country_of_citizenship thomas beaufort
John of Gaunt , 1st Duke of Lancaster , ( 6 March 1340  3 February 1399 ) was a member of the House of Plantagenet , the third of five surviving sons of King Edward III of ___MASK62___ and Philippa of Hainault . He was called " John of Gaunt " because he was born in Ghent , then rendered in English as " Gaunt ". When he became unpopular later in life , scurrilous rumours and lampoons circulated that he was actually the son of a Ghent butcher , perhaps because Edward III was not present at the birth . This story always drove him to fury . ___MASK62___ is a country that is part of the ___MASK75___ . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of ___MASK62___ and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . ___MASK62___ is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight . The Hundred Years ' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet , rulers of the ___MASK94___ , against the House of Valois , rulers of the Kingdom of France , over the succession of the French throne . Each side drew many allies into the war . It was one of the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages , in which five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe . The war marked both the height of chivalry and its subsequent decline , and the development of strong national identities in both countries . The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the ___MASK75___ belonging to the ___MASK77___ monarch as a corporation sole , making it the " Sovereign ' s public estate ", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch ' s private estate . As a result of this arrangement , the sovereign is not involved with the management or administration of the estate , exercising only very limited control of its affairs . Instead , the estate ' s extensive portfolio is overseen by a semi - independent , incorporated public body headed by the Crown Estate Commissioners , who exercise " the powers of ownership " of the estate , although they are not " owners in their own right ". The revenues from these hereditary possessions have been placed by the monarch at the disposition of Her Majesty ' s Government and thus proceed directly to Her Majesty ' s Treasury for the benefit of the ___MASK77___ nation . The Crown Estate is formally accountable to the Parliament of the ___MASK75___ , where it is legally mandated to make an annual report to the sovereign , a copy of which is forwarded to the House of Commons . Devon ( archaically known as Devonshire ) is a county of ___MASK62___ , reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south . It is part of South West ___MASK62___ , bounded by Cornwall to the west , Somerset to the northeast , and Dorset to the east . The City of Exeter is the county town ; seven other districts of East Devon , Mid Devon , North Devon , South Hams , Teignbridge , Torridge , and West Devon are under the jurisdiction of Devon County Council ; Plymouth and Torbay are each a part of Devon but administered as unitary authorities . Combined as a ceremonial county , Devon ' s area is and its population is about 1 . 1 million . Elizabeth II ( Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ; born 21 April 1926 ) has been Queen of the ___MASK75___ , Canada , Australia , and ___MASK61___ since 6 February 1952 . She is Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession : Jamaica , Barbados , the Bahamas , Grenada , Papua New Guinea , Solomon Islands , ___MASK57___ , Saint Lucia , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , Belize , Antigua and Barbuda , and Saint Kitts and Nevis . Katherine Swynford , Duchess of Lancaster ( November 25 , 1350  May 10 , 1403 )( also spelled Katharine or Catherine ), was the third wife of John of Gaunt , Duke of Lancaster , a son of King Edward III . She had been the Duke ' s lover for many years before their marriage . The couple ' s children , born before the marriage , were later legitimated during the reign of the Duke ' s nephew , Richard II . When the Duke ' s son from his first marriage overthrew Richard , becoming Henry IV , he introduced a provision that neither they nor their descendants could ever claim the throne of ___MASK62___ . Edward III ( 13 November 1312  21 June 1377 ) was King of ___MASK62___ from 25 January 1327 until his death ; he is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after the disastrous and unorthodox reign of his father , Edward II . Edward III transformed the ___MASK94___ into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe . His long reign of fifty years was the second longest in medieval ___MASK62___ and saw vital developments in legislation and government  in particular the evolution of the English parliament  as well as the ravages of the Black Death . Ghent is a city and a municipality in the ___MASK86___ of Belgium . It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province and after Antwerp the largest municipality of Belgium . The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe , with some 50 , 000 people in 1300 . It is a port and university city . The House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty . They succeeded the House of Capet ( or " Direct Capetians ") to the French throne , and were the royal house of ___MASK39___ from 1328 to 1589 . Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans , ___MASK88___ , Burgundy , and Alençon . Thomas Beaufort , 1st Duke of Exeter KG ( c . 1377 -- c . 31 December 1426 ) was an English military commander during the Hundred Years ' War , and briefly Chancellor of ___MASK62___ . He was the third of the four children born to John of Gaunt , Duke of Lancaster , and his mistress Katherine Swynford . To overcome their problematic parentage , his parents were married in 1396 , and he and his siblings were legitimated on two separate occasions , in 1390 and again in 1397 . He married the daughter of Sir Thomas Neville of Horneby , Margaret Neville , who bore him one son , Henry Beaufort . However , the child died young . Chivalry , or the chivalric code , is a code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood which developed between 1170 and 1220 . The ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature , especially the Matter of Britain and Matter of ___MASK39___ , the former based on Geoffrey of Monmouth ' s " Historia Regum Britanniae " which introduced the legend of King Arthur , written in the 1130s . The Duke of Lancaster is an ancient title which is currently held by Elizabeth II , who is also the Monarch of the ___MASK75___ . The Duchy of Lancaster exists as a separate entity from the Crown Estate and currently provides income for the ___MASK77___ monarch . Philippa of Hainault ( 24 June 1314  15 August 1369 ) was Queen of ___MASK62___ as the wife of King Edward III . Edward , Duke of Guyenne , her future husband , promised in 1326 to marry her within the following two years . She was married to Edward , first by proxy , when Edward dispatched the Bishop of Coventry " to marry her in his name " in Valenciennes ( second city in importance of the ___MASK21___ ) in October 1327 . The marriage was celebrated formally in York Minster on 24 January 1328 , some months after Edward ' s accession to the throne of ___MASK62___ . In August 1328 , he also fixed his wife ' s dower . The Duchy of Lancaster is , since 1399 , the private estate of the ___MASK77___ sovereign as Duke of Lancaster . The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the Sovereign . The estate consists of a portfolio of lands , properties , and assets held in trust for the Sovereign , and is administered separately from the Crown Estate . The duchy consists of of land holdings ( including rural estates and farmland ), urban developments , historic buildings , and some commercial properties across England and Wales , particularly in Cheshire , Staffordshire , Derbyshire , Lincolnshire , Yorkshire , Lancashire and the Savoy Estate in London . The Duchy of Lancaster is one of two royal duchies : the other is the Duchy of Cornwall , which provides income to the Prince of Wales . The title Duke of Exeter was created several times in ___MASK62___ in the later Middle Ages , when Exeter was the main town of Devon . It was first created for John Holland , the half - brother of King Richard II in 1397 . That title was rescinded upon Henry IV ' s accession to the throne two years later , and the title was subsequently granted to Henry V ' s uncle , Thomas Beaufort , 1st Earl of Dorset . Following this Duke ' s death without heirs in 1426 , the title was restored to the Holland family , which held it until the 3rd Duke was attainted in 1461 as a Lancastrian , dying in 1475 . The ___MASK93___ was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe , the predecessor of the modern ___MASK18___ . It was one of the most powerful states in Europe , a great power since the Late Middle Ages and the Hundred Years ' War . It was also an early colonial power , with possessions around the world . The House of Plantagenet was a royal house which originated from the lands of ___MASK88___ in France . The name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses  the Angevins who were also Counts of ___MASK88___ , the main body of the Plantagenets following the loss of ___MASK88___ , and the houses of Lancaster and York , the Plantagenets ' two cadet branches . The family held the English throne from 1154 , with the accession of Henry II , until 1485 , when Richard III died . The ___MASK94___ was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the 10th century  when it emerged from various Anglo - Saxon kingdoms  until 1707 , when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain .