In his will, dated February 3d [sic], 1397, he lists:
His most dear late wife Blanch,, near to whom he is to be buried in St Paul's,
His beloved brother Edmund the Duke of York
His late dear wife Constance
His most dear wife Katherine
His Lord and nephew the King,
His dear cousin the Duchess of Norfolk,
His dear son Henry, duke of Hereford and earl of Derby,
His dear brother the Duke of Gloucester
His dear daughter Philippa, Queen of Portugal
His dear daughter Katherine, Queen of Castile and Leon
His dear daughter Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter,
His dear son John Beaufort, Marquis of Dorset
the Rev Father in God and his dear son the Bishop of London,
His lord and brother the Prince of Wales
His dear son Thomas Beaufort
His dear daughter the Countess of Westmorland
His dear Henry, eldest son of his dear son the Duke of Hereford
His dear son [grandson] John, brother to said Henry,
His most dear and entirely beloved Edmund Duke of Aumerle
His dear son-in-law Ralph earl of Westmoreland.

Fox-Davies, "A Complete Guide to Heraldry", p.496:
France (ancient) and England quarterly, a label of three points ermine (ie each point charged with three ermine spots).
____________

In the Pedigree of Tailbois and Neville, The Genealogist NS, vol 3, p. 110:

Arms: Quarterly Azure 3 flours de lys Or and Gu 3 lions passband guard ant Or, all within a bordure compony Arg and Azure (LANCASTER)

Quarterly France ancient and England, a label of three points ermine.

The Dictionary of British Arms, Medieval Ordinary, Volume Four, p. 51,

and

Dean of St George, Windsor’s Tables, on CDROM “Garter Armorials”, pub by Heraldry Soc 2015.

and

“History of the Most Noble order of the Garter” by Elias Ashmole, list of knights and blazons, p. 502, 1715 edition.

His stall plate does NOT survive.

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster 1340-1399

Name: John of Gaunt
Title: Duke of Lancaster
Dates: 1340-1399
Active Date: 1380
Gender: Male

Place of Birth: Ghent
Death: Ely House in Holborn
Burial: St. Paul's
Spouse: Blanche of Lancaster,   Constance of Castile,  
Catharine Swynford
Likenesses: 1...
Sources: Collins's Hist. of John of Gaunt, 1740; Chronicles of Walsingham;...
Contributor: E. M. T. [EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON]

Article
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster 1340-1399, was the fourth son of
Edward III, and was born in March 1340 at Ghent, which, corrupted into
Gaunt, gave him his popular appellation. The queen, his mother, had been
left at Ghent during the king's temporary absence in England, in the
interval between the two campaigns against France of 1339 and 1340. On
29 Sept. 1342 he was created Earl of Richmond, with a grant of all the
lands and prerogatives of that title, late held by John, duke of Brittany
and Richmond. On 6 March 1351 he was confirmed in the earldom, which
he finally surrendered 25 June 1372.
Early in 1355 he was attached, together with his brother Lionel, duke
of Clarence [q.v.], to the expedition which was being organised under
Henry, duke of Lancaster [see Henry, 1299?-1361], in aid of Charles of
Navarre; and he appears to have been knighted on this occasion. The
expedition came to nothing, Charles having patched up a peace with the
French king. But later in the year John accompanied his father to Calais,
and took part in a brief raid into French territory early in November. The
state of affairs in Scotland compelled the king hastily to return and
advance to the recovery of Berwick, which had been surprised by the
Scots. The young Earl of Richmond was again with his father in this
campaign, and was one of the witnesses to Edward Balliol's surrender of
the crown of Scotland, 20 Jan. 1356.
When little more than nineteen years of age he married, at Reading,
19 May 1359, his cousin Blanche, second daughter and coheiress of
Henry, duke of Lancaster; and in the same year joined in the expedition,
commanded by the king in person, which invaded France 28 Oct., and
was brought to a conclusion by the treaty of Bretigny, 18 May 1360.
On the death of his father-in-law, March 1361, he succeeded, in right
of his wife, to the earldom of Lancaster, and entered into possession of
great estates, chiefly in the northern counties, which were confirmed by
special charter. On 23 April he was created a knight of the Garter. Within
a year he succeeded to the rest of the Lancastrian possessions by the
death, on Palm Sunday, 10 April 1362, of Maud, the elder daughter of
Henry of Lancaster and widow of William, duke of Bavaria; and at the
same time took the titles of Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester. On 13
Nov. following he was advanced to the rank of Duke of Lancaster.
In 1364 Lancaster accompanied his brother, Edmund of Langley [q.v.],
to Flanders, in order to negotiate a treaty of marriage between Edmund
and Margaret, daughter of Count Louis. The contract was signed at
Dover 19 Oct., but the match was broken off through French intrigue.
The expulsion of Pedro the Cruel from Castile by Henry of Trastamare
in the early part of 1366 led to the first active interference of the English in
the affairs of that country, which was destined to have so great an
influence on the fortunes of John of Gaunt. Pedro took refuge at
Bordeaux, and was welcomed by the Black Prince, who urged his father to
support the dethroned king. Accordingly, Lancaster was despatched
from England, and took part in the final arrangements with Pedro,
September 1366. He then returned to England, where forces were being
collected, and was ready to set out again for Guienne in command of
them at the beginning of November. He did not, however, actually set sail
until the beginning of the new year, 5 Jan. 1367. He landed in Brittany,
and marched through Poitou and Saintogne to Bordeaux, and thence to
Dax on the Adour, whither the Black Prince had already advanced with
his army on the march to invade Spain. Lancaster was appointed captain
of the vanguard, and led the first division of the army across the
Pyrenees, through the pass of Roncesvalles, 20 Feb. 1367. The English
force traversed the kingdom of Navarre, and, entering Castilian territory,
occupied Salvatierra, and thence advanced towards Vittoria. During this
march Tello, the brother of Henry of Trastamare, made an unexpected
attack on Lancaster's camp in the early morning. The duke appears to
have acted with presence of mind, drawing up his men in a good position
to resist the enemy; but a detachment of his troops was destroyed almost
to a man. The hostile armies lay in sight of each other for some days,
when the Black Prince, straitened for provisions, suddenly retreated, and
crossing the Ebro, took up a position under the walls of Logroño. Henry
followed, and posted himself at Najera. On 2 April the English broke up
their camp, and advanced to Navarete, and the next day the armies met
between that place and Najera. The vanguard of the Castilians was led
by Bertrand du Guesclin and the Marshal d'Audrehem, and was opposed
by the division under Lancaster and Sir John Chandos. Froissart
describes the duke as taking the lead in the first onslaught. The English
were here victorious; Du Guesclin was taken prisoner; and Lancaster
coming to the assistance of his brother in his struggle with the main
body of the enemy, the battle was won. The victory of Najera restored
Pedro to his throne, but brought no advantage to the English. They
occupied Burgos for some three weeks, and then went into quarters at
Valladolid, awaiting the fulfilment of Pedro's engagements. He, however,
showed no readiness to discharge his debts, sickness broke out, and the
mortality was so great that scarcely a fifth of the army is said to have
survived. The Black Prince himself was stricken; Henry, who had escaped
into France, was threatening Aquitaine; and a speedy retreat from Spain
became imperative. This was safely effected, and the prince and Lancaster
reached Bordeaux early in September, Lancaster returning thence to
England.
The bad faith of Don Pedro towards his English allies, the consequent
license of the unpaid free companies, and the levy of unpopular taxes
conspired to arouse the hostility of the people of Guienne against the
English occupation. Charles of France profited by this discontent, and
during the next year made preparations for a rupture of the treaty of
Bretigny. On 20 March 1369 he declared war, marched straightway into
Ponthieu, and conquered it. Preparations had, however, already been
commenced in England for sending reinforcements into the English
dominions in France. On 12 June Lancaster was appointed captain and
lieutenant of Calais and Guines, and on the arrival of news that the
French king was gathering troops for the invasion of England, he was
despatched to Calais early in August in command of a body of six
hundred men-at-arms and fifteen hundred archers. But no result
followed. After some raids in the neighbourhood, the English drew out
between Ardres and Guines, where they were joined by Robert of Namur
with reinforcements. Here the French army, under the Duke of Burgundy,
confronted them, taking up position at Tournehem, 23 Aug. 1369; but the
English were so strongly entrenched that Burgundy avoided a battle, and
after a few days withdrew, 2 Sept., leaving Lancaster free to return to
Calais to rest his men and then start on a new expedition designed for the
capture of Harfleur. Passing the Somme, Lancaster advanced by way of
Dieppe to invest the place, before which he arrived about 20 Oct.; but,
finding it too strongly garrisoned, he abandoned the attempt, and, after
raiding the district of Estouteville, withdrew again to Calais, and embarked
for England, 19 Nov. During his absence his wife, Blanche of Lancaster,
died of the plague and was buried on the north side of the choir of St.
Paul's Cathedral.
Lancaster was not again employed on active service for some months.
The French king had been maturing his plans for a complete conquest of
Aquitaine, and two armies were assembled, under the Dukes of Anjou
and Berry, to carry on operations independently against the English.
Anjou overran Agenois; and Berry, entering Limousin, marched on
Limoges, which was surrendered to him through the treachery of the
bishop, 22 Aug. 1370. Meanwhile the Black Prince, whose health was now
rapidly failing, having set out to oppose Anjou, had taken up his quarters,
in company with his brother, the Earl of Cambridge, at Cognac. Here he
was joined by Lancaster, who had been despatched early in July from
England with a force of four hundred men-at-arms and four thousand
archers. The duke brought with him a commission to receive again into
favour all such places in Aquitaine as should return to their allegiance to
the king of England, acting with the assent of the prince, if present, and,
in his absence, independently as the king's lieutenant. The concession
appears to have been politic at the moment, but has been instanced as the
indication of an ambitious design on the part of Lancaster to supersede
his brother.
The news of the surrender of Limoges roused the Black Prince to fury.
The city was immediately invested; the walls were undermined, a breach
was effected, and after a siege of only six days, 14-19 Sept. 1370, the
English entered the place. Three thousand of the inhabitants were,
according to Froissart, put to the sword. The men-at-arms of the garrison
still resisted, and their three leaders were severally engaged in single
combat by Lancaster, Cambridge, and the Earl of Pembroke, to whom they
finally surrendered. Lancaster's opponent was Jehan de Villemar. And
this was not the only episode of the day in which the duke played a
prominent part. The treacherous bishop, Jehan de Cros, was made
prisoner. Lancaster is said to have begged his life of the prince, and
afterwards, at Pope Urban V's request, to have dismissed him in safety to
Avignon. Limoges was sacked and burnt, and the army retired into winter
quarters, Lancaster accompanying his brother to Cognac and thence to
Bordeaux.
The Black Prince's health had by this time so entirely given way that
his physicians ordered his immediate return to England. To add to his
troubles, his eldest son, Edward, died at the beginning of 1371, in his
seventh year, while preparations were being made for the embarkation.
The loyal barons of Aquitaine were summoned to receive the final
instructions of the prince, who presented to them his brother Lancaster
as his lieutenant, and was then carried on board his ship, leaving his
son's funeral to the care of the duke. Lancaster began his lieutenancy
with a single act of vigour. On the news of the surrender to the French
of Montpont in Périgord, he advanced at once against the place and laid
close siege to it, but did not succeed in reducing it until nearly the end of
February. After this he dismissed his troops and remained inactive at
Bordeaux, although partisan warfare was carried on, principally in Poitou.
Soon after he resigned his command, 21 July 1371, but did not leave
France; and while still at Bordeaux he entered into a second marriage,
which again brought him into connection with Spain. After the death of
their father and the recovery by Henry of Trastamare of the throne of
Castile, Pedro the Cruel's two daughters had taken refuge at Bayonne,
and were residing there at this time. By the advice, it is said, of the
Gascon barons, Lancaster married the elder, Constance, while his brother,
the Earl of Cambridge, at the same time married the younger, Isabella,
both ceremonies taking place at Roquefort, near Bordeaux. The two
brothers, with their wives, appear to have returned to England in the
spring of 1372, apparently about May. The form of marriage was
probably gone through a second time in this country, for on 25 June
Lancaster appears to have first styled himself, in right of his wife, king of
Castile. The immediate political result of this step was to throw Henry of
Trastamare into a closer alliance with the French.
The year 1372 was full of disaster for the English power in Aquitaine.
A fleet which was despatched in June, under the Earl of Pembroke, to
Rochelle was intercepted by the Spaniards and totally defeated. Du
Guesclin and other French leaders overran Poitou and Saintogne. Many
important places fell, and Rochelle and Thouars, wherein the supporters
of the English cause had taken refuge, were closely invested. This
alarming condition of things roused Edward to strain every effort to
perfect the preparations which were being made to invade France. He
hastily collected a large fleet of four hundred vessels, in which he himself
embarked with the Black Prince, ill as he was, and Lancaster, and set sail
on 30 Aug. for Rochelle. But the city surrendered only a few days later.
The winds proved contrary, and, after beating about for weeks without
being able to effect a landing, the expedition returned to England in
October. Reduced to despair, the defenders of Thouars opened their
gates to the enemy.
The course of the French conquests continued unchecked. Poitou and
Saintogne passed completely under the dominion of the king of France.
With the new year (1373) Brittany was also attacked, and the duke fled to
England to seek for help. The Earl of Salisbury, however, succeeded in
holding his own against Du Guesclin in that province until a
well-equipped army could be assembled in England for the invasion of
France. This new expedition was entrusted to Lancaster, who on 12 June
was appointed captain-general in France and Aquitaine. At the end of
July he landed with the Duke of Brittany at Calais, in command of three
thousand men-at-arms and some eight thousand archers and other
troops. With such a force, well appointed in every way, a commander of
genius would have struck some decisive blow. But Lancaster had no
capacity as a general and failed disastrously. He appears to have had no
plan beyond accomplishing a march across a hostile country from Calais
to Bordeaux; and, further than harrying and levying contributions in the
early days of his progress, he did the enemy little or no harm. Setting out
from Calais on 4 Aug., he passed leisurely through the well-cultivated
districts of Artois, Picardy, and Champagne, but he failed in all his
attempts upon the strongholds and towns which he assaulted. By the
end of September he reached Troyes, where the papal legates essayed
mediation. All the while his rear was closely followed and harassed by a
body of the enemy, who continually increased in numbers as his own
troops diminished, but who were forbidden to risk a general engagement.
Thus he passed on through Burgundy, Nivernois, and Bourbonnois, and
approached the mountains and sterile districts of Auvergne as winter
was drawing on. Here his losses were enormous; the greater number of
his horses perished, and his baggage had to be abandoned. With the
shattered remains of his starving army he struggled on through Limousin
and Périgord, and only reached Bordeaux at the end of the year or the
beginning of 1374. He was thus in no condition to attempt a reconquest
of any part of Aquitaine, and the rest of the winter months were passed in
inaction. But, in accordance with a common custom of the time, an
arrangement was made for an encounter between his forces and those of
the Duke of Anjou, to come off at Moissac in the following April. In the
meantime, however, a truce was entered into, to last till August; and on
this Lancaster sailed for England in April, without giving further thought
to his engagement with Anjou. But the French chose to regard this
retreat as a wilful breach of faith, and recommenced hostilities even before
the expiration of the truce, and, when actually released from its
conditions, easily reduced the rest of Aquitaine, which practically, with
the exception of Bordeaux and Bayonne, was lost to England before the
end of the year.
Meanwhile, through the persistent efforts of the pope, negotiations
had been set on foot for peace between the two countries, and in the
course of 1374 meetings were arranged at Bruges to further this object.
Froissart is the authority for the statement that Lancaster was one of the
envoys; but it is very doubtful whether he joined at all in the conference
until the next year. On 20 Feb. 1375 he was appointed ambassador,
together with the Bishop of London, the Earl of Salisbury, and others.
The plenipotentiaries met first at Ghent and thence removed to Bruges,
where they sat during the months of May and June, and where, on 26
May, preliminaries were arranged and on 27 June a truce was agreed to
for a year. Negotiations to extend the truce into a peace were still
continued, and on 10 Oct. 1375 Lancaster and his companions received
fresh powers with this view. They only succeeded, however, in obtaining
a prolongation of the truce to April 1377. Lancaster remained at Bruges till
the spring of 1376.
In the closing years of his father's reign John of Gaunt became one of
the principal figures in domestic politics. Edward's second surviving son,
Lionel, duke of Clarence, had died in 1368; the failing health of the Black
Prince incapacitated him from taking part in acts of a public nature; and
the king himself was sinking into premature old age. Lancaster thus
practically stepped into the first place as adviser of the crown. The
popular discontent at the ill-success of the renewed war with France had
manifested itself in the parliament of 1371, when the clerical party was
driven from power, the clergy compelled to contribute heavily to the cost
of the war, and new ministers chosen from the feudal party of which
Lancaster was the head. But the events of the next following years
completely changed the popular feeling. Lancaster had failed most
ignominiously in his conduct of the war, there was no alleviation of
taxation, the new ministers were accused of embezzlement, and a return of
the plague added to the general discontent. The king's growing
infirmities, the prince's mortal illness, and the fact that the next heir was
but a child, naturally directed men's thoughts to the succession; and the
position held by Lancaster and his increasing unpopularity prompted the
suspicion that he was aiming at the crown. This distrust of his brother
was apparently shared by the Black Prince, who also could not fail to be
exasperated at the mismanagement of the war since his retirement.
Matters came to a crisis when parliament met on 23 April 1376. The
commons, supported in their action by the Black Prince and led with
intrepidity by their speaker, Sir Peter de la Mare [q.v.], proceeded to
demand reform of abuses. Lord Latimer, the chamberlain, was impeached
and dismissed from office. Other creatures of Lancaster's were attacked
and punished; and Alice Perrers, the king's mistress, was banished from
court. But while the ‘Good parliament’ was still pursuing its course of
reform, its principal supporter, the Prince of Wales, died on Trinity
Sunday, 8 June. Within a month it was dissolved (6 July); but before this
step, in order to guard, if possible, against the reversal of their measures,
the commons demanded and obtained the king's consent to the addition
of ten or twelve bishops, lords, and others to the council, William of
Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, who had taken a prominent part in
supporting the action of the commons, being of the number. They also
petitioned the king for the recognition of Richard of Bordeaux as
heir-apparent to the crown, in consequence of which the young prince
was in fact presented to them and formally acknowledged. The St. Albans
chronicler (Chronicon Angliæ), to whom we owe the detailed account of
the proceedings of this particular period, but whose bitter hostility to
Lancaster renders it necessary to accept with caution what he says to the
duke's disparagement, declares that he proposed in this parliament that
the succession should be settled in case of the deaths of the king and
the young Richard, and that, in order to secure it for his own line, the
French law excluding females should be adopted.
As soon as the Good parliament was dissolved the supreme power
once more passed to Lancaster. The new council was dismissed. The late
speaker, De la Mare, was sent prisoner to Nottingham; the impeached
minister, Lord Latimer, and others who had been disgraced were recalled,
and Alice Perrers returned to court. Two powerful opponents of
Lancaster alone remained to be disposed of. Wykeham, as the most
important, was first attacked. Charges of maladministration during his
chancellorship, an office from which he had been removed as far back as
1371, were brought against him in October, and in November he was
condemned to lose his temporalities, and forbidden to come within
twenty miles of the court. The motives which actuated Lancaster in this
prosecution of the bishop are plainly to be ascribed to the activity
displayed by Wykeham in the late parliament. But popular prejudice
sought for more hidden reasons. Hence we have the scandalous story
given by the St. Albans chronicler and others of his contemporaries of
the doubtful birth of John of Gaunt. It was said that the queen, when
brought to bed at Ghent, was delivered of a female child, which she
accidentally overlay, and that, fearing the king's anger, she substituted for
it the son of a Flemish woman. On her deathbed the queen had confessed
the secret to the Bishop of Winchester, with the injunction that, should
the time ever come when there might be a prospect of John of Gaunt
succeeding to the crown, the truth should be made known. It was the
publication of this secret which had engendered in Lancaster his deadly
hatred of Wykeham. That such a story could be fabricated and find
acceptance is a sufficient indication of the extreme unpopularity of the
duke, and of the widespread suspicion of his designs in regard to the
succession. Wykeham was specially excepted from the general pardon
which was granted in commemoration of the king's jubilee year.
Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, next experienced the duke's
resentment. As the husband of Philippa, daughter of Lionel of Clarence,
he was a natural object of jealousy to Lancaster, as one whose children
would have a prior claim to the throne. He held the office of marshal, and
in that capacity was called upon to proceed to Calais and report upon its
defences. Rather than quit England, he laid down the marshal's staff,
which was bestowed upon Lord Henry Percy, afterwards Earl of
Northumberland, a former opponent, but now a faithful partisan of John
of Gaunt.
The parliament which met on 27 Jan. 1377 was almost entirely at the
service of Lancaster. Some few members who had sat in the Good
parliament raised their voices against the evil treatment of their late
speaker, but they were overawed. The policy of the late parliament was
reversed, and pardons were sued for those who had been impeached. But
the disgrace of Wykeham was deeply resented by the clergy. The
struggle between the clerical party and the feudal party was renewed.
Convocation met on 8 Feb., and refused to proceed to business unless
Wykeham should be present. As a compromise he was allowed to attend,
and the clergy then prepared to attack their powerful enemy through an
indirect channel.
Force of circumstances had brought together and combined in a
common cause two men of very different characters, John of Gaunt and
the reformer Wycliffe. ‘Lancaster, whose object was to humiliate, had
found a strange ally in Wyclif, whose aim was to purify the church. /
Regarding almost with sympathy the court of Rome as the natural
counterbalance to the power of the bishops at home, corrupt in his life,
narrow and unscrupulous in his policy, he obtained some of his ablest
and best support from a secular priest of irreproachable character. /
Lancaster, feudal to the core, resented the official arrogance of the
prelates and the large share which they drew to themselves of the
temporal power. Wyclif dreamt of restoring, by apostolical poverty, its
long-lost apostolical purity to the clergy. From points so opposite and
with aims so contradictory were they united to reduce the wealth and
humble the pride of the English hierarchy’ (Fascic. Zizan. p. xxvi). Their
connection was of some standing. Wycliffe had been engaged as one of
the envoys in the congress at Bruges in 1374 on the negotiations
regarding papal provisions, and probably owed his selection to his patron
the duke. He was now summoned by convocation, and on 19 Feb.
appeared before the bishops in the lady chapel of St. Paul's. Lancaster,
who recognised that the attack was directed against himself, accepted the
challenge, and accompanied the reformer to his trial, together with the
new earl-marshal. The temper of both sides was ready to break out on
slight provocation. The rough conduct of Percy first drew on him a
rebuke from Courtenay, bishop of London, and a dispute which followed
regarding Wycliffe's right to sit during trial, in which Lancaster joined and
threatened personal violence to the bishop, brought matters to a crisis. A
riot of the Londoners ensued, and the meeting broke up in confusion.
The duke's unpopularity with the citizens is said to have been
heightened by a proposal which had been made in parliament, while he
was presiding, to appoint a captain in place of the mayor, and to extend
the marshal's jurisdiction to the city. The next day the people attacked
Percy's house, and sought for him and for the duke at Lancaster's palace,
the Savoy. The St. Albans chronicler is very minute in his particulars of
the riot. Lancaster and his friend were dining at the house of the
merchant, John of Ypres, when the news of the outbreak reached them,
and had some difficulty in escaping to take refuge with the young prince
at Kennington. The rioters wounded to death a priest who used abusive
words of Peter De la Mare, the popular speaker of the commons,
maltreated one of Lancaster's retainers, who was recognised by his
badge, and reversed the duke's coat of arms as a mark of indignity. At
length they dispersed on the intervention of their bishop. An immediate
attempt by the Princess of Wales to bring about a reconciliation between
the city and the duke is said to have failed; and to the time of the king's
death overtures from the principal citizens, who had taken alarm at the
excesses of the rioters and were now anxious to make peace, had but
indifferent success.
Parliament had finished its work by imposing a poll-tax, a new form of
raising money which a few years later led to insurrection, and at the end
of February it was dismissed. Now came Lancaster's opportunity. The
chief citizens were summoned before the king at Shene, and the mayor
and aldermen were replaced by others. Even after this, and after receiving
yet other tokens of submission, Lancaster still regarded the Londoners
with disfavour. But on 21 June Edward died. The citizens then sent a
deputation to the young king, and besought his intervention. Lancaster's
position was entirely altered by his father's death, and he could not
decline this mediation; a short-lived reconciliation was thereupon effected.
At the coronation Lancaster officiated as steward of England; but
immediately afterwards, being deprived of his castle of Hereford, and
conscious of being an object of dislike to the new government, he retired
from court to Kenilworth. However, he managed to secure for some of his
supporters seats in the council which was chosen to carry on the
government during Richard's minority.
Meanwhile the war with France had been resumed on the expiration of
the truce. The French fleets insulated the south coast, ravaged the Isle
of Wight, and took and burned Rye, Hastings, and other places.
Measures for the defence of the country were imperatively needed, and
parliament met on 13 Oct. The majority of the commons who were now
returned consisted of the same members who had sat in the Good
parliament of 1376, and De la Mare was again the speaker. On the
question of means to be taken for the repulse of French invasion, a
curious scene is reported. The commons demanded assistance in their
consultations from a committee of twelve peers, with the Duke of
Lancaster at their head. Thereupon Lancaster, rising from his seat and
bending his knee to the king, proceeded to refer to the imputations which
had been cast upon him by the commons, and indignantly repelling the
charges he challenged his accusers to appear. Crowding round him,
prelates and lords interposed to calm his anger, and to assure him that
such things could not be true, and the commons vouched their request
for his advice as the best proof of their trust in his integrity. On this
Lancaster allowed himself to be pacified, but on the understanding that in
future the inventors of such evil reports should be duly punished. His
protests were not without effect in lulling the suspicions of his
adversaries. Early in 1378 he succeeded in obtaining charge of the
subsidy which parliament had granted to carry on the war, and a fleet
was got ready. Lancaster was appointed lieutenant in France and
Aquitaine on 17 June 1378, and some small successes were gained off
Bayonne over some ships of the Spanish fleet which had joined the
French. But he was altogether wanting in enterprise. He is accused of
loitering with the fleet on the coast and of letting his men live at free
quarters, and even of outraging decency by appearing in public in
company with his mistress, Catharine Swynford. At length, after the
western fleet had been defeated at sea by the Spaniards and the Scots
had attacked the east coast, he sailed for Brittany, and sat down before
St. Malo. But an assault which he delivered utterly failed, and the
expedition ingloriously returned.
The unpopularity which Lancaster incurred from this want of success
was further increased by an outrage perpetrated by some of his
followers. Two esquires, named Haule and Shakel, had taken prisoner in
the Spanish campaign the count of Denia, who had left in their hands his
son as surety for payment of his ransom. Lancaster, thinking that the
possession of the young count's person would aid his designs upon the
Castilian throne, demanded his surrender. This was refused, and Haule
and Shakel were sent prisoners to the Tower. They succeeded in
escaping, and took sanctuary at Westminster, but they were pursued by
Ralph de Ferrers, who, while mass was being celebrated, broke in, slew
Haule, and carried Shakel back to prison, 11 Aug. 1378. Excommunication
of the perpetrators of the sacrilege followed, and the Bishop of London
published the sentence thrice weekly, as he preached at St. Paul's.
Enraged at this, Lancaster is said to have declared in the council at
Windsor that he was ready to ride to London and drag the bishop from
the midst of the ribald citizens, and bring him before the court. His next
step was to procure the summoning of parliament to sit at Gloucester,
where it would be beyond the influence of the hostile Londoners and
their bishop, 20 Oct.; and it was announced that he was meditating a
renewed attack upon the church. The result, however, if he had any such
intention, did not fulfil his wishes. The commons showed themselves no
less steady than before in demanding redress of abuses, and in insisting
on a scrutiny of the expenditure before making further grants.
The history of the next three years is one of futile military expeditions,
repeated parliaments, and continued demands for supply. The parliament
held at Northampton 5 Nov. 1380 granted the unpopular poll-tax which led
to insurrection. Lancaster does not come personally forward during this
period. On 19 Feb. 1379 he was constituted lieutenant on the marches
towards Scotland, and on 12 June commander-in-chief beyond seas, an
appointment which nominally gave him the direction of the expedition
sent under Thomas of Woodstock, now earl of Buckingham, into
Brittany. On 6 Sept. 1380 he was appointed special envoy to treat with
Scotland, with a view to negotiations for a peace, and on 20 May 1381
took command of the border.
It was during Lancaster's absence in the north that Wat Tyler's
insurrection broke out. The insurgents were in possession of London,
and the duke's palace of the Savoy was destroyed, 13 June 1381. It is said
that the rumours of the rising which reached him caused him to hasten to
conclude a treaty with the Scots, 8 June. The panic spread, and the
insurgents were reported to be marching north to take vengeance on
Lancaster; his wife Constance hastened from Leicester, and sought a
refuge at Pontefract, but the gates were closed against her, and she was
compelled to journey on to Knaresborough. Lancaster himself fared no
better. His old follower Northumberland, perhaps jealous of his presence
in the north, refused him admission into Bamburgh, and the duke, who
had asked and received a safe-conduct from the Scots, retired to
Edinburgh, where he was well entertained. From thence he wrote to the
king to know what kind of reception he might look for if he returned.
Richard replied by denouncing the calumnies spread abroad against his
uncle, authorised him to travel under protection of a bodyguard, and
ordered Northumberland to find men for him. Lancaster rejoined the king
at Reading, and on 18 Aug. was appointed justiciary to hold inquisitions
on outrages perpetrated by the insurgents. But the quarrel between
Lancaster and Northumberland was not ended. A violent altercation in
the king's presence, when the duke accused the earl for his hostile
conduct in the north, resulted in the temporary arrest of the latter. In the
parliament which met on 2 Nov. both attended with armed followers, and a
reconciliation was only effected by Richard's personal intervention.
Lancaster now regained some of his former influence, and in the same
parliament was placed at the head of a commission of reform of the royal
household.
Meanwhile his pretensions to the throne of Castile had been revived
by the death of Henry of Trastamare in May 1379. The king of Portugal
refusing to recognise his successor and appealing to the English for
assistance in making war on Castile, the Earl of Cambridge was sent out
with a body of troops to the Peninsula in 1381, and in the parliament
which met on 27 Jan. 1382 Lancaster brought forward proposals for an
expedition, to be undertaken under his command, which, however, were
not favourably received. Again, in the parliament of October 1382 the
necessity of supporting Cambridge was insisted on; but the king of
Portugal made peace with Castile, and Cambridge returned home. Other
events, the French invasion of Flanders and the defeat of Rosebecque,
and the subsequent disastrous crusade of the Bishop of Norwich and its
consequences, diverted attention from Lancaster's Spanish projects, and
the opportunity for active interference passed away.
Affairs with Scotland also needed attention. The truce would expire
at Midsummer 1383. Lancaster was named warden of the marches, 7 May,
and held a conference with the Scots, 1 July. On 12 July the truce was
extended to 2 Feb. 1384, with a view to a peace. Negotiations with France
were likewise set on foot, and early in September ambassadors were
appointed, with Lancaster at their head, to treat both with that country
and with Flanders. But the pretensions on both sides were too
extravagant to admit of adjustment, and a truce of only eight months was
at length agreed to at Leulingham, near Calais, 26 Jan. 1384. Scotland was
included in this truce; but, pending the negotiations, and regardless of
their own special truce with England, the Scots had, at the close of 1383,
made a sudden incursion into the northern counties. In retaliation forces
were collected and placed under command of Lancaster, who invaded
Scotland, 11 April 1384. But the Scots, wasting their own country and
burning their towns, retired before him, and Lancaster, after felling and
destroying parts of their forests, was forced, from lack of provisions, to
retreat to the border, where the Earl of Northumberland was left to hold
the Scots in check. This failure again raised popular feeling against the
duke. He was accused of slackness in pursuit, and of absolutely
inflicting more injury on the northern English counties than on the
enemy. When parliament met at Salisbury, 29 April 1384, a curious
illustration of public feeling was presented in the accusation said to have
been brought against him by a Carmelite friar of plotting the removal of
the king. The friar, at the duke's request, was arrested and handed over to
the custody of Sir John Holland, and while in his hands the unfortunate
prisoner was assassinated, either from over-zeal in Holland on
Lancaster's behalf, or even, as it was whispered, with Lancaster's
connivance.
Negotiations with France and Flanders were now resumed, and
Lancaster and his brother, Thomas of Woodstock, were named envoys.
The truce, which was dated to expire on 1 Oct., was on 14 Sept. extended
to 1 May 1385; but a permanent peace was impossible. Lancaster is said
to have spent as much as fifty thousand marcs in this embassy. The
Scots had already been brought into the truce, 20 July, but this did not
prevent them from surprising Berwick soon after, an event which is said
to have given an opportunity to Lancaster for obtaining the
condemnation of the Earl of Northumberland for neglect. The sentence
was, however, revoked on his recapture of the place.
Towards the end of the year a serious quarrel broke out between the
king and Lancaster. Richard is said, at the instigation of his favourites, to
have plotted the sudden arrest of his uncle, who was to be condemned by
the complaisant action of the chief justice Tresilian. Warned in time of his
danger, Lancaster fled to his castle of Pontefract, which he fortified to
withstand a siege. But the storm passed over, and after some delay a
reconciliation was effected by the intervention of the Princess of Wales.
On the expiration of the truce, 1 May 1385, the French sent troops into
Scotland, and an invasion of England from that quarter was looked for.
To meet it a large army was levied, and Richard in person took the
command, being attended by Lancaster and his other uncles. On 6 Aug.
1385 the expedition entered Scotland; on 20 Aug. it returned. The Scots
followed their usual tactics. They left open the road to Edinburgh, but
made a counter-raid into Westmoreland and Cumberland. Having entered
the capital and finding the enemy in his rear, Richard at once retired. In
this brief campaign Lancaster's advice in favour of bolder action was
rejected. The king still regarded him with suspicion, and, as if to put a
stop to his uncle's pretensions to the succession, he is said in the next
parliament, 20 Oct., to have formally recognised Roger Mortimer as heir
presumptive to the crown.
At this moment a convenient pretext for Lancaster's removal to a
distance presented itself. His long cherished design of prosecuting his
claim to the throne of Castile had at length found an opportunity. John
of Avis had won the crown of Portugal, which had also been claimed by
John of Castile, in the decisive battle of Albujarotta, August 1385. He
had previously called to his alliance John of Gaunt, and his success
afforded the latter the opening he had so long desired. Richard, not
ill-pleased at the prospect of being rid of his uncle, gave him all
assistance. In the winter of 1385 and beginning of 1386 preparations were
pushed on. On 22 April Lancaster took leave of the king, who placed
upon his head a crown of gold, while the queen paid a similar honour to
the duchess; and on 7 July, accompanied by his wife and two daughters,
he sailed from Plymouth with an expedition of twenty thousand men. On
his way south he touched at Brest, to relieve the garrison, and thence
proceeded to Corunna, where he landed 9 Aug. The next month he
occupied Santiago, and thence succeeded in gaining possession of the
greater part of Galicia. In the spring of 1387 he joined forces with the king
of Portugal, who now married Philippa, Lancaster's daughter by his first
marriage, and the combined army invaded Castile. But it met with little
success, and under the heat of the climate sickness broke out among the
troops. The conquests of the previous year were lost, and Lancaster
himself fell ill, and was eventually forced to quit Spain and retire to
Bayonne. However, he succeeded better by diplomacy than by war. The
Duke of Berry had made overtures for the hand of Catharine, his
daughter by his present wife, Constance. John of Castile, alarmed at the
prospect of another future rival to his throne, hastened to open
negotiations for the marriage of his son Henry with Catharine. A treaty
was signed. Constance resigned her claim to the Castilian crown in
favour of her daughter, who was taken by her mother to Spain in the
following spring, and was married in September. Lancaster laid aside his
assumed title of king of Castile, and received payment of two hundred
thousand crowns to defray the cost of his expedition, and an annuity was
settled upon him and his duchess for their lives. He was appointed
lieutenant of Guienne 26 May 1388, and remained abroad till nearly the
end of the following year.
By his long absence from England, Lancaster avoided taking part in
the severe political crisis through which the country had been passing,
and which ended in the sudden assumption of the government by the
young king himself in May 1389. Lancaster returned in November. On 10
Dec. he took his seat in the council, then sitting at Reading, and by his
influence is said to have succeeded in reconciling the contending
parties. His arrival appears to have been welcome to Richard, who found
in him some means of protection against the overbearing nature of his
other uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester. During
Lancaster's absence abroad Gloucester's turbulence had been one of the
principal elements of disorder; but now that his brother was once more in
England, Gloucester receded again into the second place, and Lancaster's
influence was exerted in favour of pacification. His own ambition had in
some measure been satisfied by his daughters' marriages, and for the
present he appears as the supporter of his nephew's government.
On 2 March 1390 Richard created Lancaster Duke of Aquitaine for life.
Two years afterwards Lancaster was the principal ambassador to the
conference of Amiens, convened to negotiate a peace between England
and France, to which the advance of the Turks into eastern Europe now
inclined the governments of both countries. To invest him with full
powers he was nominated, 22 Feb. 1392, the king's lieutenant in Picardy.
The plenipotentiaries met in Lent, but neither side showed readiness to
make concessions, and the only result that followed was the extension of
the truce to Michaelmas of the next year. Negotiations were, however,
renewed at Leulingham, 6 April 1393, Lancaster again taking the principal
part, and came to a happier termination, the truce being first continued for
a year, and eventually, 24 May 1394, for a further period of four years.
In 1393 Lancaster was named special commissioner in the counties of
York, Lancaster, and Chester, and was engaged in putting down a revolt
in the latter county. This event led to a quarrel with the Earl of Arundel. In
the parliament which met 27 Jan. 1394 the duke accused Arundel of
conniving at the disturbance. Arundel, who belonged to the warlike party,
to which a prospect of peace with France was distasteful, retaliated by
complaints of the personal favour shown to Lancaster in his promotion to
the duchy of Aquitaine, and denounced the negotiations then pending
with France. Richard personally defended his uncle, and Arundel was in
the end compelled to ask the duke's pardon.
If we are to believe one of the chroniclers (Eulogium, iii. 369), Lancaster
chose this moment to press in parliament for the recognition of his son as
heir to the crown, as being descended from Edmund, earl of Lancaster,
whom he asserted to have been the elder brother of Edward I. But if he
ever did make such a demand, it is hardly probable that he would thus
have impugned his nephew's title at a time when the relations between
them were so friendly. In connection with this story, however, it is a
curious fact that a rumour was afloat (as repeated by the chronicler
Hardyng) that he had even gone the length of fabricating a chronicle as
evidence of the seniority of Edmund of Lancaster; and it is also
remarkable that the same contention was actually brought forward at the
time of Richard's deposition (ADAM OF USK, p. 142).
The year 1394 was also marked by important domestic changes in the
royal family. Lancaster, Richard, and the Duke of York successively lost
their wives. Constance of Castile, duchess of Lancaster, died in June,
during her husband's absence in France, and was buried at Leicester. The
death of the queen opened the path to Richard's marriage with Isabella of
France in 1396 and to the extension of the truce with France for
twenty-eight years. This foreign policy was supported by Lancaster,
although the negotiations which directly led to these results were carried
on while he was in Aquitaine.
He left England in the autumn of 1394 for the purpose of formally
assuming his dukedom of that province, but the people of Bordeaux and
of the other towns which still remained faithful to the English cause
refused to recognise his authority. They protested against the intrusion
of any one between them and the crown, and they were successful in
their resistance. Lancaster remained in the country until the Christmas of
1395, when he was recalled, and rejoined the king at Langley. But his
reception, we are told, was cool, and he thought it prudent to leave the
court. He retired to Lincoln, and immediately afterwards astonished the
world and scandalised the members of the royal family by marrying,
January 1396, his concubine, Catharine Swynford, daughter of Sir Payne
Roet, king of arms in Guienne, and widow of Sir Hugh de Swynford. She
had been governess to Lancaster's daughters, and had borne him
children. His estrangement from the king did not last very long. Towards
the end of the year he accompanied Richard to Calais, and was present at
his marriage with the young French princess, 1 Nov. 1396. As a further
mark of favour Richard enacted, on his own authority, the legitimation of
Lancaster's natural family, the Beauforts, and this act was confirmed in
the parliament which sat from 22 Jan. to 12 Feb. 1397.
But these personal events, and his support of the recent foreign
policy, revived the national feeling against Lancaster's predominance.
His brother Gloucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick formed an
alliance in opposition to the new order of things, and a proposal was
made in parliament for reform of the king's household. This was summarily
repressed, and Gloucester and Arundel, after a personal altercation with
the king, retired from court. Then followed in the summer a coup d'Ètat. A
parliament was summoned, and Lancaster and his son Derby were
ordered to collect forces for the defence of the king, 28 Aug. 1397.
Gloucester was arrested and hurried to his death at Calais. Arundel
surrendered, and was brought to trial in the parliament which assembled
17 Sept. In his prosecution, both Lancaster and members of his family
took a leading part. The duke himself presided as high steward, and
passed sentence 21 Sept.; John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, appeared
among the appellants; and the Earl of Derby, once the ally of the
accused, bore witness against him, and was rewarded with the dukedom
of Hereford.
In the subservient parliament of Shrewsbury, 28 Jan. 1398, Lancaster's
influential position was recognised by his appointment to the chief place
in the committee to which parliament delegated its powers. But in the
same session began the quarrel between his son Hereford and the Duke
of Norfolk, which was protracted through the greater part of the year and
terminated in the banishment of both rivals, 16 Sept. Lancaster did not
long survive his son's disgrace. The last public commissions to which he
was appointed were as lieutenant in the marches towards Scotland, 11
March, and as constable of the principality of Wales, 8 Aug. 1398. He
died 3 Feb. 1399 at Ely House in Holborn, and was buried in St. Paul's
beside his first wife, ëwhere they had a noble monument, which was
utterly destroyed in the time of the late usurpationí (DUGDALE, Baronage).
The tomb was placed in the choir between two columns on the north side
of the high altar (DUGDALE, History of St. Paul's, p. 90), the recumbent
effigies of the duke and his wife being executed in alabaster. Richard had
granted special leave to the Duke of Hereford to appoint a proxy to
receive his inheritance. This leave he withdrew, 18 March, and took
possession of the Lancaster estates.
By his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster (d. 1369), Gaunt was father of
Henry IV, of Philippa, wife of John of Portugal, and of Elizabeth, wife of
John Holland, earl of Huntingdon and duke of Exeter (1352?-1400) [q.v.];
Catharine, wife of Henry, prince of the Asturias, afterwards king of
Castile, was Gaunt's daughter by his second wife, Constance of Castile (d.
1394). By Catharine Swynford, his third wife, he had, before marriage,
John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Lincoln and
of Winchester, and cardinal [q.v.], Thomas Beaufort, earl of Dorset and
duke of Exeter [q.v.], and Joan Beaufort, wife of Sir Robert Ferrers and
subsequently of Ralph Nevill, earl of Westmoreland. Catharine Swynford
died 10 May 1403, and was buried at Lincoln.

´bªSources: ´b0ªCollins's Hist. of John of Gaunt, 1740; Chronicles of Walsingham;
Chronicon AngliÊ, 1328-88; Eulogium Historiarum and Fasciculi
Zizaniorum (all in Rolls Series); Knighton in Twysden's Decem. Script.;
Adam Murimuth (English Hist. Soc.), Robert of Avesbury and Historia
Ricardi II a mon. Evesham (both edited by Hearne); Adam of Usk,
1377-1404, ed. E. Maunde Thompson for Royal Soc. of Lit. 1876;
Froissart's Chroniques, edd. Lettenhove and Luce; Stow's Annals;
Barnes's Hist. Edward III; Lowth's Life of William of Wykeham; Stubbs's
Const. Hist.; Green's Hist. English People; Longman's Life and Times of
Edward III; Wallon's Richard II; Dugdale's Baronage; Rymer's Federa.

´bªContributor: ´b0ªE. M. T.
PUBLISHED  1891

For the date  and palce CP writes “between 1 Jan and 30 Apr 1372, it is said at hertford Castle ... ”