Blanca Lancaster

Blanca was the youngest of Henry Grosmont 's two daughters. She married on May 19, 1359 , at the age of fourteen, to her second cousin, one of the sons of King Edward III John Gaunt . Blanca's father died two years later; all of his lands and titles were to go to his eldest daughter, Maud, but she died already in 1362, leaving no children. As a result, John Gaunt became Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester, Earl of Derby and Earl of Lincoln and the largest landowner in England (after the king). Descendants from the marriage of John and Blanca became the Second Lancaster House .

It can be assumed that this short marriage was happy; in any case, John Gaunt, who later married twice more, bequeathed to bury himself next to Blanca.

Blanca Lancaster died on September 12, 1368 at Tutburi Castle in Staffordshire, when her husband was on the continent ^[3] . She was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Six years later, John Gaunt ordered a double tombstone, under which both spouses rested in 1399.

Over the nine years of marriage, Blanca gave birth to seven children. These were:

• Philip (March 31, 1360 - July 19, 1415); husband - Juan I , king of Portugal.
• John (c. 1362/1364)
• Elizabeth (February 21, 1364 - November 24, 1426); 1st husband - John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke ; 2nd husband - John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter ; 3rd husband - John Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope
• Edward (1365–1365)
• John (May 4, 1366)
• Henry Bollingbroke (1367-1413), then - Henry IV , king of England
• Isabella (1368–1368)