John of Gaunt

1340–1399

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was the third surviving son of Edward III and one of the wealthiest magnates in medieval Europe. He commanded armies in France and Spain, exercised great influence during Richard II’s minority and claimed the Castilian throne through his second wife. His long relationship with Katherine Swynford produced the Beaufort children, later legitimised. His legitimate son Henry Bolingbroke overthrew Richard and became Henry IV.

Anya Seton’s Katherine is the best-known novel about Gaunt’s relationship with Katherine Swynford. He also appears in Bernard Cornwell’s Grail Quest world and numerous novels about Richard II and Chaucer. Fiction often alternates between the unpopular political magnate attacked by London crowds and the romantic nobleman of Seton’s influential interpretation.

In non-fiction, John of Gaunt is discussed in Dan Jones’s Summer of Blood, Dan Jones’s The Plantagenets, and Dan Jones’s Henry V. Dan Jones’s Summer of Blood approaches the subject through political ambition and government, court politics and dynastic power, and empire, conquest and resistance.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to John of Gaunt

Reign of Richard II 1377–1399 CE

Series

Series featuring John of Gaunt (4 series)

Brother Athelstan Mysteries in Order

by Paul Doherty 18 books 4.5

THE Meadows of MURDER an Unputdownable Medieval Historical Novel

4.6

Struggle for a Crown in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5

Struggle for a Crown follows soldiers and retainers through the crises of late medieval England and France. The series moves from Richard II and Henry IV to Henry V, Agincourt, the later Hundred Years’ War and the struggle to hold English power in France. It is a dynastic…

4.6

The Mowbray Chronicles in Order

by Mette Holm 7 books 4.2

The Mowbray Chronicles follow a fictional branch of the English Mowbray family from the later Hundred Years’ War through the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. Argyle Mowbray’s murder inquiry begins the numbered sequence at Richard’s divided court, but the dynasty’s concealed origins are established…

All books in this series

Shield of Blood

4.2

At the King’s Command

4.0

Court of Deadly Whispers

4.4

Web of Lies

4.3

Legacy of Kings

4.3

The Rogue’s Son

4.3

Deeds of Deceit

4.4

An Owen Archer Mystery in Order

by Candace Robb 16 books 4.2

The Owen Archer mysteries follow a Welsh soldier and former captain of archers who becomes an investigator, spy and officer in fourteenth-century York. Beginning in 1363, Owen serves Archbishop John Thoresby and later the city authorities, while his marriage to apothecary Lucie Wilton gives the investigations a close…

All books in this series