John of Gaunt Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Death == [[File:Wenceslas Hollar - John of Gaunt (monument).jpg|thumb|The tomb of Gaunt and [[Blanche of Lancaster]] in [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St. Paul's Cathedral]], as represented in an etching of 1658 by [[Wenceslaus Hollar]]. The etching includes a number of inaccuracies, for example in not showing the couple with joined hands.]] John of Gaunt died of natural causes on 3 February 1399 at [[Leicester Castle]], with his third wife Katherine by his side. He was buried beside his first wife, [[Blanche of Lancaster]], in the [[Choir (architecture)|choir]] of [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's Cathedral]], adjacent to the high altar. Their magnificent tomb had been designed and executed between 1374 and 1380 by [[Henry Yevele]] with the assistance of Thomas Wrek, at a total cost of Β£592. The two [[alabaster]] effigies were notable for having their right hands joined. An adjacent [[chantry|chantry chapel]] was added between 1399 and 1403.<ref name="harr">{{cite journal |last=Harris |date=2010 |first=Oliver D. |title='Une tresriche sepulture': the tomb and chantry of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in Old St Paul's Cathedral, London |journal=Church Monuments |volume=25 |pages=7β35 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Sinclair |author-link=William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London) |title=Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral |location=London |publisher=Chapman & Hall |year=1909 |page=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t7zk5926p&view=2up&seq=144 95] }}</ref> During the reformation when other stonework in the cathedral was taken down in 1552, the tomb was spared by an command of [[His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|the council]], but was stripped plain.{{efn|name=fn1|"The xxv. day of October was the pluckynge downe of alle the alteres and chappelles in alle Powlles churche, with alle the toumes, at the commandment of the byshoppe then beynge Nicolas Rydley, and alle the goodly stoneworke that stode behynde the hye alter, and the place for the prest, dekyne, and subdekyne; and wolde a pullyd downe John a Gauntes tome but there was a commandment [to] the contrary from the counsell, and soo yt was made alle playne as it aperes." ''The [[Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London]]''}} During the period of the [[Interregnum (1649β1660)]] it was severely damaged, and perhaps destroyed; anything that survived was lost (with the rest of the cathedral) in the [[Great Fire of London]] of 1666.<ref name="harr"/> A wall memorial in the crypt of the [[St Paul's Cathedral|present cathedral]] lists Gaunt's as among the important lost monuments. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page