John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Due to Gaunt's royal origin, advantageous marriages, and some generous land grants, he was one of the richest men of his era, and was an influential figure during the reigns of both his father and his nephew, Richard II. As Duke of Lancaster, he is the founder of the royal House of Lancaster, whose members would ascend the throne after his death. His birthplace, Ghent in Flanders, then known in English as Gaunt, was the origin of his name. When he became unpopular later in life, a scurrilous rumour circulated, along with lampoons, claiming that he was actually the son of a Ghent butcher. This rumour, which infuriated him, may have been inspired by the fact that Edward III had not been present at his birth.
Joan Beaufort was the youngest of the four legitimised children and only daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by his mistress, later wife, Katherine Swynford. She married Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and in her widowhood became a powerful landowner in the North of England.
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of WestmorlandEarl Marshal, was an English nobleman of the House of Neville.
Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin.
Maud de Chaworth was an English noblewoman and wealthy heiress. She was the only child of Patrick de Chaworth. Sometime before 2 March 1297, she married Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, by whom she had seven children.
Margaret of Norfolk or Margaret of Brotherton, in her own right Countess of Norfolk, was the daughter and eventual sole heir of Thomas of Brotherton, eldest son of King Edward I of England by his second marriage. In 1338, she succeeded to the earldom of Norfolk and the office of Earl Marshal.
The House of Plantagenet was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 to 1485, when Richard III died in battle.
The House of Mowbray was an Anglo-Norman noble house, derived from Montbray in Normandy and founded by Roger de Mowbray, son of Nigel d'Aubigny.
Blanche of Lancaster was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first wife of John of Gaunt, the mother of King Henry IV, and the grandmother of King Henry V of England.
Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand was an English nobleman, born in Lancashire.
John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles (1352–1421) was an English soldier and noble. The son of John de Welles, 4th Baron Welles and Maud de Ros. He married Eleanor de Mowbray, daughter of John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray, and Elizabeth de Segrave, 5th Baroness Segrave.
John (II) de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray was the only son of John de Mowbray, 2nd Baron Mowbray, by his first wife, Aline de Brewes, daughter of William de Braose, 2nd Baron Braose. He was born in Hovingham, Yorkshire.
John (III) de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray was an English peer. He was slain near Constantinople while en route to the Holy Land.
John (IV) de Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 5th Baron Mowbray, 6th Baron Segrave, was an English peer.
Isabel de Beaumont, Duchess of Lancaster, of the House of Brienne was an English noblewoman, being the youngest daughter and child of Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan and Alice Comyn.
Isabel de Verdun, Baroness Ferrers of Groby was an heiress, who was related to the English royal family as the eldest daughter of Elizabeth de Clare, herself a granddaughter of King Edward I of England. When she was a child, Isabel was imprisoned in Barking Abbey, along with her mother and half-sister, after her stepfather had joined the Earl of Lancaster's ill-fated rebellion against King Edward II. Her husband was Henry Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers of Groby.
Alice Holland, Countess of Kent, LG, formerly Lady Alice FitzAlan, was an English noblewoman, a daughter of the 10th Earl of Arundel, and the wife of the 2nd Earl of Kent, the half-brother of King Richard II. As the maternal grandmother of Anne de Mortimer, she was an ancestor of King Edward IV and King Richard III, as well as King Henry VII and the Tudor dynasty through her daughter Margaret Holland. She was also the maternal grandmother of Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots.
Mary of Lancaster, Baroness Percy, was the youngest surviving child of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster by his wife Maud Chaworth. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of Henry III of England.
Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster was an English noblewoman and the wife of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster. She was the mother of Elizabeth de Burgh, suo jure Countess of Ulster. Her second husband was Sir Ralph de Ufford, Justiciar of Ireland. After Ufford's death, Maud became a canoness at an Augustinian nunnery, Campsey Priory, in Suffolk.
John Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave was an English peer and landowner in Leicestershire and Yorkshire. His family title of Baron Segrave is drawn from a village now spelled Seagrave, which uses a coat of arms imitated from that of the family.
