A portrait of John of Gaunt dating from the sixteenth century.
A 1340 Gold Noble depicting Edward III crowned, with a sword and shield, and on board a ship, following the Battle of Sluys.
The Battle of Sluys in 1340, from a fifteenth-century manuscript copy of Jean Froissart’s Chronicles.
The tomb of Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, at CanterburyCathedral. The Prince’s heraldic ‘achievements’ (shield, helm and crest, jupon, scabbard and gauntlets) are preserved in a glass case nearby, but modern copies of these appear above his tomb.
Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster. The first wife of John of Gaunt and daughter of Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster, a detail from John of Gaunt’s tomb.
Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster with John of Gaunt. Constance was the second wife of John of Gaunt and the daughter of Pedro of Castile (‘the Cruel’) and Maria de Padilla.
Katherine Swynford’s tomb at Lincoln Cathedral.
Geoffrey Chaucer, by Thomas Hoccleve, from The Regiment of Princes (1412).
London as it may have appeared at the start of the fourteenth century.
Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire. Gaunt’s main castle in Northern England and where Richard II was incarcerated and killed in 1400.
John of Gaunt's Cellar, Leicester, one of the only surviving parts of the original Leicester Castle.
Kenilworth Castle, John of Gaunt’s main building project and favourite residence from 1377.
John of Gaunt as depicted in the St Cuthbert window of York Minster. He is shown kneeling before a prayer-desk (prie-dieu), facing the large figure of St Cuthbert, with his hands raised in prayer.
The Lancastrian linked ‘esses’ livery collar, worn by John of Gaunt’s retainers and also adopted by his son, Henry IV.
Richard II, the Westminster Portrait depicting Richard crowned and enthroned. This is one of the earliest and most famous examples of portraiture in the fourteenth century.
One of two original volumes of John of Gaunt’s Register, held at the National Archives in Kew, London.
John of Gaunt’s seal prior to his change of arms to King of Castile and Leon.
John of Gaunt’s seal following his change of arms to King of Castile and Leon. Quartering the arms of Castile (castles) with the leopards of England and fleur-de-lis of France.
A fifteenth-century manuscript depiction of the Battle of Nájera in 1367, from Jean Froissart’s Chronicles.
The Trial of John Wycliffe, a nineteenth-century interpretation by Ford Maddox Brown (1886). John of Gaunt is depicted crowned and wielding a sword before the Bishop of London.
The Peasants’ Revolt in London. Richard confronts the rebels in a miniature from a fifteenth-century manuscript copyof Jean Froissart’s Chronicles.
John of Gaunt’s supposed surcoat, kept at Rothwell Church in Yorkshire.
The tomb of John of Gaunt in old St Paul’s Cathedral, London. The tomb was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, along with the rest of St Paul’s. This drawing is by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–77). Gaunt is depicted with his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster. One hand is in prayer and the other clasps the hand of his wife.