John of Gaunt

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Mary-Ann Cook who writes:
John of Gaunt 1st Duke of Lancaster was the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He gained his name "John of Gaunt" because he was born in Ghent, then called Gaunt in English. The fabulously wealthy Gaunt exercised tremendous influence over the English throne during the minority reign of his nephew, Richard II, and during the ensuing periods of political strife, but took care not to be openly associated with opponents of the King.
John of Gaunt`s legitimate male heirs, the Lancasters, included Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. John of Gaunt`s illegitimate descendants, who ultimately became legitimate by his marriage to Katherine Swynford in 1396, the Beauforts, later married into the House of Tudor, which ascended to the throne in the person of Henry VII. In addition, Gaunt`s legitimate descendants included his daughters Philippa of Lancaster, Queen consort of John I of Portugal and mother of King Edward of Portugal ("Duarte", in Portuguese), Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, and Katherine of Lancaster, Queen consort of Henry III of Castile, a granddaughter of Peter of Castile and the mother of John II of Castile. His patronage included the poet Chaucer who records much of the mores of England at the time of John in Canterbury Tales.
When John of Gaunt died in 1399, his estates were declared forfeit to the crown, as Richard II had exiled John`s less diplomatic heir, Henry Bolingbroke, in 1398. Bolingbroke returned and deposed the unpopular Richard, to reign as King Henry IV of England (1399?1413), the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the throne of England.
John of Gaunt was buried alongside his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, in the nave of Old St. Paul`s Cathedral in an alabaster tomb designed by Henry Yevele (similar to that of his son in Canterbury Cathedral).

John married Blanche Duchess of Lancaster, daughter of Henry of Grosmont and Isabel De Beaumont, on 19 May 1395. (Blanche Duchess of Lancaster was born on 25 Mar 1345 in Lancaster, Lancashire England, died on 12 Sep 1369 in Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire England and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral, London England.)

John next married Constance of Castile, daughter of Peter the Cruel and Unknown. (Constance of Castile was born in 1354 and died in 1394.)

John next married Kathryn Swynford on 21 Sep 1371 in Rochefort Sur, Charente, Poitou-Charentes France.⁴²⁷ (Kathryn Swynford was born on 25 Nov 1350 in Castro, Asturias, Asturias Spain and died on 10 May 1403 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire England ⁴²⁷.)