Below is a table of some of the images I have found that relate to Katheryn and her life.
Sadly, many of the places associated with her are long gone -- gone is medieval Kettlethorpe, though a magnificent arch that appears to belong to Katheryn's improvement period exists; gone is most of Barking Abbey where her daughter Margaret was nominated a nun by Richard II and where she eventually became abbess; gone, too, is most of Kenilworth, John of Gaunt's beloved residence to which he made many improvements, including his Great Hall.
Additionally, what images do remain aren't particularly accurate in that they do not necessarily portray, nor were intended to portray, physical likenesses. For example, medieval funeral brasses, such as once decorated the tombs of Katheryn and her daughter Joan, tended to be generic representations of the dress worn by the gender of that period. Hence, extant drawings of the brasses of Katheryn and Joan seem remarkably similar, to the extent that if one wishes to visualize Katheryn's funeral brass, destroyed during the upheaval of the Cromwell era, one might as well look at any of the brass rubbings of women of the period. Similarly, the coffin lid identified as that of Katheryn's sister Philippa at St. Mary Virgin Church in Old Worldham, Hampshire, while of stone, seems to be of the same generic representational type of the brass of her more celebrated sister. This is not surprising, given that even royal coinage doesn't exhibit any attempts at real portraiture until the reign of John and Katheryn's descendant Henry VII (whose heir, Henry VIII, in the hurry to issue coinage of his own reign, uses his father's image rather than his own shortly after his accession until a good portrait image could be devised!).
Alabaster and other 3-D effigies, however, are another story. The tomb effigies of Gaunt and first wife Blanche of Lancaster, and those of Gaunt and Katheryn's son (Henry [1, 2, 3]) and daughter (Joan) show a marked period tendancy towards actual portraiture.
Speculative are such representations as the Troilus Frontispiece, which George Williams believes portrays Katheryn in the lower left-hand corner, and carvings at Canterbury Cathedral, 'no larger than a walnut', identified as possibly being that of John and Katheryn.
However, a comparison between the Philippa effigy image and the 'Katheryn' figure in the Troilus Frontispiece both show a woman with a distinctive heart-shaped face, which is to say that both show a face which slopes outwards from its pointed chin to a wide forehead. The Joan Beaufort effigy also suggests a pointed, though somewhat vanishing, chin, so perhaps one can indeed begin to discern a few facial characteristics that Katheryn may have possessed.
Finally, there remain the 'portrait' images of Gaunt himself and the Froissart Chronicle manuscript illuminations. As for the former, they date positively to the 16th century or later (excepting, perhaps, a small manuscript illumination). The latter, including an illustration of a supplicant Gaunt, are very likely generic images as well -- for example, Queen Isabella of England, the French princess bride of Richard II, despite looking rather mature in the Froissart Chronicle illuminations, was a rather immature bride of 8 years of age. They are included below because one can perchance catch a glimpse at the generic Katheryn, who as Duchess of Lancaster, was sent as one of the designated escorts of the new Queen.
The table below will take you to groupings of some available images. These are reproduced herein strictly for educational purposes. Having said that, however, if you hold the legitimate rights to any of the pictures herein and object to my having appropriated them, please send me an email and I will make amends.
Text copyright Judy Perry 2002.
![3]](HBeaufortChantryLg.jpg){kind=link}
