Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, also spelled Katharine or Catherine, was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of King Edward III.
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter was an English military commander during the Hundred Years' War, and briefly Chancellor of England. He was the third of the four children born to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress Katherine Swynford. To overcome their problematic parentage, his parents were married in 1396, and he and his siblings were legitimated in 1390 and again in 1397. He married the daughter of Sir Thomas Neville of Hornby, Margaret Neville, who bore him one son, Henry Beaufort. However, the child died young.
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, 3rd Earl of Somerset, KG was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was the maternal grandfather of Henry VII.
Duke of Somerset, from the county of Somerset, is a title that has been created five times in the peerage of England. It is particularly associated with two families: the Beauforts, who held the title from the creation of 1448, and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547, in whose name the title is still held. The present dukedom is unique, in that the first holder of the title created it for himself in his capacity of Lord Protector of the Kingdom of England, using a power granted in the will of his nephew King Edward VI.
Duke of Beaufort, a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, a Lancastrian leader in the Wars of the Roses. The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne, France. It is the only current dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles.
Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families.
The title Duke of Exeter was created several times in England in the later Middle Ages. Exeter is the main town of Devon. It was first created for John Holland, the half-brother of King Richard II in 1397. That title was rescinded upon Henry IV's accession to the throne two years later. The title was then granted to the former's half-brother, Thomas Beaufort, 1st Earl of Dorset by his nephew Henry V. Following Beaufort's death without heirs in 1426, the title was restored to the Holland family, which held it until the 3rd Duke was attainted in 1461 as a Lancastrian, dying in 1475.
The title Marquess of Dorset has been created three times in the Peerage of England. It was first created in 1397 for John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, but he lost the title two years later. It was then created in 1442 for Edmund Beaufort, 1st Earl of Dorset, who was created Duke of Somerset in 1448. That creation was attainted in 1463.
The House of Beaufort is an English noble and quasi-royal family, which originated in the fourteenth century as the legitimated issue of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, whose eldest legitimate son was King Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king. The Beauforts played an important role during the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century and the eventual heiress of the family Lady Margaret Beaufort was the mother of King Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch of England.
In heraldry, an ordinary componée, anglicised to compony and gobony, is composed of a row of squares, rectangles or other quadrilaterals, of alternating tinctures, often found as a bordure, most notably in the arms of the English House of Beaufort.
King Edward III of England and his wife, Philippa of Hainault, had eight sons and five daughters. The Wars of the Roses were fought between the different factions of Edward III's descendants. The following list outlines the genealogy supporting male heirs ascendant to the throne during the conflict, and the roles of their cousins. However to mobilise arms and wealth, significant major protagonists were Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, and Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, and their families. A less powerful but determining role was played by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and Elizabeth Woodville and their families.
Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon was a great-granddaughter of King Edward III (1327–1377).
Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset was an English peer, courtier, soldier and landowner of the House of Grey.
William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton and feudal baron of Plympton, was a member of the leading noble family of Devon. His principal seat was Tiverton Castle, Devon with further residences at Okehampton Castle and Colcombe Castle, also in that county.
Thomas de Courtenay, 5th/13th Earl of Devon was a nobleman from South West England. His seat was at Colcombe Castle near Colyton, and later at the principal historic family seat of Tiverton Castle, after his mother's death. The Courtenay family had historically been an important one in the region, and the dominant force in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. However, the rise in power and influence of several gentry families and other political players, in the years leading up to Thomas' accession to the earldom, threatened the traditional dominance of the earls of Devon in the area. Much of his life was spent in armed territorial struggle against his near-neighbour, Sir William Bonville of Shute, at a time when central control over the provinces was weak. This feud forms part of the breakdown in law and order in England that led to the Wars of the Roses.
Thomas Beaufort, styled 1st Count of Perche was a member of the Beaufort family and an English commander during the Hundred Years' War.
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, KG, was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry with Richard, Duke of York, was a leading cause of the Wars of the Roses.
Colcombe Castle was a castle or fortified house situated about a 0.5 mi (0.80 km) north of the village of Colyton in East Devon.
Sir Richard Clement of Ightham Mote in Kent, England, was a courtier to King Henry VII and to his son Henry VIII.
