The Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward nevertheless earned distinction as one of the most successful English commanders during the Hundred Years' War, being regarded by his English contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his age.

Edward was made Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom, in 1337. He was guardian of the kingdom in his father's absence in 1338, 1340, and 1342. He was created Prince of Wales in 1343 and knighted by his father at La Hougue in 1346.

In 1346, Prince Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy, his father intentionally leaving him to win the battle. He took part in Edward III's 1349 Calais expedition. In 1355, he was appointed the king's lieutenant in Gascony, and ordered to lead an army into Aquitaine on a chevauchée, during which he pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary, sacked Carcassonne, and plundered Narbonne. The next year (1356) on another chevauchée, he ravaged Auvergne, Limousin, and Berry but failed to take Bourges. He offered terms of peace to King John II of France, who had outflanked him near Poitiers, but refused to surrender himself as the price of their acceptance. This led to the Battle of Poitiers, where his army routed the French and took King John prisoner.

The year after Poitiers, Edward returned to England. In 1360, he negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny. He was created Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1362, but his suzerainty was not recognised by the lord of Albret or other Gascon nobles. He was directed by his father to forbid the marauding raids of the English and Gascon free companies in 1364. He entered into an agreement with Kings Peter of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Peter covenanted to mortgage Castro de Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan; in 1366 a passage was secured through Navarre. In 1367 he received a letter of defiance from Henry of Trastámara, Peter's half-brother and rival. The same year, after an obstinate conflict, he defeated Henry at the Battle of Nájera. However, after a wait of several months, during which he failed to obtain either the province of Biscay or liquidation of the debt from Don Pedro, he returned to Aquitaine. Prince Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles.

Prince Edward returned to England in 1371, and the next year resigned the principality of Aquitaine and Gascony. He led the Commons in their attack upon the Lancastrian administration in 1376. He died in 1376 of dysentery and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, where his surcoat, helmet, shield, and gauntlets are still preserved.

Early life (1330–1343)

Edward, the eldest son of Edward III of England, Lord of Ireland and ruler of Gascony, and Queen Philippa, was born at Woodstock in the County of Oxfordshire, on 15 June 1330. His father, Edward III, had been at loggerheads with the French over English lands in France and also the kingship of France; Edward III's mother, Queen Isabella of France was a daughter of the French king Philip IV of France, thus placing her son in line for the throne of France. England and France's relations quickly deteriorated when the French king threatened to confiscate his lands in France, beginning the Hundred Years War. His mother was Queen Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault, who married Edward III when his mother, Queen Isabella, arranged the marriage between them. His father on 10 September 1330 allowed five hundred marks a year from the profits of the county of Chester for his maintenance; on 25 February 1331, the whole of these profits were assigned to the queen for maintaining him and the king's sister Eleanor. In July of that year, the king proposed to marry him to a daughter of Philip VI of France.

His father was Edward III of England, who became king at the young age of fourteen years in 1327, when his father (and the Black Prince's grandfather) Edward II of England was deposed by his wife Isabella of France, daughter of Philip IV of France, and by the English nobility due to his ineffectiveness and weakness to assert his control over the government and his failed wars against Scotland. His mother, Philippa of Hainault, was the daughter of William II, Count of Hainault. The marriage between his mother and father was arranged by his grandmother, Isabella of France, to get financial and military aid from the Count of Hainault for her own benefit to depose her husband, Edward II. The marriage of Edward III and Phillippa of Hainault produced thirteen children; Edward was the eldest child and eldest son.

His father had begun a war with Scotland to regain lost territories which were captured by the Scots during the reign of Edward II and began the military operations undertaken by Edward III's grandfather, Edward I of England, recapturing English lands such as Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Edward III took his grandfather's military strategies and tactics against the Scots to avenge the humiliating defeat of the English under Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and this time, Edward III defeated the Scots at the decisive Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, killing many Scottish nobles and routing the entire Scottish army. Edward III was able to recover the country politically and militarily, and was welcomed as a "great champion of the English nation".

On 18 March 1333, Edward was invested with the earldom and county of Chester, and in the parliament of 9 February 1337, he was created Duke of Cornwall and received the duchy by charter dated 17 March. This is the earliest instance of the creation of a duke in England. By the terms of the charter the duchy was to be held by him and the eldest sons of kings of England. His tutor was Dr. Walter Burley of Merton College, Oxford. His revenues were placed at the disposal of his mother in March 1334 for the expenses she incurred in bringing up him and his two sisters, Isabella and Joan. Rumours of an impending French invasion led the king in August 1335 to order that he and his household should remove to Nottingham Castle as a place of safety.

When two cardinals came to England at the end of 1337 to make peace between Edward III and Philip VI of France, the Duke of Cornwall is said to have met the cardinals outside the City of London and, in company with many nobles, to have conducted them to King Edward. On 11 July 1338 his father, who was on the point of leaving England for Flanders, appointed him guardian of the kingdom during his absence, and he was appointed to the same office on 27 May 1340 and 6 October 1342; he was, of course, too young to take any save a nominal part in the administration, which was carried on by the council. To attach Duke John III of Brabant to his cause, the king in 1339 proposed a marriage between the young Duke of Cornwall and John's daughter Margaret, and in the spring of 1345 wrote urgently to Pope Clement VI for a dispensation for the marriage.

On 12 May 1343, Edward III created the duke Prince of Wales in a parliament held at Westminster, investing him with a circlet, gold ring, and silver rod. The prince accompanied his father to Sluys on 3 July 1345, and the king tried to persuade the burgomasters of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres to accept his son as their lord, but the murder of Jacob van Artevelde put an end to this project. Both in September and in the following April the prince was called on to furnish troops from his principality and earldom for the impending campaign in France, and as he incurred heavy debts in the king's service, his father authorised him to make his will and provided that, in case he fell in the war, his executors should have all his revenue for a year.

Early campaigns (1346–53)

Battle of Crécy

Edward, Prince of Wales, sailed with King Edward III on 11 July 1346, and as soon as he landed at La Hougue received knighthood from his father in the local church of Quettehou. Then he "made a right good beginning", for he rode through the Cotentin, burning and ravaging as he went, and distinguished himself at the taking of Caen and in the engagement with the force under Sir Godemar I du Fay, which endeavoured to prevent the English army from crossing the Somme by the ford of Blanchetaque. cites Baron Seymour de Constant, ''Bataille de Crécy'', ed, 1846; Louandre, ''Histoire d'Abbeville; Archæologia'', xxviii. 171.

Early on Saturday, 26 August, before the start of the battle of Crécy, Edward, Prince of Wales, received the sacrament with his father at Crécy, and took the command of the right, or van, of the army with the Earls of Warwick and Oxford, Sir Geoffroy d'Harcourt, Sir John Chandos, and other leaders, and at the head of eight hundred men-at-arms, two thousand archers, and a thousand Welsh foot, though the numbers are by no means trustworthy. When the Genoese bowmen were discomfited and the front line of the French was in some disorder, the prince appears to have left his position to attack their second line. At this moment, however, the Count of Alençon charged his division with such fury that he was in great danger, and the leaders who commanded with him sent a messenger to tell his father that he was in great straits and to beg for assistance.

When Edward learned that his son was not wounded, he responded that he would send no help, for he wished to give the prince the opportunity to "win his spurs" (he was in fact already a knight), and to allow him and those who had charge of him the honour of the victory. The prince was thrown to the ground and was rescued by Sir Richard FitzSimon, his standard bearer, who threw down the banner, stood over his body, and beat back his assailants while he regained his feet. Harcourt now sent to Earl of Arundel for help, and he forced back the French, who had probably by this time advanced to the rising ground of the English position.

A flank attack on the side of Wadicourt was next made by the Counts of Alençon and Ponthieu, but the English were strongly entrenched there, and the French were unable to penetrate the defences and lost the Duke of Lorraine and the Counts of Alençon and Blois.

The two front lines of their army were utterly broken before King Philip's division engaged. Then Edward appears to have advanced at the head of the reserve, and the rout soon became complete. When Edward met his son after the battle was over, he embraced him and declared that he had acquitted himself loyally, and the prince bowed low and did reverence to his father. The next day he joined the king in paying funeral honours to King John of Bohemia.

The prince was present at the siege of Calais (1346–1347), and after the surrender of the town harried and burned the country for around, and brought much booty back with him. He returned to England with his father on 12 October 1347, took part in the jousts and other festivities of the court, and was invested by the king with the new Order of the Garter (1348).

Siege of Calais and Battle of Winchelsea

Prince Edward shared in the king's expedition to Calais in the last days of 1349, came to the rescue of his father, and when the combat was over and the king and his prisoners sat down to feast, he and the other English knights served the king and his guests at the first course and then sat down for the second course at another table. When the king embarked at Winchelsea on 28 August 1350 to intercept the fleet of La Cerda, the Prince sailed with him, though in another ship, and in company with his brother, the young John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond. During the Battle of Winchelsea his ship was grappled by a large Spanish ship and was so full of leaks that it was likely to sink, and though he and his knights attacked the enemy manfully, they were unable to take her. Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Lancaster, came to his rescue and attacked the Spaniard on the other side; she was soon taken, her crew were thrown into the sea, and as the Prince and his men got on board her their own ship foundered.

Cheshire Expedition

In 1353 some disturbances seem to have broken out in Cheshire, for the Prince as Earl of Chester marched with Henry of Grosmont, now Duke of Lancaster to the neighbourhood of Chester to protect the justices, who were holding an assize there. The men of the earldom offered to pay him a heavy fine to bring the assize to an end, but when they thought they had arranged matters the justices opened an inquisition of trailbaston, took a large sum of money from them, and seized many houses and much land into the prince's, their earl's, hands. On his return from Chester the prince is said to have passed by the Abbey of Dieulacres in Staffordshire, to have seen a fine church which his great-grandfather, Edward I, had built there, and to have granted five hundred marks, a tenth of the sum he had taken from his earldom, towards its completion; the abbey was almost certainly not Dieulacres but Vale Royal.

Further campaigns (1355–64)

Aquitaine

When Edward III determined to renew the war with France in 1355, he ordered the Black Prince to lead an army into Aquitaine while he, as his plan was, acted with the king of Navarre in Normandy, and the Duke of Lancaster upheld the cause of John of Montfort in Brittany. The prince's expedition was made in accordance with the request of some of the Gascon lords who were anxious for plunder. On 10 July the king appointed him his lieutenant in Gascony, and gave him powers to act in his stead, and, on 4 August, to receive homages. He left London for Plymouth on 30 June, was detained there by contrary winds, and set sail on 8 September with about three hundred ships, in company with four earls (Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, William Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, and John Vere, Earl of Oxford), and in command of a thousand men-at-arms, two thousand archers, and a large body of Welsh foot. At Bordeaux the Gascon lords received him with much rejoicing. It was decided to make a short campaign before the winter, and on 10 October he set out with fifteen hundred lances, two thousand archers, and three thousand light foot. Whatever scheme of operations the King may have formed during the summer, this expedition of the Prince was purely a piece of marauding. After grievously harrying the counties of Juliac, Armagnac, Astarac, and part of Comminges, he crossed the Garonne at Sainte-Marie a little above Toulouse, which was occupied by John I, Count of Armagnac, and a considerable force. The count refused to allow the garrison to make a sally, and the prince passed on into the Lauragais. His troops stormed and burnt Montgiscard, where many men, women, and children were ill-treated and slain, and took and pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary. The country was "very rich and fertile" according to the Black Prince, and the people "good, simple, and ignorant of war", so the prince took great spoil, especially of carpets, draperies, and jewels, for "the robbers" spared nothing, and the Gascons who marched with him were especially greedy. The only castle to resist the English forces was Montgey. Its châtelaine defended its walls by pouring beehives onto the attackers, who fled in panic.

Carcassonne was taken and sacked, but he did not take the citadel, which was strongly situated and fortified. Ourmes (or Homps, near Narbonne) and Trèbes bought off his army. He plundered Narbonne and thought of attacking the citadel, for he heard that there was much booty there, but gave up the idea on finding that it was well defended. While he was there a messenger came to him from the papal court, urging him to allow negotiations for peace. He replied that he could do nothing without knowing his father's will. From Narbonne he turned to march back to Bordeaux. The Count of Armagnac tried to intercept him, but a small body of French having been defeated in a skirmish near Toulouse the rest of the army retreated into the city, and the prince returned in peace to Bordeaux, bringing back with him enormous spoils. The expedition lasted eight weeks, during which the prince only rested eleven days in all the places he visited, and without performing any feat of arms did the French king much mischief. During the next month, before 21 January 1356, the leaders under his command reduced five towns and seventeen castles.

Battle of Poitiers

On 6 July 1356 Prince Edward set out on another expedition, undertaken with the intention of passing through France to Normandy, and there giving aid to his father's Norman allies, the party headed by the king of Navarre and Geoffrey d'Harcourt. In Normandy he expected to be met by his father, He crossed the Dordogne at Bergerac on 4 August, and rode through Auvergne, Limousin, and Berry, plundering and burning as he went until he came to Bourges, where he burnt the suburbs but failed to take the city. He then turned westward and made an unsuccessful attack on Issoudun on 25–27 August. Meanwhile, King John II was gathering a large force at Chartres, from which he was able to defend the passages of the Loire, and was sending troops to the fortresses that seemed in danger of attack. From Issoudun the prince returned to his former line of march and took Vierzon. There he learnt that it would be impossible for him to cross the Loire or to form a junction with Lancaster, who was then in Brittany. Accordingly he determined to return to Bordeaux by way of Poitiers, and after putting to death most of the garrison of the castle of Vierzon set out on 29 August towards Romorantin.

Some French knights who skirmished with the English advanced guard retreated into Romorantin, and when Prince Edward heard of this he said: "Let us go there; I should like to see them a little nearer". He inspected the fortress in person and sent his friend Chandos to summon the garrison to surrender. The place was defended by Boucicault and other leaders, and on their refusing his summons he assaulted it on 31 August. The siege lasted three days, and the prince, who was enraged at the death of one of his friends, declared that he would not leave the place untaken. Finally he set fire to the roofs of the fortress by using Greek fire, reduced it on 3 September.

On 5 September the English proceeded to march through Berry. On 9 September King John II, who had now gathered a large force, crossed the Loire at Blois and went in pursuit of them. When the king was at Loches on 12 September he had as many as twenty thousand men-at-arms, and with these and his other forces he advanced to Chauvigny. On 16 and 17 September his army crossed the Vienne

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