Editing John of Gaunt (section)

===Arms===

[[File:Arms of John of Gaunt, King of Castile.svg|thumb|right|Coat of arms of John of Gaunt asserting his kingship over Castile and León, showing the [[royal arms of Castile and León]] [[Impalement (heraldry)|impaling]] his paternal arms (the [[royal arms of England]]), with his heraldic [[Difference (heraldry)|difference]]. 
Later in his life the two sides were reversed.]]

As a son of the sovereign, John bore the royal arms of the kingdom (''Quarterly, France Ancient and England''), [[Label (heraldry)|differenced]] by a label of three points ermine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/cadency.htm |title=Marks of cadency in the British royal family|first=Francois R.|last=Velde|website=www.heraldica.org}}</ref>

As claimant to the throne of Castile and León from 1372, he [[Impalement (heraldry)|impaled]] the arms of that kingdom (''Gules, a castle or, quartering Argent, a lion rampant purpure'') with his own. The arms of Castile and León appeared on the [[Dexter and sinister|dexter]] side of the shield (the left-hand side as viewed), and the differenced English royal arms on the sinister; but in 1388, when he surrendered his claim, he reversed this marshalling, placing his own arms on the dexter, and those of Castile and León on the sinister.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armitage-Smith |date=1904 |first=Sydney |title=John of Gaunt |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co. |place=Westminster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/johngauntkingca00armigoog/page/n504 456]–57 |url=https://archive.org/details/johngauntkingca00armigoog }}</ref> He thus continued to signal his alliance with the Castilian royal house, while abandoning any claim to the throne. There is, however, evidence that he may occasionally have used this second marshalling at earlier dates.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fox |date=2009 |first=Paul A. |title=Fourteenth-century ordinaries of Arms. Part 2: William Jenyns' Ordinary |journal=Coat of Arms |series=3rd ser. |volume=5 |pages=55–64 }} (pp. 59, 61, pl. 2)</ref>

In addition to his royal arms, Gaunt bore an alternative coat of ''Sable, three ostrich feathers ermine''. This was the counterpart to his brother, the [[Edward, the Black Prince|Black Prince's]], "shield for peace" (on which the ostrich feathers were white), and may have been used in [[jousting]]. The ostrich feather arms appeared in stained glass above Gaunt's chantry chapel in St Paul's Cathedral.{{sfn|Harris|2010|pp=22–3}}