Berkhamsted Castle was taken prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers. When the Black Prince fell ill following his campaigning in France, he retired to Berkhamsted and died there in 1376. Richard II inherited Berkamsted Castle in 1377; initially the use of it was given to his favourite, Robert de Vere and, after de Vere's fall from power and exile in 1388, to John Holland. Henry IV lived in the castle after he deposed Richard in 1400, and he used the property to detain rival applicants to the throne. During this period Geoffrey Chaucer, later famous for his "Canterbury Tales", oversaw renovation work
John de Braose Braose. His grandfather had had his lands seized and his grandmother Maud de St. Valery had been captured by forces of King John of England in 1210. She was imprisoned, along with John's father William, in Corfe Castle and walled alive inside the dungeon. Both mother and son starved to death on the King's orders. This was probably due to John's grandfather's conflict with the monarch, open rebellion and subsequent alliance with Llewelyn the Great. John's nickname "Tadody" means "fatherless" in the Welsh. At his family's fall from Royal favour John de Braose was initially hidden on Gower and spent