THE BLACK PRINCE

Edward of Woodstock, surnamed the Black Prince born June 15, 1330, the eldest son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault Prince of Aquitaine 1362 - 1372 and of Wales 1343 - 1376, Duke of Cornwall 1337 - 1376), and Earl of Chester l333 - 1376 was born at the royal manor of Woodstock in Oxfordshire .

Of his formal education little is known, for although tradition has it that his mothers countryman, the gallant Sir Walter Mauny, was appointed his tutor in all knightly matters and that the academic side of his studies were entrusted to the famous Merton scholar, Walter Burley, there appears to be no evidence for this in contemporary records and chronicles. It is clear, however, that he enjoyed a happy childhood; both the King and Queen took a keen interest in his well-being: the castle of Berkhamsted and the manors of Byfleet and Kennington, where he spent much of these early years, were the residences at which, as a sick man in his forties, he chose to pass his last years; and it was there, as a boy, that he made the life-long friendships with John Chandos, Simon Burley, and Bartholomew Burghersh who, as his future counsellors and companions-in-arms, were to have an important influence upon him .

		IN 1346 Edward III, the king of England, believed that because he was the son of Queen Isabella, a French princess, he was the rightful heir to the throne of France But the French refused his claim because, according to their laws, the crown could pass only through the male side of the family . After landing in Normandy, Edward intended to march across France and join forces with the Flemish, who also wanted to fight the French. As he was approaching the town of Crecy he was told by scouts that a great French army was approaching and he must prepare for battle. Edward the Prince used black extensively in his heraldic devices and furnishings. He paid lavishly for the ostrich plumes which surmounted his helm at the jousts, which adorned the silver on his table, and which, as his personal emblem, appeared on his seals, his badges, his pennons, the hangings around his rooms, as well as on his tomb.
The effigy which he instructed to be made and placed in Canterbury Cathedral, "an image ... in memory of us, fully armed in our armour, with our arms quartered. our face revealed, and our leopard helm placed above the image", has doubtless contributed, towards his posthumous fame.		He had been trained in deeds of arms, but he was not a fully-fledged knight, because, as yet, he had not proved his courage in battle..

		Edward III. the king decided to divide his forces and, leading one half himself, he placed his eldest son, who was only 16 years old, in command of part of the forces at the battle of Crécy, From a windmill loft on top of a near-by hill he watched his son in battle. The French had far more men than the English, and at first it looked as though the English forces would be defeated by numbers alone. But after a little while it became certain that the French would not have matters all their own way, because the English, although they had not so many men, were far more skilful. The French had archers hired from Genoa fighting for them.
They used the cross-bow, which had to be wound up by a handle. The English, on the other hand, used the long bow which had been used by the Welsh when Edward I had fought them. With these bows, which were six feet long, the English archers shot their arrows so quickly and accurately that the Genoese had little time in which to reload their awkward weapons and so they turned and fled. The French cavalry found it impossible to get through the curtain of arrows sent into the air by the English and were unable to get to close quarters to use their swords .

When the battle was at its height, a messenger came to the king.

" Sire, your son is being attacked by a large force of the enemy. He may require help."

Edward looked anxiously at the messenger.

" What has happened to my son ? Is he still on his horse? Has he been killed ? "

" No, sire," he replied. " When I last saw him he was still mounted and fighting bravely."

" Then he must win his spurs," exclaimed the king. " If it pleases God this shall be my son's day and the honour shall belong to him and his soldiers. I will not interfere."

By the end of the day the battle was over and the English had won a great victory. Edward went to greet his son and put his arms around him. "You have done well, my son," he said proudly. " Today you have proved that you are worthy to be a knight. You quitted yourself well."

It was on this occasion that he adopted the motto Ich dien ( I serve), used by all the succeeding princes of Wales. The mottos Ich dien and houmout ( " courage " ) were sometimes used to authenticate his correspondence and also appear over the escutcheons around his tomb, they are probably Flemish or Low German, and may derive from the connections of his mother, Philippa of Hainault, in the Low Countries.

In 1355 he commanded the army which invaded France from Gascony, and distinguished himself the following year at the great battle of Poictiers.(September 19, 1356) and Najera April 3, 1367, he made good use of the knowledge he had then acquired. He had taken King John of France prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers and defeated the usurper of the Castilian throne, Henry of Trastamara, at Najera. By the Peace of Brétigny the provinces of Poictou, Saintonge, Périgord, Limousin were annexed to Guienne and formed into a sovereignty for the prince under the title of the Principality of Aquitaine.

For eight years he ruled as prince in a vastly enlarged Aquitaine, amounting in all to an area approximately one-third of the kingdom of France.While it cannot be doubted that these victories also owed much to divided command among his enemies, and to the experience and advice of his staff officers in particular to the counsels of John Chandos

He developed a love of the country, a fondness for horses, a passion for ostentatious clothes, and an interest in diamonds and rubies which developed into that of a connoisseur. In all of these, as in his seals and in the handsome coins which he issued as Prince of Aquitaine. he showed a practical streak as well as a discriminating artistic taste, He himself devised a bit and a visor and gave elaborate instructions concerning the setting of a gem, the illumination of a missal, and the construction of his tomb,
As a statesman, on the other hand, the Black Prince does not bear comparison with his brother, John of Gaunt. Perhaps, as heir apparent, he had less chance to demonstrate such qualities as he possessed, but the evidence of his eight-year rule in Aquitaine 1363 - 1371 strongly suggests that his death before that of his father was not an unmitigated disaster. True, Aquitaine was not England.. and from the outset the Black Prince was faced with hostility from the towns and nobles of such parts of his newly acquired territories as had long been in French control.

The fact that he did not possess sovereign jurisdiction did not ease the task of government, and the ordinary revenues of the principality were probably insufficient to meet the costs of war. Yet when all this has been said, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Edward did nothing to improve the situation or to allay the latent discontent. He showed a singular lack of tact in appointing more Englishmen than was customary to high office, and his overbearing manner, the magnificent but extravagant court which he maintained at Bordeaux and Angouleme. the lavish tournaments and retinues of English and foreign knights, all helped to deplete his revenues and aroused resentment among his subjects, who had to pay for these extravagant tastes.

It was not so much that he was an inveterate gambler, fond of good living and hard drinking, as that he had expensive tastes and was immoderate in them. Surviving registers of his letters bear testimony to the grants of land, horses, and jewels with which he rewarded his friends and servitors, and to the messengers who received gifts far beyond their deserts. His marriage to Joan of Kent in 1361 was, in this respect, disastrous; for she kept a costly wardrobe to make the most of those marks of physical distinction for which she was so much admired and her love of display merely increased the Prince's extravagance.

It was possibly for this reason, as much as because Joan was the Black Princes cousin and had been married twice before, or because the Prince did not make a political marriage, that Edward III was so opposed to the match; but there is no evidence that he held it against his son and the couple appear to have been genuinely fond of one another. And although the King may have sent the Prince to Aquitaine because his reputation as a soldier and his growing popularity were becoming politically embarrassing, the suggestion that he was sent there in disgrace can be discounted.

As Prince of Aquitaine he was proud and arrogant, in its affairs lacking the moderation and general affability of Edward III, and he grew loth to take counsel. It was against all the advice of his oldest counsellors, Chandos and Felton. that he took the fateful decision to restore Pedro I. to the Castilian throne. A campaign in Castile, on behalf of Pedro the Cruel, led to disaster from this expedition across the Pyrenees in 1367 he returned ill and impoverished. He had badly misjudged the character of his ally and had no sanctions which he could use against him when Pedro failed to reimburse him for his efforts. The companies of unpaid soldiers who returned with him and the heavy taxes laid on Aquitaine to meet the expenses, caused a rebellion, and ultimately involved him in a war with the French king in 1369.

From that time onwards his health progressively deteriorated. The enteric disease which began with symptoms of dysentery was accompanied by dropsy and fainting, his health did not allow him to take the field, no longer able to mount his horse or to command his armies. At the siege of Limoges in 1370 he had to be carried in a litter; when the city fell to his troops he was unable to control their actions or his own wrath, and there ensued a butchery which tarnished his reputation and did the English cause no good. By the following year the French were making rapid progress in Aquitaine having seen his generals defeated he was obliged to resign its government and defence to John of Gaunt, and return to England .

The last eight years of the Black Princes life were thus in many ways a tragedy and, like all of his brothers, he died a disappointed man, Never having worn the crown of England, he was uncertain that his son would wear it.
And yet. despite all his reverses, already before his death Edward of Woodstock had become a legend. For he had won a military reputation seldom equaled before or since.

His last five years were largely spent in retirement at Berkhamsted and his other residences around London; but although the Chiltern air seems to have done something to restore his heath, he never recovered for very long at a time. His rare interventions in the politics of Edward III.'s declining years were not so much in opposition to John of Gaunt as they were designed to secure the succession to the throne of his infant son. He died at Westminster one year before his father, on June 8, (1376), leaving an only son Richard II.

The name Black Prince by which he has come to be known does not appear to have been used before the publication of Grafton's Chronicle of England in 1569. and since Elizabethan times it has been associated with unbridled patriotism, spectacular victories, and foreign conquest. To his contemporaries the eldest son of Edward III was most commonly known as the Prince of Wale, there was nothing particularly English about him. His outlook on life was that of his own social class. He was admired, above all, for the respect which he paid to the rules of fourteenth century chivalry, which were international, and he was renowned for his ' prowess ' and his courtesy in France and in Spain as well as England. Knights from the Low Countries and from Germany were prominent in his retinue.