John of Gaunt

=== Head of government ===
On his return from France in 1374, John took a more decisive and persistent role in the direction of English foreign policy. From then until 1377, he was effectively the head of the English government owing to the illness of his father and elder brother, who were unable to exercise authority. His vast estates made him the richest man in England, and his great wealth, ostentatious display of it, autocratic manner and attitudes, enormous London mansion (the [[Savoy Palace]] on the Strand) and association with the failed peace process at Bruges combined to make him the most visible target of social resentments. His time at the head of government was marked by the so-called [[Good Parliament]] of 1376 and the [[Bad Parliament]] of 1377. The first, called to grant massive war taxation to the Crown, turned into a parliamentary revolution, with the Commons (supported to some extent by the Lords) venting their grievances at decades of crippling taxation, misgovernment, and suspected endemic corruption among the ruling classes. John was left isolated (even the Black Prince supported the need for reform) and the Commons refused to grant money for the war unless most of the great officers of state were dismissed and the king's mistress [[Alice Perrers]], another focus of popular resentment, was barred from any further association with him. But even after the government acceded to virtually all their demands, the Commons then refused to authorise any funds for the war, losing the sympathy of the Lords as a result.

The death of the Black Prince on 8 June 1376 and the onset of Edward III's last illness at the closing of Parliament on 10 July left John with all the reins of power. He immediately had the ailing king grant pardons to all the officials impeached by the Parliament; Alice Perrers too was reinstated at the heart of the king's household. John impeached [[William of Wykeham]] and other leaders of the reform movement, and secured their conviction on old or trumped-up charges. The parliament of 1377 was John's counter-coup: crucially, the Lords no longer supported the Commons and John was able to have most of the acts of 1376 annulled. He also succeeded in forcing the Commons to agree to the imposition of the first [[poll tax]] in English history—a viciously regressive measure that bore hardest on the poorest members of society.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|p=271}} There was organised opposition to his measures and rioting in London; John of Gaunt's arms were reversed or defaced wherever they were displayed, and protestors pasted up lampoons on his supposedly dubious birth. At one point he was forced to take refuge across the Thames, while his Savoy Palace only just escaped looting.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|p=274}} It was rumoured (and believed by many people in England and France) that he intended to seize the throne for himself and supplant the rightful heir, his nephew Richard, the son of the Black Prince, but there seems to have been no truth in this and on the death of Edward III and the accession of the child Richard II, John sought no position of regency for himself and withdrew to his estates.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=213, 283–284}}

John's personal unpopularity persisted, however, and the failure of his expedition to Saint-Malo in 1378 did nothing for his reputation. By this time, too, some of his possessions were taken from him by the Crown. For example, his ship, the ''Dieulagarde'', was seized and bundled with other royal ships to be sold to pay off the debts of Sir [[Robert de Crull]], who during the latter part of King [[Edward III of England|Edward III]]'s reign had been the ''Clerk of the King's Ships'', and had advanced monies to pay for the king's ships.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherborne |date=1 July 1994 |first=James |title=War, Politics and Culture in 14th Century England |editor=[[Anthony Tuck]] |publisher=Hambledon Press |place=London |page=32 |isbn=978-1-85285-086-9 }} The former title for "Clerk of the King's Ships" had been "Keeper and Governor of the King's Ships and Warden of the Sea and Maritime Parts". Crull had served Edward III in this capacity from 6 October 1359 to 22 September 1378. {{cite book |last=Rodger |date=1997 |first=N. |title=The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660–1649 |publisher=HarperCollins |place=London |page=99 |isbn=978-0-00-255128-1 |author-link=Nicholas A. M. Rodger }}</ref> During the [[Peasants' Revolt]] of 1381, John of Gaunt was far from the centre of events, on the [[March (territory)|March]] of Scotland, but he was among those named by the rebels as a traitor to be beheaded as soon as he could be found. The Savoy Palace was systematically destroyed by the mob and burned to the ground. Nominally friendly lords and even his own fortresses closed their gates to him, and John was forced to flee into Scotland with a handful of retainers and throw himself on the charity of King [[Robert II of Scotland]] until the crisis was over.{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=425–426}}