The third surviving son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, John of Gaunt was a key figure in the political landscape of the fourteenth century. His distinctive title was an Anglicisation of Ghent, where he was born, a circumstance which later led to the unlikely rumour that he was the illegitimate son of a local Ghent butcher. He became particularly powerful after his father's death in 1377, when the crown passed to the ten-year-old Richard II.
Although never king himself, the children and descendants of his three diverse marriages did became monarchs. Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of his first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster, overthrew Richard II in 1399 to become Henry IV. Following Blanche's death in 1369, John married …
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "John of Gaunt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 July 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=596, accessed 23 November 2024.]
