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4 unusual facts about John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster


1st Duke of Lancaster

John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, (1340 – 1399), member of the House of Plantagenet

John of Gaunt Stakes

The event's registered title is named after John of Gaunt, the 1st Duke of Lancaster, who lived in the 14th century.

Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess

Katherine Swynford was the longtime mistress and later the third wife of John of Gaunt, third surviving son of Edward III.

The Last Knight

The book uses John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster as the focus around which he describes the medieval English culture of that time (1340-1399).


1st Duke of Lancaster

Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, (c. 1310 – 1361), also Earl of Derby, member of the English nobility

Church of St Mary de Castro, Leicester

Philippa of Lancaster, the eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Blanche of Lancaster, was born in nearby Leicester Castle and was a Queen consort of Portugal, married in 1387 to King John I of Portugal during Anglo-Portuguese Alliance thus giving rise to extended name of the church (St. Mary de Castro) during one of its alterations.

Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March

The most powerful person in the realm was, however, the king's uncle John of Gaunt, whose jealousy of March led to the acceptance by the latter of the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1379.

Katherine Swynford

Margaret Swynford (born c. 1369), became a nun at the prestigious Barking Abbey in 1377 with help from her future stepfather John of Gaunt, where she lived the religious life with her cousin Elizabeth Chaucer, daughter of the famous Geoffrey Chaucer and Katherine's sister Philippa de Roet.

Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles

At the death of the 5th Baron in 1521, Lionel Welles thus inherited the Welles barony and lands, but as he was underage, his wardship was granted to his future father-in-law, Robert Waterton (d.1425), a 'trusted retainer of John of Gaunt and the Lancastrian Kings'.

The Physician's Tale

In 1386 Elizabeth, the daughter of John of Gaunt, eloped to France with John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.


see also