by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset is significant in the history of British and Scottish royal genealogy. The Tudor dynasty was directly descended from him as he was the great-grandfather of King Henry VII of England. Henry VII based his claim to the English throne on the descent of his mother (and John’s granddaughter) Lady Margaret Beaufort from John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III of England. John Beaufort’s daughter Joan Beaufort married James I, King of Scots, and was an ancestor of the Scots House of Stuart and the English House of Stuart.

All British monarchs since King Henry IV are descended from John of Gaunt. In fact, most European monarchies are descended from John. The Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor were all descended from John of Gaunt’s children:

• King Henry IV (Lancaster: father of King Henry V, grandfather of King Henry VI)
• Joan Beaufort (York: grandmother of King Edward IV and King Richard III)
• John Beaufort (Tudor: great-grandfather of King Henry VII)

During the Wars of the Roses, the battle for the English throne pitted the House of Lancaster and the House of York against each other.

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset was the eldest of the three sons and the eldest of the four children of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he later married in 1396. John was born circa 1373. The surname of John and his three siblings is derived from the now-demolished Beaufort Castle, a property in Champagne, France that John of Gaunt had sold years before. John of Gaunt likely felt it was a safe name to give to his illegitimate children by Katherine Swynford.

John Beaufort’s paternal grandparents were King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England. His maternal grandmother is unknown but his maternal grandfather was Paon de Roet, a knight from the County of Hainault (now part of Belgium and France) who first came to England in 1328 when Philippa of Hainault married King Edward III of England.

John had three younger siblings:

• Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (circa 1375 – 1447), unmarried
• Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (circa 1377–1426), married Margaret Neville of Horneby, one son who died young
• Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (circa 1379–1440), married (1) Robert Ferrers, 5th Baron Boteler of Wem, had two daughters (2) Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, had fourteen children. Through their daughter Cecily Neville, Joan and Ralph were the maternal grandparents of two English kings from the House of York, the brothers King Edward IV and King Richard III.

John had three half-siblings from his mother’s first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford (circa 1340 – 1371), a knight in service to John of Gaunt:

• Blanche Swynford (1367 – circa 1374), died in childhood
• Sir Thomas Swynford (1368 – 1432), married (1) Jane Crophill, had three children (2) Margaret Grey, no children
• Margaret Swynford (born c. 1369), became a nun at Barking Abbey in 1377 with help from her future stepfather John of Gaunt, where she lived the religious life with her cousin Elizabeth Chaucer, daughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and Katherine’s sister Philippa de Roet

John had seven half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to the wealthy heiress Blanche of Lancaster:

• Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal (1360 – 1415), married King João I of Portugal, had nine children
• John of Lancaster (c.1362/1364), died in infancy
• Elizabeth of Lancaster (1364 – 1426), married (1) John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke  (2) John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, had six children  (3) John Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope, had two children
• Edward of Lancaster (born and died 1365)
• John (born and died 1366), died in early infancy
• King Henry IV of England (1367 – 1413), married (1) Mary de Bohun, had six children including King Henry V of England  (2)  Joanna of Navarre, no children
• Isabella of Lancaster (born 1368), died young

John had two half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Infanta Constance of Castile:

• Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile (1372 – 1418), married King Enrique III of Castile and León, had three children. Through their son Juan II of Castile, Catherine and Enrique III are the grandparents of Isabella I, Queen of Castile and great-grandparents of Catherine of Aragon (daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England.
• John of Lancaster (1374 – 1375), died in infancy

John and his siblings likely spent their early years at Kettlethorpe Hall in Kettlethorpe, Lincolnshire, England, a property that had belonged to the first husband of John’s mother, Sir Hugh Swynford who had died in 1371. Kettlethorpe was a small, quiet village, close to the city of Lincoln but 150 miles from London. It would have been a perfect place for John of Gaunt to carry on a discreet affair and have his illegitimate children raised as he had made a second marriage in 1371 and Katherine was a recent widow.

John of Gaunt treated his Beaufort children as cherished members of the family but he was careful that the provisions he made for them would not interfere with the Lancaster inheritance reserved for his legitimate children. Instead, he found other forms of income for them through marriages and for his second son Henry, through the church. Because of John of Gaunt’s cautions, his Beaufort children were held in great affection by their half-siblings.

Two years after the death of his second wife Constance of Castile, John of Gaunt married his mistress Katherine Swynford, John Beaufort’s mother, on January 13, 1396, at Lincoln Cathedral in England. After the marriage of Katherine and John, their four children were legitimized by both John of Gaunt’s nephew King Richard II of England and Pope Boniface IX. After Henry Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s eldest son by his first wife Blanche of Lancaster, deposed his first cousin King Richard II in 1399, and became King Henry IV, he inserted the phrase excepta regali dignitate (“except royal status”) in the documents that had legitimized his Beaufort half-siblings and supposedly that phrase barred them from the throne. However, many disputed and still dispute the authority of a monarch to alter an existing parliamentary statute on his or her own authority, without the further approval of Parliament.

Shortly after John Beaufort was legitimized, he was created Earl of Somerset. During the summer of 1397, he was one of the noblemen who helped King Richard II free himself from the power of the Lords Appellant. As a reward, John was created Marquess of Somerset and Marquess of Dorset and was made a Knight of the Garter.

Since John Beaufort was the first cousin of King Richard II and the half-brother of King Henry IV, he held several important appointments:

• Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
• Admiral of the West
• Admiral of the Irish Fleet
• Lieutenant of Aquitaine
• Admiral of the North and Western Fleets
• Lord High Constable of England

On September 27, 1397, John Beaufort married Margaret Holland (1385 – 1439), the niece of John’s first cousin King Richard II of England. Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Alice FitzAlan. Like her husband, Margaret was also descended from English royalty. Her father’s mother was Joan of Kent, 4th Countess of Kent, Princess of Wales, a granddaughter of King Edward I of England. Margaret descended from Joan’s first marriage with Thomas Holland 1st Earl of Kent. Joan’s second husband was Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) who predeceased his father King Edward III of England. Joan and her second husband were the parents of King Richard II of England, the half-brother of Margaret Holland’s father Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent.

John Beaufort and Margaret Holland had six children:

• Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset (1401 – 1418), unmarried, was killed at the Siege of Rouen during the Hundred Years’ War
• John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (1404 – 1444), married Margaret Beauchamp, had one daughter Lady Margaret Beaufort who married Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. Their son Henry Tudor was King Henry VII of England, the first monarch from the House of Tudor
• Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland (1404 – 1445), married (1) James I, King of Scots, had eight children including James II, King of Scots (2) Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorne, had three children
• Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche (1405 – 1431), unmarried, was killed at the Siege of Louviers during the Hundred Years’ War
• Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406 – 1455), married Eleanor Beauchamp, had ten children, Edmund was killed fighting on the Lancastrian side in the First Battle of St. Albans, which traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses
• Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon (1409 – 1449) married Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, had three sons and six daughters, two sons were executed and one was killed in battle during the Wars of the Roses due to their strong strong support for the Lancastrian cause

After John’s first cousin King Richard II was deposed by John’s half-brother Henry Bolingbroke, in 1399, the new King Henry IV rescinded the titles that had been given to those nobles who had helped King Richard II free himself from the power of the Lords Appellant. John Beaufort lost his Marquess of Dorset title and was demoted from Marquess of Somerset back to Earl of Somerset. Despite this, John was loyal to his half-brother, serving in various military commands and on important diplomatic missions.

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset died on March 16, 1410, aged about thirty-seven, at the Royal Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower, a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England near the tomb of his uncle Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, a final resting place probably chosen by his half-brother King Henry IV who was buried there himself in 1413.

After his death, John Beaufort’s wife Margaret Holland married his nephew Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence (1387 – 1421), the son of King Henry IV, but they had no children. Margaret’s second husband died, aged thirty-three, on March 22, 1421, at the Battle of Baugé during the Hundred Years’ War in Anjou, France. Margaret survived both her husbands, dying on December 30, 1439, aged fifty-four, at St. Saviour’s Abbey, Bermondsey, in London, England. Margaret and both her husbands are buried together in a carved alabaster tomb in St. Michael’s Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England. Atop the tomb is an effigy with Margaret lying between her two husbands.

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Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Beaufort,_1st_Earl_of_Somerset> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Margaret Holland, Duchess of Clarence – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Holland,_Duchess_of_Clarence> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2017. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/john-of-gaunt-1st-duke-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2022. Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/katherine-swynford-duchess-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Jones, Dan, 2012. The Plantagenets. New York: Viking.
• Weir, Alison, 2009. Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Williamson, David, 1996. Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.