violated the sanctuary at Westminster. He vindicated himself somewhat bitterly in a parliament at Gloucester, but still avoiding a prominent part in the government, accepted the command on the Scottish border. He was there engaged when his palace of the Savoy in London was burnt during the peasants’ revolt in June 1381. Wild reports that even the government had declared him a traitor made him seek refuge in Scotland. Richard had, however, denounced the calumnies, and at once recalled his uncle.
John’s self-restraint had strengthened his position, and he began again to think of his Spanish scheme. He urged its undertaking in parliament in 1382, but nearer troubles were more urgent, and John himself was wanted on the Scottish border. There he sought to arrange peace, but against his will was forced into an unfortunate campaign in 1384. His ill-success renewed his unpopularity, and the court favourites of Richard II. intrigued against him. They were probably responsible for the allegation, made by a Carmelite, called Latemar, that John was conspiring against his nephew. Though Richard at first believed it, the matter was disposed of by the friar’s death. However, the court party soon after concocted a fresh plot for the duke’s destruction; John boldly denounced his traducers, and the quarrel was appeased by the intervention of the king’s mother. The intrigue still continued, and broke out again during the Scottish campaign in 1385. John was not the man to be forced into treason to his family, but the impossibility of the position at home made his foreign ambitions more feasible.
The victory of John of Portugal over the king of Castile at Aljubarrota, won with English help, offered an opportunity. In July 1386 John left England with a strong force to win his Spanish throne. He landed at Corunna, and during the autumn conquered Galicia. Juan, who had succeeded his father Henry as king of Castile, offered a compromise by marriage. John of Gaunt refused, hoping for greater success with the help of the king of Portugal, who now married the duke’s eldest daughter Philippa. In the spring the allies invaded Castile. They could achieve no success, and sickness ruined the English army. The conquests of the previous year were lost, and when Juan renewed his offers, John of Gaunt agreed to surrender his claims to his daughter by Constance of Castile, who was to marry Juan’s heir. After some delay the peace was concluded at Bayonne in 1388. The next eighteen months were spent by John as lieutenant of Aquitaine, and it was not till November 1389 that he returned to England. By his absence he had avoided implication in the troubles at home. Richard, still insecure of his own position, welcomed his uncle, and early in the following year marked his favour by creating him duke of Aquitaine. John on his part was glad to support the king’s government; during four years he exercised his influence in favour of pacification at home, and abroad was chiefly responsible for the conclusion of a truce with France. Then in 1395 he went to take up the government of his duchy; thanks chiefly to his lavish expenditure his administration was not unsuccessful, but the Gascons had from the first objected to government except by the crown, and secured his recall within less than a year. Almost immediately after his return John married as his third wife Catherine Swynford; Constance of Castile had died in 1394. Catherine had been his mistress for many years, and his children by her, who bore the name of Beaufort, were now legitimated. In this and in other matters Richard found it politic to conciliate him. But though John presided at the trial of the earl of Arundel in September 1397, he took no active part in affairs. The exile of his son Henry in 1398 was a blow from which he did not recover. He died on the 3rd of February 1399, and was buried at St Paul’s near the high altar.
John was neither a great soldier nor a statesman, but he was a chivalrous knight and loyal to what he believed were the interests of his family. In spite of opportunities and provocations he never lent himself to treason. He deserves credit for his protection of Wycliffe, though he had no sympathy with his religious or political opinions. He was also the patron of Chaucer, whose Boke of the Duchesse was a lament for Blanche of Lancaster.
The chief original sources for John’s life are Froissart, the maliciously hostile Chronicon Angliae (1328–1388), and the eulogistic Chronicle of Henry Knighton (both the latter in the Rolls Series). But fuller information is to be found in the excellent biography by S. Armytage-Smith, published in 1904. For his descendants see the table under Lancaster, House of. (C. L. K.)
LANCASTER, JOSEPH (1778–1838), English educationist,
was born in Southwark in 1778, the son of a Chelsea pensioner.
He had few opportunities of regular instruction, but he very
early showed unusual seriousness and desire for learning. At
sixteen he looked forward to the dissenting ministry; but soon
after his religious views altered, and he attached himself to the
Society of Friends, with which he remained associated for many
years, until long afterwards he was disowned by that body.
At the age of twenty he began to gather a few poor children under
his father’s roof, and to give them the rudiments of instruction,
without a fee, except in cases in which the parent was willing
to pay a trifle. Soon a thousand children were assembled in
the Borough Road; and, the attention of the duke of Bedford,
Mr Whitbread, and others having been directed to his efforts,
he was provided with means for building a schoolroom and
supplying needful materials. The main features of his plan
were the employment of older scholars as monitors, and an
elaborate system of mechanical drill, by means of which these
young teachers were made to impart the rudiments of reading,
writing and arithmetic to large numbers at the same time. The
material appliances for teaching were very scanty—a few leaves
torn out of spelling-books and pasted on boards, some slates and
a desk spread with sand, on which the children wrote with their
fingers. The order and cheerfulness of the school and the
military precision of the children’s movements began to attract
much public observation at a time when the education of the
poor was almost entirely neglected. Lancaster inspired his
young monitors with fondness for their work and with pride
in the institution of which they formed a part. As these youths
became more trustworthy, he found himself at leisure to accept
invitations to expound what he called “his system” by lectures
in various towns. In this way many new schools were established,
and placed under the care of young men whom he had trained.
In a memorable interview with George III., Lancaster was
encouraged by the expression of the king’s wish that every poor
child in his dominions should be taught to read the Bible.
Royal patronage brought in its train resources, fame and public
responsibility, which proved to be beyond Lancaster’s own
powers to sustain or control. He was vain, reckless and improvident.
In 1808 a few noblemen and gentlemen paid his
debts, became his trustees and founded the society at first called
the Royal Lancasterian Institution, but afterwards more widely
known as the British and Foreign School Society. The trustees
soon found that Lancaster was impatient of control, and that
his wild impulses and heedless extravagance made it impossible
to work with him. He quarrelled with the committee, set up
a private school at Tooting, became bankrupt, and in 1818
emigrated to America. There he met at first a warm reception,
gave several courses of lectures which were well attended,
and wrote to friends at home letters full of enthusiasm. But his
fame was short-lived. The miseries of debt and disappointment
were aggravated by sickness, and he settled for a time in the
warmer climate of Carácas. He afterwards visited St Thomas
and Santa Cruz, and at length returned to New York, the
corporation of which city made him a public grant of 500 dollars
in pity for the misfortunes which had by this time reduced
him to lamentable poverty. He afterwards visited Canada, where he gave lectures at Montreal, and was encouraged to open a school which enjoyed an ephemeral success, but was soon abandoned. A small annuity provided by his friends in England was his only means of support. He formed a plan for returning home and giving a new impetus to his “system,” by which he declared it would be possible “to teach ten thousand children in different schools, not knowing their letters, all to read fluently in three weeks to three months.” But these visions were never realized. He was run over by a carriage in the streets of New York on the 24th of October 1838, and died in a few hours.
