John of Gaunt Book Reviews

John of Gaunt by Sydney Armitage-Smith Book Summary

'Old John Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster.' 

What name on the roll of English princes is more familiar? What actor in the great drama of English history has been watched with less attention? 

Two striking episodes in the Duke’s history have been related again and again, and from all points of view. The defence of John Wycliffe and the attack on Sir Peter de la Mare and William of Wykeham—these are the communes of the history of the Church and of the Constitution. But for the rest, the Duke makes his exits and his entrances, but it is upon the other players in the piece that the audience fix their attention. 

His strong and persistent craving for continental royalty, the keynote to his character, has been strangely neglected. The man has never yet lived and moved among the historic figures of his age or nation. “Old John of Gaunt, and gaunt in being old:” the words have fixed in our minds the idea of a feudal magnate, the venerable uncle of a young and spendthrift king, but with Richard II, who asks “Can sick men play so nicely with their names?” we do not listen, but go on our way and leave him. 

Yet, however inadequately conceived, the figure of John of Gaunt, which filled so large a place in the story of his times, has appealed to our imagination. Though the man is almost a stranger to us, his name is a household word. Traces of his doings are met with on every side, for he seems to have been everywhere and to have attempted everything." 

This classic biography of John Gaunt is organized as follows: 

Introduction 
I. Birth of John of Gaunt 
II. The First Campaign 
III. The Invasion of Castile 
IV. The Outbreak of War 
V. The Naval Question 
VI. The “Good” Parliament 
VII. The Last Parliament of Edward III—Trial of Wycliffe—Quarrel With the City 
VIII. Lancaster and the Church 
IX. Death of Edward Iii 
X. The Lancastrian Estates 
XI. Lancaster Returns to Power 
XII. Parliament and the King of Castile 
XIII. The Second Invasion of Castile 
XIV. John of Gaunt the Peacemaker 
XV. The Duchy of Aquitaine 
XVI. Lancaster’s Third Marriage

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