Church Monuments Society

Katherine Swynford’s monument is situated in Lincoln Cathedral near the high altar. It has been described as “mutilated almost beyond recognition” but fortunately there are records which show what its original condition was.

Katherine was born Katherine Roet in Hainault in modern-day Belgium. Her father moved to England following the marriage of Philippa of Hainault to Edward III. Her sister, Philippa, married Geoffrey Chaucer. Katherine was to become the mistress of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster (and a son of Edward III). They had four children, John, Henry, Thomas and Joan. After the death of John of Gaunt’s second wife, he married Katherine in 1396. Their children were legitimised and given the family name of Beaufort.

John of Gaunt died in 1399 and Katherine retired to Lincoln. She died in 1403. By this time their son, Henry Beaufort, had become Bishop of Lincoln (he later became a Cardinal.) This presumably explains why Katherine’s monument occupies such a prominent position in the Cathedral.

Katherine’s monument is thought to be the work of Henry Yevele. He was also responsible for the monuments for the Black Prince (Monument of the Month for May 2015), Richard II, John of Gaunt and his first wife, Blanche and possibly Edward III.

“Katherine’s fine tomb chest of Purbeck marble, with its moulded plinth and lid, had armorial shields encircled by garters along each side; it was surmounted by a canopied brass depicting Katherine in her widow’s weeds (Fig 1), and bearing her arms impaled with those of John of Gaunt,  while above it was raised a vaulted canopy with trefoiled arches, cusped lozenges and miniature rose bosses. The canopy and associated stonework would have been painted in bright colours.”

Although Katherine died in 1403, it was not until 1437 that her daughter, Joan, was given permission to establish a chantry for her. Joan gave the advowson of Welton Church in Yorkshire to Lincoln Cathedral and two chaplains were to celebrate Mass at 7am each morning at the altar beside the tomb.

Joan herself died in 1440 and in her will she asked to be buried “in the same altar where the body of Lady Katherine, Duchess of Lancaster, my mother is buried” and for the burial site to be enlarged and enclosed. The two monuments were side by side mounted on a single base (Fig 2). When John Leland visited the Cathedral in about 1540, he recorded that:

In the southe parte of the presbytery lyithe in 2. severalle highe marble tumbes in a chapell Catarine Swineforde, the 3. wife to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, and Jane her dougtar Countes of Westmerland.

In the following century Sir Christopher Hatton anticipated “the neere approaching storme” of the Civil War and in 1641 commissioned Sir William Dugdale (the antiquarian and future Garter King of Arms) and William Sedgwick “ a skylfull Armes-paynter” to make “exact draughts” of the monuments in the principal churches of the country. They visited Lincoln Cathedral and drew Katherine’s and Joan’s tombs (Fig 2). They were described as follows:

On the South-side the Choir, two Altar-Tombs, conjoined with four Coats of Arms on Brass Plates on the Sides, on the Top the Effigies of two Ladies under handsome Canopies with Inscriptions round the Verge. These for Catherine Swinford Duchess of Lancaster, and her Daughter the Countess of Westmorland.

At the same time Bishop Robert Sanderson recorded the epitaphs:

On the South-side the Quire is a fair Altar-tomb or Monument of Marble for Catherine Swynford, Wife to John Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, with this Circumscription on the Verge, beginning on the South-side from the Head.

The epitaph is in French and can be translated as follows:

Here lies Dame Katherine, Duchess of Lancaster, once the wife of the very noble and very gracious Prince, John, Duke of Lancaster, son to the very noble King Edward III, the which Katherine died the 10^th day of May in the year of grace 1403, on whose soul God have mercy and pity. Amen

Parliamentary forces occupied the Cathedral in 1644 and the brasses were taken from the monuments. John Evelyn visited Lincoln in 1654 and was told:

The soldiers had lately knocked off most of the brasses from the gravestones, so as few inscriptions were left; they told us that these men went in with axes and hammers, and shut themselves in, till they had rent and torn off some barge loads of metal, not sparing even the Monuments of the dead; so hellish an avarice possessed them: besides which they exceedingly ruined the city.

At some point after this the position of the two monuments was changed and they now stand end to end (Fig. 3).

The survey carried out by Sir William Dugdale and William Sedgwick is now known as “The Book of Monuments” and is in the British Library. It has been digitised but the British Library suffered a cyber-attack in October 2023 and it is not possible to view The Book of Monuments at present.

Ian Scruton

Gallery

• Fig 1 – Katherine in her “widow’s weeds”. Courtesy of Alison Weir
• Fig 2 – The Monument in 1641. Courtesy of Kaba
• Fig 3 – The Monument today. Courtesy of Richard Croft