Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence

Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, was the second surviving son of Henry IV and a younger brother of Henry V. He served as a military commander and royal lieutenant in France, helping to maintain Lancastrian power during the later phases of the Hundred Years’ War. In 1421 he led an impetuous attack at Baugé and was killed, a serious blow to the English war effort.

Clarence appears chiefly in historical fiction concerned with Henry V, the Lancastrian court and the continuing war in France. He is usually a supporting royal figure rather than the protagonist of a widely known novel, but his death at Baugé provides an important turning point in fiction covering the years after Agincourt.

Georgette Heyer’s My Lord John places Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence within a narrative shaped by family, marriage and personal loyalty, court politics and dynastic power, and political ambition and government.