LANCASTER, HOUSE OF. The name House of Lancaster is commonly used to designate the line of English kings immedi ately descended from John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III. But the history of the family and of the title goes back to the reign of Henry III., who created his second son, Edmund, earl of Lancaster in 1267. This Edmund received in his own day the surname of Crouchback, from having worn a cross upon his back in token of a crusading vow. His son Thomas, who in herited the title, took the lead among the nobles of Edward II.'s time in opposition to Piers Gaveston and the Despensers, and was beheaded for treason at Pontefract. At the beginning of the next reign his brother Henry was appointed guardian to the young king Edward III. and assisted him to throw off the yoke of Mortimer. Meantime the attainder had been reversed and the earldom re stored. On this Henry's death in 1345 he was succeeded by a son, sometimes known as Henry Tort-Col or Wryneck, a very valiant commander in the French wars, whom the king advanced to the dignity of a duke. Only one duke had been created in England before—the king's son Edward, the Black Prince, duke of Cornwall. Henry Wryneck died in 1361 without male heir.
His second daughter, Blanche, became the wife of John of Gaunt, who thus succeeded to the duke's inheritance in her right ; and on Nov. 13, 1362, when King Edward attained the age of 5o, John was created duke of Lancaster, his elder brother, Lionel, being at the same time created duke of Clarence. It was from these two dukes that the rival houses of Lancaster and York derived their respective claims to the crown. As Clarence was King Edward's third son, while John of Gaunt was his fourth, in ordinary course on the failure of the elder line the issue of Clarence should have taken precedence of that of Lancaster in the succession. But the rights of Clarence were conveyed in the first instance to an only daughter, and the ambition and policy of the house of Lancaster, profiting by advantageous circumstances, enabled them not only to gain possession of the throne but to maintain themselves in it for three generations before they were dispossessed by the repre sentatives of the elder brother. (See LANCASTER, JOHN OF GAUNT,