About the Author

NORMAN F. CANTOR is Professor Emeritus of History, Sociology, and Comparative Literature at New York University. Among his many academic honors are appointments as a Rhodes Scholar, Porter Odgen Jacobus Fellow at Princeton University, and Fulbright Professor at Tel Aviv University. He was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Inventing the Middle Ages. His study of the Black Death, In the Wake of the Plague, was a New York Times bestseller. His survey of medieval history, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, has gone through forty printings and is considered a classic.

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Two knights jousting.
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John of Gaunt.
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Tomb of Edward the Black Prince.
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The Black Prince.
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The Battle of Crécy.
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The Battle of Poitiers, showing French croossbow-men and English longbow archers.
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King Edward III in robes of the Order of the Garter.
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Geoffrey Chaucer.
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The marriage of Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, and João I of Portugal.
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Genealogy of Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt.
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John of Gaunt entertained by Joao I of Portugal.
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The tomb of King João I of Portugal and Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt.
CORBIS

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The coronation of King Richard II, nephew of John of Gaunt.
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Richard II dines with John of Gaunt and other dukes.
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Richard II enters the Tower of London, dispatched there by Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt.
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The fall of a homosexual king: the funeral of Richard II.
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