The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of tThere may not be a more fascinating a historical period than the late fourteenth century in Europe. The Hundred Years' War ravaged the continent, yet gallantry, chivalry, and literary brilliance flourished in the courts of England and elsewhere. It was a world in transition, soon to be replaced by the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration -- and John of Gaunt was its central figure. In today's terms, John of Gaunt was a multibillionaire with a brand name equal to Rockefeller. He fought in the Hundred Years' War, sponsored Chaucer and proto-Protestant religious thinkers, and survived the dramatic Peasants' Revolt, during which his sumptuous London residence was burned to the ground. As head of the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family, Gaunt was the unknowing father of the War of the Roses; after his death, his son usurped the crown from his nephew, Richard II. Gaunt's adventures represent the culture and mores of the Middle Ages as those of few others do, and his death is portrayed in The Last Knight as the end of that enthralling period. |
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Alice Perrers aristocratic armor army battle behavior bishops Black Death Black Prince Blanche BRITISH LIBRARY Carmelites Castile Castilian cathedral canons Catherine Swynford chivalry Christian Church Commons courtly culture daughter Duke of Lancaster duke or count Duke's early ecclesiastical Edward III Edward the Black elite England English estates Europe European faith healing fifteenth century fighting France Franciscan French friars Gaunt's lifetime gentry Geoffrey Chaucer Henry high aristocracy historians hundred Iberia Iberian Jewish Jews John of Gaunt John Wyclif king knights Lancastrian land late fourteenth century Latin lifestyle Lollard London lords male marriage medieval ment merchant Middle Ages military Muslim nobility northern Italy Oxford Parliament patronage peasants Philippa Philippa of Hainaut Plantagenet poem political Portugal radical religious Renaissance Richard Richard II Roman royal family royal government sexual social society Spain taxes thirteenth century throne towns Troilus and Criseyde tury University Press wealth wife women Wyclif York