When royals marry ‘commoners’: a brief history

John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford

In 1396, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, third surviving son of Edward III and the wealthiest magnate in England, chose to marry his children’s governess, Katherine Swynford. Katherine was a widow and had previously been the wife of one of his retainers, Hugh Swynford. Katherine’s mother remains unknown and her father was a herald called Paon de Roet, from the Belgian province of Hainault. Katherine grew up in a small nunnery on the island of Sheppey in Kent, before she was placed at court in the household of Queen Philippa of Hainault with her sister Philippa.

Her background was far from noble, but at a young age, around 16, she made an advantageous marriage to Hugh Swynford, a knight from Kettlethorpe Manor who was part of the Lancastrian Retinue and fought for Edward III during the HundredYears’ War. Katherine had two, possibly three children by Hugh Swynford, and subsequently became attached to the Lancastrian household through her role as governess to John of Gaunt’s two daughters with his first wife Blanche of Lancaster – Philippa and Elizabeth. The relationship between Katherine and the royal family must have been close, for Katherine’s own daughter was named Blanche after the duchess, and John of Gaunt stood as the child’s godfather. Blanche of Lancaster died in 1368, at which point John of Gaunt and Katherine embarked on a long-term love affair, quite possibly even before the death of her own husband Hugh Swynford in 1371. Katherine remained John of Gaunt’s mistress throughout his second marriage to the Infanta Constance of Castile, and gave birth to four of his children. As a woman of little social significance, of low birth and a widow, Katherine eventually became John of Gaunt’s third wife, after a decades-long romance. Their children were legitimised under the name ‘Beaufort’, and the Beauforts went on to found the most famous dynasty in British history: the Tudors.

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

During the Wars of the Roses, Elizabeth Woodville allegedly attracted Edward IV for the first time by waiting for him under an oak tree in Whittlebury Forest. She was desperate; left a widow during the war, she intended to beg Edward IV for her marital lands and the lost inheritance for her two sons. As legend relates, Edward fell in love with her and was determined to make her his queen, despite the controversy and outrage this would cause. Elizabeth was not only far from royalty, her father being only a knight, she was a woman whose husband had died fighting for the Lancastrian cause, and whose family were also previously loyal to Henry VI. Needless to say, she was not the obvious choice for a bride for the young king of England, bringing with her to the new royal family: two sons, whose father was a Lancastrian patriot. They married in secret at Groby Chapel, with the attendance of her mother Jacquetta, Countess Rivers, and two ladies. It was possible that the marriage was a hoax meant only to seduce Elizabeth; however, Edward proved true to his word and in 1465 she was crowned queen, to the disgust of the Royal Council.

Catherine of Valois and Owen Tudor

Edward IV was not only male royalty who chose their spouse for love. Catherine of Valois was the French wife of Henry V, and it was their alliance which secured Henry his desire to be named heir to the French throne through the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. Henry contracted dysentery in 1422 and died, leaving Catherine a young widow with an infant son. Catherine was still young and as a dowager queen; she was in an incredibly powerful position and would have been a desirable wife for any nobleman. However, after having little choice in her previous marriage, Catherine decided to take the matter into her own hands.

Owen Tudor was a Welshman, previously employed by Henry V’s steward Sir Walter Hungerford. and later became part of the infant Henry VI’s household. Catherine, possibly attracted to Owen Tudor at this stage, employed him into her service as her Clerk of the Wardrobe, and so their love affair began. When Owen Tudor was in her service at Windsor Castle, she became pregnant. The couple left court and likely married, although there is no contractual evidence of this. They had three sons, Edmund, Jasper and Owen, and a daughter, Margaret. They remained together until Catherine’s death in 1437. Despite all odds, a queen married a clerk and, even in the 15th century, they lived together in relative peace, and through their union, a new royal dynasty was born: the Tudors.

These examples are only a few in the grand scope of historical royal matrimony. In the 16th century, Henry VIII defied the pope and reformed the church in a bid to marry the woman he loved, Anne Boleyn. In the 17th century, Charles II’s brother James entered into a private marriage contract with Lady Anne Hyde. In the 20th century, Edward VIII famously abdicated the throne in order to marry the love of his life, Wallis Simpson, saying: “She promised to bring into my life something that wasn’t there.” Wallis Simpson was an American divorcee whom he had fallen in love with several years before. A constitutional crisis arose when he refused to give her up and it later became one of the most controversial unions in British history.

England’s most famous dynasty, the Tudors, was forged on both sides with the uncompromising love between a royal and 'commoner'. It’s a dynasty which we, as a nation, are proud of. Katherine Swynford and Owen Tudor were not English, and Elizabeth Woodville brought two sons with her into her marital union with Edward IV, but they were absorbed into the royal family nonetheless, and have played a crucial role in our history. With this in mind, the union between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should not be considered controversial or ‘groundbreaking’; it is simply another example of a member of the royal family exercising choice, and this should be something else to make us, as a historic nation, proud.

Helen Carr is a cultural historian, writer and presenter