Chaucer and Henry's Relatives 177 



paign, where Henry had commanded one division (Edward III 

 and the Black Prince being at the head of the two others), and 

 had probably seen him more than once.^ The immense reputa- 

 tion of Henry must have impressed Chaucer's imagination,^ and 

 the impression was surely deepened by Chaucer's late relation to 

 Henry's daughter, Blanche, and her husband, John of Gaunt. 



We may next pass to a consideration of the Earl of Derby's 

 father and uncles, and, first, of his father : 



(3) John of Gaunt. According to Armitage-Smith^ : 'Far 

 more important than his early apprenticeship in the trade of war 

 was Richmond's first meeting with one who was to be through 

 life his friend and intimate, Geoffrey Chaucer. It was at 

 Christmas, 1357, that John of Gaunt and Chaucer first came to 

 know each other. Before this the poet may have come under 

 his notice in the King's household, but at the Christmas feast 

 of 1357 they met in a more intimate manner, for both were 

 staying at Hatfield in Yorkshire with Lionel, now Earl of Ulster 

 in the right of his wife, Elizabeth de Burgh. Upon Chaucer's 

 fortunes this meeting had a lasting effect, for the friendship of 

 John of Gaunt secured to him the favour of the Court so -long 

 as his patron lived, and after his death the protection of the 

 new dynasty.' In 1359 John married Blanche, who was to be 

 celebrated in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess."^ At the end of the 

 same year, or the beginning of the next, John of Gaunt 'had 

 taken his share of the skirmishes and raids on the march — at 

 Rethel, where his friend Geoffrey Chaucer was captured,' etc.^ 



Perhaps in 1369 or 1370, Chaucer had written the Book of the 

 Duchess, 'a tribute alike to the chivalrous love of John of Gaunt 

 for Blanche and to the affection of the poet for his earliest 

 patroness.'*^ 



^ Emerson 3. 342, 355, 359. 



^ See p. 184. 



"Pp. lo-ii; cf. Life Records III, p. 99. 



* Emerson thinks Chaucer was present at the wedding (3. 325, note 14) . 



■* Armitage-Smith, p. 18;. cf. Emerson, p. 340. 



"Armitage-Smith, p. 76. Though John was afterwards twice married, 

 gratitude to the memory of his first wife never failed: so long as he 

 lived, the rites due to religion and affection were observed, and in his 

 will the Duke's first injunction is that he shall be laid by her side' 

 (Armitage-Smith, p. yy). 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XX. 13 1916 



