52 Katharine Szvynford 



three years before becoming- paralytic) ; John Stratford (19 

 years after becoming Doctor of Laws); Robert Stratford (12 

 years after becoming priest) ; Edington (10 years after becom- 

 ing Bishop of Winchester) ; Knyvet (25 years after he was 

 already practising law in the courts), etc.^'^ 



We have seen that a birth-date at least as early as 1367 will 

 best account for the various recorded facts in the early life of 

 John Beaufort, and that his next younger brother, Henry, could 

 not well have been born after Feb. 27, 1368.^^ But as Thomas 

 Swynford, the only child of Katharine born in wedlock, was 

 four years old at his father's death on Nov. 13, 1371," he must 

 have been born in 1367, and therefore neither John nor Henry 

 Beaufort can have been born in that year. Moreover, Richard 

 HI asserted to his chancellor, John Russell, in 1485, that John 

 Beaufort was 'in double avoutry gotyn.'^^ This being assumed, 

 he must have been begotten between May 19, 1359, when John 

 of Gaunt married Blanche, and Sept. 12, 1369, when she died. 

 But we have seen that a date later than Feb. 27, 1368, would not 

 fit the birth of Henry Beaufort, and that John's birth was of 

 course earlier. Hence both brothers were probably born before 

 Thomas Swynford, in other words, before 1367. It follows 

 that at any period between May 19, 1359, and (say) 1365, the 

 two brothers might have been begotten through the adultery of 

 their father ; for John we must assume a year not later than 

 1364. If, then, John Beaufort was begotten in double adultery, 

 Katharine must have been married to Hugh Swynford by 1364, 

 or earlier. This would seem fairly unlikely if we accept the 

 current theory that she was born about the year 1350.^^ That 

 date, however, is purely conjectural, and I know of no attempt 

 to justify it. John of Gaunt was born in 1340; Hugh Swynford 

 was born in I340*"'; and there seems no good reason why 



°' See Diet. Nat. Biog. under these names. 



^» See p. 49, (3). 



"Derby Aecounts, p. 301; Exe. Hist., p. 157. Katharine also had a 

 daughter, Blanche,, born in wedlock (Armitage-Smith, p. 461). 



'^ Past on Letters, ed. Gairdner, 3. 317, and note 14; Ellis, Orig. Letters 

 2. I. 164; cf. Exe. Hist., pp. 152, 155-6; Wylie 3. 260; Diet. Nat. Biog. 

 55. 243; Cokayne 7. 169. 



"'ii.rc. Hist., p. 155; Diet. Nat. Biog. 55. 243. 



^"Exc. Hist., p. 157. 



