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.
Mistress of Mistresses reader is kept uncertain over what impact Lessingham can have over the future of the realm until the novel's close. First of the Zimiamvian Trilogy to be published, "Mistress of Mistresses" is chronologically the last novel in the series. Mistress of Mistresses Mistress of Mistresses is a fantasy novel by English writer Eric Rücker Eddison, the first in his Zimiamvian Trilogy. First published in 1935, it centers on political intrigues between the nobles and rulers of the Three Kingdoms of Rerek, Meszria and Fingiswold, following the death of King Mezentius, an extraordinary ruler who has held sway over three kingdoms