John of Gaunt, born 6 March 1340 in Ghent, was the first of the royal House of Lancaster and third son of King Edward III of England. He fought in the Hundred Years' War against France as did his grandson, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford. The Duke and Duchess of Bedford presided over the confinement of Joan of Arc at Rouen, Normandy in 1431.

Geoffrey Chaucer was the friend of one of the sons of the King, Edward III, not the eldest son, who was Edward the Black Prince, the great warrior, nor Lionel, the second surviving son, whom Chaucer had served when a boy, but the third son, John of Gaunt, who had a great deal of power with the King. John was about the same age as Chaucer. When John of Gaunt was only 19 (the year that Chaucer went with the army to France), he married a lady named Blanche of Lancaster, and there were famous joustings and great festivities of every kind. A long poem, called 'The Court of Love,' is said to have been written by Chaucer about this time, at any rate, early on, and the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse was written later in commemoration of her passing. It may be that Chaucer wrote another poem, 'The Parliament of Birds,' to celebrate “the wedded turtel [dove].” When Chaucer came back to England, and got married himself, he was still more constantly at court, and there are many instances recorded of John's attachment to both Chaucer and Philippa all his life. Among others we may notice his gifts to Philippa of certain 'silver-gilt cups with covers,' on the 1st of January in 1380, 1381, and 1382. It is touching to see how trusting these two friends were of each other, and how long their friendship lasted. The friendship began possibly even before 1359, the year when John married Blanche, and for forty years it remained unbroken. Nay, it grew closer and closer, for in 1394, when John of Gaunt and Chaucer were both middle-aged men, John married Philippa's sister (Sir Paon Roet's elder daughter), so that Chaucer became John of Gaunt's brother-in-law. When John of Gaunt was in power he never forgot Chaucer. When he became unpopular it was Chaucer's turn to be faithful to him; and faithful he was in whatever he suffered, and he did suffer severely in his close association with the Duke. The poem, 'Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse,' speaks to those times of impoverishment. When John came into power again, up went Chaucer too, and his circumstances improved. The loyalty between two friends, so long and so faithful, is worthy of note. The people were not so fond of John of Gaunt as Chaucer was, because, in governing them, he was very ambitious and severe. He succeeded in forcing the Commons to agree to the imposition of the first poll tax in English history. They got angry with everything he did, and with everybody who remained his friend. So, of course, they did not like Chaucer. This was a very troublous time. The Crown (represented by the King's uncles) wanted one thing, and the great barons wanted another, and the people or lower classes wanted another! These were called the three great opposing parties, and each wanted to have all the power. At last some of the barons sided with the King's party, and others sided with the people; so there were then two opposing parties quarrelling and hating each other. John of Gaunt would have liked to be King himself; but the people were unhappy, and very discontented with his government, and he began to have much less power in the kingdom. This setback for the Duke of Lancaster was the result of his advocacy for the reformer, John Wyclif. Lancaster, with his vast estates which lay claim to his being the richest man in England, did spread his patronage on both sides of the issues. He defended Wyclif against the examination of Courtenay, Bishop of London at St. Paul's Cathedral on February 19, 1377. There never was a trial because of the heated disagreements in the crowded chapel beginning with the Earl Marshal Percy's clearing of the way with perhaps unnecessary violence. Lancaster joined in the quarrel, and told the Bishop that Percy would continue to act as Marshal whether the Bishop liked it or not! Whatever their own views might be, Lancaster and Percy were going to see fair play that day. The Duke's temper was up; he swore that he would humble the pride of the Bishop of London and all the Bishops in England. When a muttered threat of the Duke to drag the Bishop by the hair from St. Paul's was overheard, the uproar in the Cathedral became a riot. Wyclif was forgotten for the moment and the people rioted the next day in support of their Bishop and against John of Gaunt. After 1382, Wyclif’s position was clear. Even to the least careful observer the reformer was now a dangerous heretic whose mouth must be closed. But John of Gaunt would not abandon the man who had been led to look to him for protection. The Church was balked of its prey. It touched the Duke’s honor to protect John Wyclif as he would have protected the humblest of those 200 knights and esquires who had sworn to serve him in peace and war. Wycliff was suffered to die in peace, even with the trials and tribulations, painted here by F.M. Brown: —Near to Bishop Courtenay of London on the dais, sits Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, depicted as endeavouring, in whispers, to calm the indignation of his colleague. At Wyclif's feet are seen the five mendicant friars appointed as his counsel, Wyclif not yet having publicly differed with them. The Earl-Marshal is represented as ordering a stool for the Reformer, for, said he, “An you must answer from all these books, doctor, you will need a soft seat,” causing the prelate still greater indignation; but Wyclif remained standing. Constance, John of Gaunt's second Duchess, is shown plucking her spouse back by his mantle, as though in fear, he might in his excitement, while using his sword as a pointer, do some injury to the prelate. In the background Chaucer, the Duke's other protégé, is wearing a green hood and taking notes on the proceeding.