The Forgotten Duchess Who Founded the House of Lancaster | Blanche of Lancaster | History for Sleep

She was the richest heiress in England, the first wife of John of Gaunt, and the mother of a king — yet history remembers the women who came after her far better than it remembers Blanche of Lancaster. Tonight, we follow Blanche's quiet, extraordinary life: her childhood as daughter of Henry of Grosmont, the most powerful duke in England; her marriage at Reading Abbey to John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III; the vast Lancastrian inheritance that made her husband the wealthiest man in the kingdom; and her children — including the future King Henry IV and Philippa of Lancaster, who became Portugal's beloved queen. In her household served a young governess named Katherine Swynford, whose own story would one day entwine with Gaunt's forever. When plague swept England in 1368, Blanche died at just twenty-six — and John of Gaunt mourned her for the rest of his life, commissioning Geoffrey Chaucer's Book of the Duchess in her memory and asking to be buried beside her. Every Lancastrian king, and through Margaret Beaufort every Tudor monarch, descends from her. A calm, immersive telling of her world — the castles, the courts, the quiet evenings of fourteenth-century England — perfect for sleep, rest, or relaxation. If you enjoy falling asleep in another age, consider subscribing for new journeys into the medieval world.