Kathryn Warner's 'John of Gaunt'

 

Amberley Publishing first edition - 2022

Kathryn Warner has a six-line quotation from Shakespeare’s Richard II at the start of her book; the ‘time-honour’d Lancaster’, who gave that moving death-bed speech on This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, may well be the first image we recollect of this powerful and intriguing man. Others, perhaps, recall him from Anya Seton’s Katherine - 'A great adventure, powerfully told' (Philippa Gregory). This biography – the first modern one, the publisher’s press release avers (I am not sure Helen Carr would agree; her biography of Gaunt, The Red Prince, was published on 15^th April 2021, was listed as The Times/Sunday Times Best Book for 2021 and short listed for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography), is a follow-up to the author’s Philippa of Hainault (2019), on Gaunt’s mother. According to the book’s dust wrapper, Warner ‘has carved out a strong online presence as an expert on Edward II and the 14^th century in general’. So, what of this biography?

There are 22 colour photographs, some from the Author’s own collection; useful Appendices on Gaunt’s Will (which stretches to ten pages), details on his eight children and just under 40 grandchildren, who lived into adulthood; 42 pages of detailed endnotes (I much prefer footnotes); and 7 pages of Bibliography. The printing and production are up to Amberley’s usual standard.

Warner appears heavily wedded to John of Gaunt’s Register (1371-75; 1379-83), which was published in two volumes, edited by Sydney Armitage-Smith in 1911 and Eleanor C. Lodge and Robert Somerville in 1937. She also makes use of the Chronicles of Adam Usk, Knighton and others. The result is nearly another chronicle, rather than a biography. Determined to include just about everything she has read, Warner notably fails to sort out the wheat from the chaff, the important from the irrelevant. There is a fixation with individuals’ ages; if they are mentioned, however minor, their dates (if not known, then estimated and deduced at great length) must be attached. There is also a myopia about John’s gifts, with no distinction between the mighty and the also rans. Do we need to be told that John’s brother, Lionel of Antwerp’s, name was pronounced as in Lionel Messi, not Lionel Richie? Throughout her book, excessive detail actively impedes the flow of Warner’s  narrative. Her style suffers. If she cut down on the pointless asides and the irrelevancies, it would be a far better and more interesting tome. Wycliffe flits across just two pages. Surely, discussion of why Gaunt protected him would have been useful.

This is a great pity, as amongst the padding are genuine items of interest. John seemed to be keen on music – a group of minstrels were sent to perform for him at the feats of Candlemas in 1368; also, on hunting and hawking (thus Warner has to tell us the names of all his falconers). From the regular and valuable gifts Gaunt showered on Katherine Swynford, it is abundantly clear he was passionately fond of her. Warner catalogues every one of them. Duchess Katherine was first in the list of family members who received bequests in his will. To be fair, it also appears that he was a genuinely family-orientated man, both to his legitimate children and to the Beauforts. Intense grief and rage were occasioned by the exile of his son Henry Bolinbroke.

There is very little real analysis of ‘one of the great Englishmen of the Middle Ages’. Gaunt died in his town of Leicester, the same day as he dictated his will, a month short of his fifty-ninth birthday. Having read Warner’s account, I am replete with knowledge of his movements, his gifts, the dates of many of his contemporaries and much guesswork. Maybe, as with so many medieval figures, it is wrong to expect much more. Perhaps, I ought to try Helen Carr’s biography.