General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Duke Of Lancaster
John of Gaunt [Mid. Eng. Gaunt=Ghent, his birthplace], 1340
-99, duke of Lancaster; fourth son of Edward III of England
. He married (1359) Blanche, heiress of Lancaster, and thro
ugh her became earl (1361) and duke (1362) of Lancaster. Th
e Lancaster holdings made him the wealthiest and one of th
e most influential nobles in England. He served under his b
rother, Edward the Black Prince, in the Hundred Years War a
nd went (1367) on his campaign to aid Peter the Cruel of Ca
stile. After the death of Blanche he married (1371) Peter'
s daughter, Constance, and thus gained a claim to the Casti
lian throne. When the Black Prince became ill during the Fr
ench campaign of 1370-71, John took chief command. In 137
3 he led his army from Calais to Bordeaux, but the expediti
on accomplished little. After a truce was reached (1375) h
e returned to England, where he allied himself with the cor
rupt court party led by Alice Perrers, mistress of the agin
g Edward III. For a short time John of Gaunt in effect rule
d England. His party was temporarily dislodged from power b
y the Good Parliament of 1376, but John was soon able to re
store his friends and assembled a hand-picked Parliament i
n 1377. Hostility to the strong clerical party, led by Will
iam of Wykeham, caused him to support the movement of Joh
n Wyclif. After the accession (1377) of his nephew, Richar
d II, John remained the most powerful figure in the governm
ent, but he devoted himself primarily to military matters
. In 1386, allied with John I of Portugal, who married on
e of his daughters, he led an expedition to make good his C
astilian claims against John I of Castile. John of Gaunt fi
nally agreed to peace in 1388, transferred his claims to hi
s daughter by Constance of Castile, and married her to th
e future Henry III of Castile. He returned to England in 13
89, was made duke of Aquitaine, and helped to restore peac
e between Richard II and the hostile barons led by Thomas o
f Woodstock, duke of Gloucester. In 1396, John of Gaunt mar
ried Catherine Swynford, many years his mistress, and had h
is children by her, under the name of Beaufort, declared le
gitimate. He died soon after the king had exiled his eldes
t son, the duke of Hereford (later Henry IV, first of the r
oyal line of Lancaster). John is also remembered as the pat
ron of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.