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The Red Prince

The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster

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The Red Prince

By: Helen Carr
Narrated by: Helen Carr
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About this listen

Medieval history from a rising star in the field, this is a biography of one of the most important figures of the age, John of Gaunt.

John Gaunt was the son of Edward III, brother to the Black Prince, father to Henry IV, and the sire of all those Tudors. He has had pretty bad press: supposed usurper of Richard II’s crown and the focus of hatred in the Peasants’ Revolt, as they torched his home, the Savoy Palace.

Helen Carr paints a complex portrait of a man who held the levers of power on the English and European stage, passionately upheld chivalric values, pressed for the Bible to be translated into English, patronized the arts - and, if you follow Shakespeare, gave the most beautiful oration on England: “this sceptred isle...this blessed plot.”

The Red Prince is an engrossing drama of political machinations, violence, romance, plague, revolt, and tragedy played out at the cusp of a new era.

©2021 Helen Carr (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing Europe Great Britain Medieval England Middle Ages Royalty Tudor Shakespeare
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A scholarly and thoroughly engrossing biography of John of Gaunt. This is a must for anybody interested in the origins of the Wars of the Roses, and fourteenth century England and Europe. Highly recommended.

A fabulous study of a man who shaped history.

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Carr presents a compelling and thought-provoking account of one of the pillars of the English monarchy in the fourteenth century. Gaunt emerges as a flawed but understandable figure balancing personal ambition, familial loyalty and political expediency. Very much recommend

Wonderful account of a complex individual

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The narration was like a reading of an essay. Nothing new was posited and lots of background to fill in the gaps that every writer on the subject faces. Overall disappointing.

Eagerly Awaited But Disappointing

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