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Information on Dunstaple's life is largely non-existent or speculative,{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}} with the only certain date of his activity being his death on [[Christmas Eve]] of 1453. Probably born in [[Dunstable]], Bedfordshire during the late 14th-century, Dunstaple was associated with [[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]] and [[Joan of Navarre, Queen of England|Joan of Navarre]], and through them, [[St Albans Cathedral|St Albans Abbey]]. Another important patron was [[John, Duke of Bedford]], with whom Dunstaple may have travelled to France.
==Life and career==
Nothing is known for certain of John Dunstaple's background or early life.{{sfn|Bent|2006|loc=§ para. 1}} This uncertainty, and the general vagueness surrounding most details of his life, has led to much speculation and sometimes fictionalized information concerning his life and career.{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}} Some of the spurious information comes from misreadings of [[Johannes Tinctoris]]'s writings, leading to the erroneous identification of the composer with the 10th-century saint [[Dunstan]].{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}}{{refn|See {{harvnb|Bukofzer|1954}} for further information.}} Dunstaple's birthdate is a conjecture based on his earliest surviving works from around 1410–1420 which suggest he was born in the late 14th century;{{sfn|Nagley|Milsom|2011|loc=§ para. 1}} the musicologist [[Margaret Bent]] records {{circa|1390}}.{{sfn|Bent|2002|loc=§ "Works"}} His birthplace is unknown, though it is assumed that his family adopted their surname after the town of [[Dunstable]], Bedfordshire.{{sfn|Bent|2006|loc=§ para. 1}} Modern scholarship has sometimes used the spelling 'Dunstable' to match the town's name, though sources of the composer's time generally refer to him as 'Dunstaple' instead.{{sfn|Bent|2006|loc=§ para. 1}} The musicologist [[Margaret Bent]] notes that the 'p' spelling is more than twice as common as the 'b' variant in musical sources, and while the few extant English sources use the 'b' and 'p' variants with equal frequency, contemporary non-musical sources almost exclusively follow the 'p' spelling.{{sfn|Bent|1981|loc="Notes"}} Less common spellings include 'Dunstapell', 'Dumstable' and 'Donstaple', among others; one source simply inscribed 'J. D.'.{{sfn|Cook|2017|loc=§ "Introduction"}} Records from the early 15th century include many references to people named (or with a similar name to) 'John Dunstaple', making it difficult to identify the composer.{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}} The more plausible candidates include a canon of [[Hereford Cathedral]] (1419–1440) named 'John Dunstavylle', though there is no convincing evidence for this.{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}} However, the composer is usually identified as the 'John Dunstaple' that owned a series of astronomy treatises and was described as a 'musician with the Duke of Bedford'.{{sfn|Bent|1981|p=1}}
Nothing is known of his musical training and background. He was clearly a highly educated man, though there is no record of an association with either [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] or [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] universities. He is widely held to have been in the royal service of [[John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford]], the fourth son of [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]] and brother of [[Henry V of England|Henry V]]. As such he may have stayed in France for some time, since the duke was [[Regent]] of France from 1423 to 1429, and then Governor of [[Normandy]] from 1429 to his death in 1435. He owned property in Normandy, and also in [[Cambridgeshire]], Essex and London, according to tax records of 1436. After the death in 1437 of another patron, the [[Dowager]] [[Joan of Navarre, Queen of England|Queen Joan]], he evidently was in the service of [[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]], the fifth son of Henry IV.
Unlike many composers of the time, he was probably not a cleric, though there are links with [[St Albans Cathedral|St Albans Abbey]] (see below); he was probably married, based on the record of women sharing his name in his parish, and he also owned a manor in [[Hertfordshire]]. In addition to his work as a composer, he had a contemporary reputation as an astronomer, [[astrologer]], and mathematician (for example, a volume in the [[Bodleian Library]], largely in the hand of [[William Worcester]], acknowledges that certain information within it had been copied from Dunstaple's writings). Some of his astrological works have survived in manuscript, possibly in his own handwriting.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}
Dunstaple's connections with St Albans Abbey are at least twofold:
*the abbot [[John Whethamstede]] is associated with the Duke of Gloucester (who was buried at St Albans following his death in 1447), and Dunstaple's isorhythmic [[motet]] ''Albanus roseo rutilat'', possibly with some of the Latin words adapted by Whethamstede from an older poem, was clearly written for St Albans, possibly for a visit to the abbey by the Duke of Bedford in 1426.
*Whethamstede's plan for a magnificent library for the abbey in 1452–53 included a set of twelve [[stained glass]] windows devoted to the various branches of learning. Dunstaple is clearly, if indirectly, referred to in some of the verses the abbot composed for each window, not only music but also [[astronomy]], [[medicine]], and [[astrology]].
Dunstaple is known to have owned two manuscripts by [[Boethius]]: a copy of ''De musica'' and ''De arthmetica''.{{sfn|Thomson|2009|pp=5–6}}{{Refn|These two manuscripts are found in a single volume, labeled by modern scholarship as Corpus Christi 118.{{sfn|Thomson|2009|p=5}}|group=n}}
He died on [[Christmas Eve]] 1453, as recorded in his epitaph, which was in the church of [[St Stephen Walbrook]] in London (until it was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] of 1666). This was also his burial place. The epitaph—stating that he had "[[Musica universalis|secret knowledge of the stars]]"—had been recorded in the early 17th century, and was reinstated in the church in 1904.
==Music==
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