DRAMATIS PERSONAE
KING RICHARD THE SECOND
QUEEN ISABEL, Duchess of York, wife to King Richard
JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster - uncle to the King
EDMUND LANGLEY, Duke of York - uncle to the King
HENRY BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford, son of John of Gaunt, afterwards King Henry IV
DUKE OF AUMERLE, son of the Duke of York
“Gaunt” is an anglicization of “Ghent”– Gaunt was born in Ghent, Flanders (in modern-day Belgium). He rarely used the “of Gaunt” title in his mature years, though Shakespeare’s hold on the popular imagination has engraved it in stone. 
 The Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) was Edward, the Black Prince’s younger brother, and the fourth son of Edward III. His military campaigns in France and Spain (Thomas Kyd refers to the latter in  The Spanish Tragedy ) made him a hero to the masses, and Shakespeare follows this perception, though the historical Gaunt was much more ruthless and Draconian. 
 Gaunt would go on to become the progenitor of the House of Lancaster, one of the two primary belligerents in the  Wars of the Roses. 
 
 John of Gaunt, c.1593, artist unknown,  via.
Richard II Characters of the Play