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The Red Prince

The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster

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The Red Prince

By: Helen Carr
Narrated by: Helen Carr
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About this listen

Medieval history from a rising star in the field, this is a biography of one of the most important figures of the age, John of Gaunt.

John Gaunt was the son of Edward III, brother to the Black Prince, father to Henry IV, and the sire of all those Tudors. He has had pretty bad press: supposed usurper of Richard II’s crown and the focus of hatred in the Peasants’ Revolt, as they torched his home, the Savoy Palace.

Helen Carr paints a complex portrait of a man who held the levers of power on the English and European stage, passionately upheld chivalric values, pressed for the Bible to be translated into English, patronized the arts - and, if you follow Shakespeare, gave the most beautiful oration on England: “this sceptred isle...this blessed plot.”

The Red Prince is an engrossing drama of political machinations, violence, romance, plague, revolt, and tragedy played out at the cusp of a new era.

©2021 Helen Carr (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing Europe Great Britain Medieval England Middle Ages Royalty Tudor Shakespeare
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Hard to stay engaged because the narration is not engaging. she sounds like a college major reading her thesis out to the examination board.

History needs to be delivered with passion and colour. Major characters and events need to stand out. She reads off each character and battle with the same indifferent tone so that everything just merges into a dull series of events.

Authors including many historians are not always the ideal narrator.
Writing and reading aloud are two distinctly separate skills. The latter is a performance art, closer to acting.

I wish authors would realise this.
They all seem to think they're Stephen Fry.

Interesting subject - Boring dull delivery

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The narrators voice was flat and so unfortunately I couldn’t finish the book. It is an interesting topic and I felt it seemed very well researched so
I might get try it on kindle and read it myself .

well researched on a great topic ruined by the narrator.

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Sorry ! I found myself struggling with the narration. A shame, because the content was good, and very informative.

Not My Type

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John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster is a titan of English history, an important central figure alongside his father Edward III and his son Henry IV. Gaunt was the brother of Edward, The Black Prince and uncle of the tyrannical Richard II. A loyal man to family throughout his lifetime, a doting son, loving brother and adoring father. In his early years Gaunt played a role in the Hundred Years War fighting in France and Spain and in the Duchy of Aquitaine, then being managed by his older brother Edward.

He was also at times hated by the public, which came to a head in the peasants revolt and the burning of his magnificent Savoy Palace in London. This also left a bitter taste as Richard II left a 14 year old future Henry IV in great danger in the Tower of London, narrowly avoiding capture and certain death by the rebels. With immense wealth and ambition Gaunt also attempted to become King of Castile through his second wife Constance of Castile. This ultimately failed, leaving him to return to England as Richard II was becoming a despot more and more paranoid of those around him. This forced John to constantly show his loyalty to the crown, even abandoning his brother Thomas of Woodstock in order to safeguard his children. This would eventually come to a head when Richard disinherited Henry after John’s death in 1399, causing Richard to be disposed and the beginnings of the War of the Roses. Eventually this would lead to the downfall of the Plantagenet line and the rise of the Beaufort/Tudor line through John’s son John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

This is a story of war and peace, tyranny and kindness, love and hate and Helen Carr does a good job of presenting the facts in a clear and coherent way. She is a good writer, who gets her point across easily (the writing is like Hemingway, no meat on the bones, just to the point). Although the book is short I came away satisfied with the content, I felt I know what I need to about John and having read about his other family members, his father, nephew, wife, brothers and son, this book slots nicely into my understanding of the period. A great debut book by Carr and I have no reason to complain. The story of English history over the past 550 years begins with Gaunt, it all leads back to Gaunt and so it is great Carr also begins her career with him too.

Father of English Kings

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Really enjoyed listening to this and great that John had connections in my native Yorkshire.

Great listen

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