John of Lancaster

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Bedford, John of Lancaster, duke of (1389-1435). The third son of King Henry IV, John was created duke of Bedford by his brother Henry V in 1414. Throughout his life he identified himself with his brother's policies. He was lieutenant of the kingdom during Henry's absences in France. He also proved himself an able soldier, commanding the ships which defeated the French fleet before relieving Harfleur in August 1416. After Henry's death in August 1422 Bedford was appointed regent of France. In alliance with John, duke of Brittany, and Philip, duke of Burgundy, whose sister Anne he married in June 1423, he prosecuted the war, at first with considerable success. But his position in France was made difficult by both lack of funds and the uneasy state of England induced partly by the actions of his brother Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, lord protector to the infant Henry VI. After the failure of the siege of Orléans in 1429 Bedford resigned the regency in favour of Philip of Burgundy but retained the government of Normandy, where he secured the coronation of the young Henry VI in Paris in December 1431. The death of Duchess Anne and Bedford's marriage to Jacqueline, daughter of the comte de Saint-Pol, in 1433 destroyed friendly relations between England and Burgundy. Bedford died at Rouen in September 1435, his policies in ruins, after the failure of peace negotiations at the Congress of Arras, which had Seen Duke Philip finally desert the English cause.