{"product_id":"katherine-swynford-9780224063210","title":"Katherine Swynford","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn her remarkable new book  Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest love stories of medieval England. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman  Katherine Swynford  who became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt  Duke of Lancaster.  Katherine Swynfords charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the 14th century  the effective ruler of England behind the throne of his father Edward III in his declining years  and during the minority of his nephew  Richard ll. Katherine herself was enigmatic and intriguing  renowned for her beauty  and regarded by some as dangerous. Her existence was played out against the backdrop of court life at the height of the age of chivalry and she knew most of the great figures of the time  including her brother-in-law  Geoffrey Chaucer. She lived through much of the Hundred Years War  the Black Death  and the Peasants Revolt. She knew loss  adversity  and heartbreak  and she survived them all triumphantly. Although Katherines story provides unique insights into the life of a medieval woman  she was far from typical in that age. She was an important person in her own right  a woman who had remarkable opportunities  made her own choices  flouted convention  and took control of her own destiny  even of her own public image.  Weir brilliantly retrieves Katherine Swynford from the footnotes of history and gives her life and breath again. Perhaps the most dynastically important woman within the English monarchy  she was the mother of the Beauforts and through them the ancestress of the Yorkist kings  the Tudors  the Stuarts  and every other sovereign since  a legacy that has shaped the history of Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45280135086133,"sku":"ByrdShop_0224063219","price":71.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780224063210.jpg?v=1780622443","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/katherine-swynford-9780224063210","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}