John of Gaunt

John of Gaunt (John Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Aquitaine, 6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was a member of the House of Plantagenet, the rulers of England for over 300 years.^[2] Gaunt was the third surviving son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was the father of Henry IV.^[3]

John of Gaunt
A portrait commissioned c. 1593 by Sir Edward Hoby for Queenborough Castle, Kent, probably modelled on Gaunt's tomb effigy in Old St Paul's Cathedral.[1] His tabard shows the royal arms of Castile and León impaling his differenced Plantagenet arms, while on the shield Castile and León is shown as an inescutcheon of pretence, representing his claim to that kingdom by right of marriage to Constance of Castile.
Duke of Lancaster; Duke of Aquitaine
Successor	Henry Bolingbroke
King of Castile (claimant)
Claimed	29 January 1372 – 8 July 1388
Born	(1340-03-06)6 March 1340 Ghent, Flanders (now in Belgium)
Died	3 February 1399(1399-02-03) (aged 58) Leicester Castle, Leicestershire
Burial	St Paul's Cathedral, City of London
Spouse	Blanche of Lancaster ​ ​ (m. 1359; died 1368)​ Infanta Constance of Castile ​ ​ (m. 1371; died 1394)​ Katherine Swynford ​ (m. 1396)​
Issue	Philippa, Queen of Portugal Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter Henry IV of England Catherine, Queen of Castile John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset Cardinal Henry Beaufort Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland
House	House of Plantagenet (by birth) House of Lancaster (founder)
Father	Edward III, King of England
Mother	Philippa of Hainault

Kenilworth Castle, the Duke's fortress

Gaunt was a younger brother of Edward, the Black Prince. He had great influence over the English throne during the childhood of his nephew, Richard II and during the ensuing periods of political strife. He is not thought to have been an opponent of the king.

John of Gaunt's legitimate male heirs, the Hoouse of Lancaster, included Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. His other legitimate children included, by his first wife Blanche, his daughters Philippa of Portugal and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter; and by his second wife Constance, his daughter Queen Catherine of Castile.

Gaunt fathered five children outside marriage: one early in life by a lady-in-waiting to his mother and four by Katherine Swynford, his long-term mistress and third wife. They were surnamed Beaufort (after a former French possession of the Duke). The Beaufort children, three sons and a daughter, were legitimised by royal and papal decrees after John and Katherine married in 1396. Their half-brother Henry IV added a later proviso that they were barred from inheriting the throne.

Descendants of the marriage included Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and eventually cardinal; Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland, grandmother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III; John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the great-grandfather of King Henry VII; and Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots, from whom are descended, beginning in 1437, all subsequent sovereigns of Scotland, and successively, from 1603 on, the sovereigns of England, of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the United Kingdom to the present day. The three succeeding houses of English sovereigns from 1399 (the Houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor) were descended from John through Henry Bolingbroke, Joan Beaufort and John Beaufort, respectively.

Lancaster's eldest son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, was exiled for ten years by King Richard II in 1398 as resolution to a dispute between Hereford and Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.^[4]

When John of Gaunt died in 1399, his estates and titles were declared forfeit to the crown, as King Richard II named Henry a traitor and commuted his sentence to exile for life.^[4] Henry returned from exile to reclaim his inheritance and depose Richard and then reigned as King Henry IV of England (1399–1413), the first descendant of John of Gaunt to hold the throne of England.

Due to some generous land grants, Gaunt was not only one of the richest men in his era but also one of the wealthiest men to have ever lived. By taking into account inflation rates, he was worth a modern equivalent of $110 billion, making him the 16th-richest man in history.^[5]