John of Gaunt III's rule was becoming unpopular due to high taxation and his affair with Alice Perrers, political opinion closely associated the Duke of Lancaster with the failing government of the 1370s. Furthermore, while King Edward and the Prince of Wales were popular heroes due to their successes on the battlefield, John of Gaunt had not won equivalent military renown that could have bolstered his reputation. Although he fought in the Battle of Nájera (1367), for example, his later military projects proved unsuccessful. When Edward III died in 1377 and John's ten-year-old nephew succeeded as Richard II of England, John's influence strengthened.
A French Mistress A French Mistress A French Mistress is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Agnès Laurent, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters. It is based on a stage play, "The French Mistress" by Robert Monro (AKA Sonnie Hale), first produced in 1959 at the Theatre Royal Windsor, starring Sonnie Hale. A young French woman, Madaleine Lafarge (Laurent), is appointed as a French teacher at a rather old-fashioned English public school which is not used to women teachers. She causes a stir and complications ensue. A romance develops between