John of Gaunt

John of Gaunt (1340-1399) was an important figure in the fourteenth century in England and several countries, including France, Spain and Portugal. He was the fourth son of Edward III (1312-1377) and his wife, Philippa of Hainault (between 1310 and 1315-1369); he was born in the Netherlandish city of Ghent, written in Middle English as Gaunt. His royal blood and military prowess were not the only, even the main reasons for his power: in 1359, he married the richest heiress in England, Blanche of Lancaster (1346?-1368), daughter of Henry 'of Grosmont', first duke of Lancaster, and his wife, Isabella Beaumont. Within two years (in 1361) Henry of Lancaster was dead, possibly of plague, and, in an age when husbands controlled all wealth, John of Gaunt, aet. 22, was the richest nobleman in England by virtue of Blanche's inheritance, and the estates and titles given him by the King (Duke of Lancaster, and Earl of Derby, of Lincoln, and of Leicester). After Blanche's death in 1368, he married, in 1371, Constanza (1354-1394) of Castile, daughter of the murdered Pedro I and so, at least in the eyes of her followers, the true heir to the crown of Castile. The Duke styled himself "King of Castile and León", though never effectively ruling there; however, his daughter Philippa became Queen of neighbouring Portugal in 1387, so Gaunt descendants ruled in the Iberian peninsula. After Constanza's death, he married (1396) his mistress of many years standing - and mother of four of his children, the Beauforts - Katherine Swynford. He thus became the brother-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer, who had married Katherine's sister Philippa. (The earliest dated of Chaucer's long poems is The Book of the Duchess, written in 1369 or 70 to commemorate Blanche of Lancaster's death in 1369: Chaucer had served, as a royal retainer, in Gaunt's household from time to time.)

In the illness of his elder brothers, the Black Prince (d. 1376) and Lionel, Duke of Clarence (d. 1368), John became in effect the king's lieutenant. He earned credit for his military adroitness. Domestically, he appears to have been quick to assert royal authority, particularly in seeking to impose taxation (a poll tax, for example, in 1377, and to circumvent parliamentary decisions. Edward's death in that year, and his succession by his grandson (Gaunt's nephew) Richard II at the age of 11, led to the conflict between John of Gaunt's descendants and households (the Lancastrians) and those of his younger brother, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341-1402) (the Yorkists) known to history as the Wars of the Roses