Brewer's: Time-honoured Lancaster

Old John of Gaunt. His father was Edward III., his son Henry IV., his nephew Richard II. of England; his second wife was Constance, daughter of Peter the Cruel of Castile and Leon, his only daughter married John of Castile and Leon; his sister Johanna married Alphonso, King of Castile. Shakespeare calls him “time-honoured” and “old;” honoured he certainly was, but was only fifty-nine at his death. Hesiod is called Old, meaning “long ago.”

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