THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN OF GAUNT.
[To Tag EDITOR Or TIER "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your reviewer of the Life of Cardinal Pole (Spectator, November 5th) is in error in stating that Margaret Beaufort was the sole representative of John of Gaunt and Katharine Swynford. Contemporary with her there were, and there still are, descendants of Joanna Beaufort, the only daughter of John Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset. She married, first, King James I. of Scotland, and through her the Royal Family of Scotland descended from John of Gaunt; secondly, John Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, from which marriage descended the Stewart Earls of Atholl, of whom there are still descendants living. I may add that whereas his Majesty King George traces his descent from the Plantagenets through six females, the present Earl of &afield, Chief of Grant, counts but two females in his line of descent—viz., Joanna Beaufort, granddaughter of John of Gaunt, and her great-great-granddaughter, Margaret Stewart, daughter of the third Earl of A.tholl.—I am, Sir, Ste., J. 31. S.
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