Book Description

"One of the most powerful men in fourteenth-century England after Edward III was Henry of Grosmont, First Duke of Lancaster. This is the first biography ever to appear of the nobleman, soldier, diplomat and administrator who played such a significant role in shaping English foreign policy during the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the only comprehensive account of English foreign affairs during that period to appear for over half a century. There are few laymen of the time about whom so much can be known, largely because of the important role he played in events, but also because the family records became part of the state archives after his grandson, Henry Bolingbroke, seized the throne in 1399. Dr. Fowler has therefore been able to gain a unique insight into Henry of Grosrnont's life and his public career from a wealth of information in both English and French archives. After a brief introduction and a description of Henry's youth, the family inheritance, and his father's role in politics, Dr. Fowler deals with his early campaigns in Scotland, the Low Countries and in Brittany, his diplomatic activities at Avignon and in Spain, and the preparations for his first great expedition to Aquitaine. Then came the most important years of his life as soldier and administrator in the south of France from 1345-7. The middle section of the book explores the diplomacy of the period in illuminating detail through discussions of Henry's attempts to secure the alliance of the count of Flanders, the efforts of the papacy to negotiate peace between England and France, and the English manoeuvres to gain the support of Charles of Navarre. An account is given of the duke's love of tournaments, his crusade to Prussia to fight the heathen Slavs, and the resulting duel in Paris. The role of his friends, retainers and councillors is analysed in detail, and the author goes on to discuss his many benefactions, his religious foundations and his devotional treatise, Le Livre des Seyntz Medicines--a remarkable work to be written by a fourteenth-century nobleman. An account is also given of Henry's later years as a soldier and administrator in Normandy and Brittany, and of the part he played in the king's last great campaign in France and the subsequent treaties of Brétigny and Calais. [This book] is a work of scholarship that incorporates an enormous amount of original research in a lively and compelling text. Its descriptions of fourteenth-century diplomacy and the revealing insight into Henry of Grosmont's family life will interest the general reader, while professional historians and students of history will welcome the new information contained in the text and notes."--Dust jacket.