Every English monarch since 1399 descends from one unpopular duke
John of Gaunt never wore the English crown, yet his son became Henry IV and every later monarch traces back to him. Named after Ghent, his Flemish birthplace, he was among the richest men of the 14th century, with lands yielding up to £10,000 a year and a household rivalling a king's.
Born in March 1340, the fourth son of Edward III, he was married in 1359 to Blanche of Lancaster as part of his father's plan to pair his sons with heiresses. Her family's death left him the greatest landowner in northern England, and in 1362 he was made Duke of Lancaster, holding at least thirty castles and estates. A second marriage, to Constance of Castile in 1371, gave him a claim to the Castilian throne, and for a time he called himself its king, though his attempt to enforce it failed.
As a commander he lacked his brother the Black Prince's touch. His most famous exploit, a 900-kilometre mounted raid across France in 1373 with some 9,000 men, dazzled contemporaries but achieved almost nothing; about a third of the army was lost in fighting and another third to disease before it limped into Bordeaux on 24 December. Earlier, in 1369, he had at least forced Charles V to shelve plans to invade England.
Politics made him hated. With his father and elder brother both ailing, he effectively ran the government from 1374 to 1377, and his wealth, haughty manner and lavish Savoy Palace on the Strand made him a lightning rod. When the Good Parliament of 1376 purged corrupt officials, he undid its work after the Black Prince died, and the so-called Bad Parliament of 1377 imposed England's first poll tax, a levy that fell hardest on the poor. Enemies even spread a rumour that he was really the son of a Ghent butcher.
His legacy ran through his children. He helped seal the 1386 alliance with Portugal, which is still in force, by marrying his daughter Philippa to John I. His Beaufort children by Katherine Swynford, later legitimised, led to both the Yorkist kings and Henry VII. When he died in 1399, Richard II seized the Lancaster inheritance and exiled his son Henry Bolingbroke, who returned with an army, deposed Richard and reigned until 1413.
Source: John of Gaunt
