"In 1399 Henry Bolingbroke, duke of Lancaster, seized the throne of England to become Henry IV. From 1399, therefore, the Lancastrian kings - unlike their royal predecessors - commanded not only the public authority of the crown, but also the private power of the Duchy of Lancaster. Until now, this has been seen simply as an advantage to the Lancastrian crown, and as a uncontroversial part of the evolution of a 'royal affinity' during the later middle ages.". "However, this study makes clear that significant tensions existed between the role of the king and that of his altar ego, the duke of Lancaster. The task of combining private, regional lordship with public, national kingship formed an intrinsic part of Henry IV's attempt to establish his rule; Henry V's success in assimilating the Duchy into the wider authority of the Lancastrian crown helped to underpin the success of his regime as a whole, but under the passive figure of Henry VI the problem of the relationship between the public and private aspects of the king's authority reasserted itself. This book examines the complex relationship between the king, the crown, and the Duchy of Lancaster throughout the Lancastrian period at both a national and a local level. It focuses particularly on political society in the north midlands and East Anglia, and offers a challenging re-evaluation of the unique evidence of mid-fifteenth-century politics provided by the Paston Letters."--BOOK JACKET.