John Clanvowe

Who was John Clanvowe?

Sir John Clanvowe was a Welsh diplomat, soldier and poet.

Clanvowe was born to a Welsh Marcher family in an area that would later become part of Radnorshire but took up residence in Wigmore, Herefordshire.

In 1390 he was campaigning with Louis II, Duke of Bourbon against Tunis. He was buried with Sir William Neville in a joint tomb discovered in 1913 in Istanbul's Arap Mosque in a way,which would suggest a homosexual relationship between the two men.

He was a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1386 they were both deponents in Scrope v. Grosvenor in the Court of Chivalry.

He was one of the 'Lollard knights' at the court of Richard II of England.