherine and probably Gaunt’s other daughters Philippa and Elizabeth, as well as household servants. Another entry in the Register notes that Katherine, Philippa and Elizabeth’s governess, was in Lincolnshire at the time (it was probably late in her first pregnancy by Gaunt), but she potentially re-joined her charges at Tutbury later. Although it is impossible to know, the possibility paints an intriguing picture of Constance and Katherine’s relationship. In 1381 the ducal stables provided for mounts for Constance, Philippa of Lancaster, Blanche Morieux (John’s illegitimate daughter by Marie de Sainte Hilaire, one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, prior to his first marriage), and Katherine Swynford simultaneously, suggesting that the entire extended family were spending time together. The sorts of extended family gatherings this evidence suggests may not seem terribly comfortable from a twenty-first-century perspective, but were probably more common in the Middle Ages.

Rebecca Holdorph, ‘My Well-Beloved Companion’: Men, Women, Marriage and Power in the Earldom and Duchy of Lancaster, 1265-1399, University of Southampton, PhD Thesis