Gaunt’s geography is strangely out of kilter. And so is Shakespeare’s history. When the actual people of England rose up in the Peasants’ Revolt, John of Gaunt was at the top of their hit list. He was Jean of Ghent, as in the city that is now part of Belgium. He was a French-speaking Plantagenet who spent much of his time in Aquitaine and became, for fifteen years, titular King of Castile.
