Family Notes

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There were four children of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his mistress, Catherine (Roet) Swynford, whom Gaunt later married (on 13 January 1396) as his third wife, at which time their four (grown) children were legitimized, taking the surname Beaufort.  After John of Gaunt's death, however, the four Beauforts were barred from succession to the English throne by their half-brother King
Henry IV.  Nevertheless, John Beaufort's  (the eldest of the four children) great-grandson Henry (VII) Tudor was able to win the throne in 1485 partly by virtue of his descent, through John Beaufort from the Lancastrian Plantagenets.