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Edward, The Black Prince Information

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England.

He was called Edward of Woodstock in his early life, after his birthplace, and has more recently been popularly known as the Black Prince. An exceptional military leader, his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348 he became the first Knight of the Garter, of whose Order he was one of the founders.

Edward died one year before his father, becoming the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England. The throne passed instead to his son Richard II, a minor, upon the death of Edward III.

Richard Barber comments that Edward "has attracted relatively little attention from serious historians, but figures largely in popular history".[1]

Contents

Life

Edward, the Black Prince is granted Aquitaine by his father King Edward III. Initial letter "E" of miniature, 1390; British Library, shelfmark: Cotton MS Nero D VI, f.31

Edward was born on 15 June 1330 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. He was created Earl of Chester on 18 May 1333, Duke of Cornwall on 17 March 1337 (the first creation of an English duke) and finally invested as Prince of Wales on 12 May 1343 when he was almost thirteen years old.[2] In England, Edward served as a symbolic regent for periods in 1339, 1340, and 1342 while Edward III was on campaign. He was expected to attend all council meetings, and he performed the negotiations with the papacy about the war in 1337. He also served as High Sheriff of Cornwall from 1340–1341, 1343, 1358 and 1360–1374.

Edward had been raised with his cousin Joan, "The Fair Maid of Kent."[3] Edward gained permission for the marriage from Pope Innocent VI and absolution for marriage to a blood-relative (as had Edward III when marrying Philippa of Hainault, his second cousin) and married Joan in 10 October 1361 at Windsor Castle. The marriage caused some controversy, mainly because of Joan's chequered marital history and the fact that marriage to an Englishwoman wasted an opportunity to form an alliance with a foreign power.

When in England, Edward's chief residence was at Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) or Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire.

He served as the king's representative in Aquitaine, where he and Joan kept a court which was considered among the most brilliant of the time. It was the resort of exiled kings such as James IV of Majorca and Peter of Castile.

Peter of Castile, thrust from his throne by his illegitimate brother Henry of Trastámara, offered Edward the lordship of Biscay in 1367, in return for the Black Prince's aid in recovering his throne. Edward was successful in the Battle of Nájera, in which he soundly defeated the combined French and Castilian forces led by Bertrand du Guesclin.

The Black Prince returned to England in January 1371 and died on 8 June 1376 (a week before his 46th birthday), after a long-lasting illness that may have been cancer or multiple sclerosis.

Marriage and Issue

Edward had illegitimate sons, all born before his marriage

By Edith de Willesford (d. after 1385)

By unknown mothers

From Isabella of Castile, who was the most promiscuous noble lady of the court, it was agreed that Edward had a son off her of whose line came, Edward IV. Richard, Earl of Cambridge was the supposed son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. In actual fact it was Edward, the Black Princes. (Source Edward III)

Edward married his cousin Joan, Countess of Kent, on 10 October 1361, and had two sons from this marriage. Both sons were born in France, where the Prince and Princess of Wales had taken up duties as Prince and Princess of Aquitaine.

From his marriage to Joan, he also became stepfather to her children, including John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, who would marry Edward's niece Elizabeth of Lancaster, daughter of his brother John of Gaunt.

Edward and chivalry

Edward lived in a century of decline for the knightly ideal of chivalry.

On the one hand, after capturing John the Good, king of France, and Philip the Bold, his youngest son, at the Battle of Poitiers, he treated them with great respect, at one point giving John permission to return home, and reportedly praying with John at Canterbury Cathedral. Notably, he also allowed a day for preparations before the Battle of Poitiers so that the two sides could discuss the coming battle with one another, and so that the Cardinal of Périgord could plead for peace. Though not agreeing with knightly charges on the battlefield, he also was devoted to tournament jousting.

On the other hand, his chivalric tendencies were overridden by expediency on many occasions. The Black Prince's repeated use of the chevauchée strategy (burning and pillaging towns and farms) was not in keeping with contemporary notions of chivalry, but it was quite effective in accomplishing the goals of his campaigns and weakening the unity and economy of France.

List of major campaigns and their significance

Burial

Tomb effigy

Edward requested to be buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral rather than next to the shrine, and a chapel was prepared there as a chantry for him and his wife Joan (this is now the French Protestant Chapel, and contains ceiling bosses of her face and of their coats of arms). However, this was overruled after his death and he was buried on the south side of the shrine of Thomas Becket behind the quire. His tomb consists of a bronze effigy beneath a tester depicting the Holy Trinity, with his heraldic achievements hung over the tester. The achievements have now been replaced by replicas, though the originals can still be seen nearby, and the tester was restored in 2006.

Such as thou art, sometime was I. Such as I am, such shalt thou be. I thought little on th'our of Death So long as I enjoyed breath. But now a wretched captive am I, Deep in the ground, lo here I lie. My beauty great, is all quite gone, My flesh is wasted to the bone. -Epitaph inscribed around his effigy

Titles, styles, honours and arms

The Black Prince's coat of arms, as heir-apparent to the English throne.

Arms and heraldic badge

Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th azure semée of fleur-de-lys or (France Ancient); 2nd and 3rd gules, three lions passant guardant or (England); overall a label of three points argent. Crest: On a chapeau gules turned up ermine, a lion statant or gorged with a label of three points argent. Mantling: gules lined ermine.

As Prince of Wales, Edward's coat of arms were those of the kingdom, differenced by a label of three points argent.[7]

A painted carving on the main gate of Oriel College, Oxford, depicting the badge of the Prince of Wales

Edward also used an alternative coat of Sable, three ostrich feathers argent, described as his "shield for peace" (probably meaning the shield he used for jousting). This shield can be seen several times on his tomb chest, alternating with the differenced royal arms. His younger brother, John of Gaunt, used a similar shield on which the ostrich feathers were ermine. Edward's "shield for peace" almost certainly formed the basis of his badge of three ostrich feathers, which have been borne by all subsequent Princes of Wales.

The name "Black Prince"

Although Edward has in later years often been referred to as the "Black Prince", there is no record of this name being used during his lifetime, nor for more than 150 years after his death. He was instead known as Edward of Woodstock (after his place of birth), or by one of his titles. The "Black Prince" sobriquet is first found in writing in two manuscript notes made by the antiquary John Leland in the 1530s or early 1540s: in one, Leland refers in English to "the blake prince"; in the other, he refers in Latin to "Edwardi Principis cog: Nigri".[8] The name's earliest known appearance in print is in Richard Grafton's Chronicle at Large (1569): Grafton uses it on three occasions, saying that "some writers name him the black prince", and (elsewhere) that he was "commonly called the black Prince".[9] It is used by Shakespeare, in his plays Richard II (written c.1595) and Henry V (c.1599): see quotations below. It later appears prominently in the title of Joshua Barnes's The History of that Most Victorious Monarch, Edward IIId, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, and First Founder of the Most Noble Order of the Garter: Being a Full and Exact Account Of the Life and Death of the said King: Together with That of his Most Renowned Son, Edward, Prince of Wales and of Aquitain, Sirnamed the Black-Prince (1688).

The origins of the name are uncertain, though many theories have been proposed. These fall under two main heads:

The black field of his "shield for peace" is well documented (see Arms above). However, there is no sound evidence that Edward ever wore black armour, although Harvey (without citing a source) refers to "some rather shadowy evidence that he was described in French as clad at the battle of Crecy "en armure noire en fer bruni" - in black armour of burnished steel".[10] Richard Barber suggests that the name's origins may have lain in pageantry, in that a tradition may have grown up in the 15th century of representing the prince in black armour. He points out that several chronicles refer to him as Edward the Fourth (the title he would have taken as King had he outlived his father): this name would obviously have become confusing when the actual Edward IV succeeded in 1461, and this may have been the period when an alternative had to be found.[11]

Edward's brutality in France is also well documented, and David Green believes that this is where the title has its origins. The French soldier Philippe de Mézières refers to Edward as the greatest of the "black boars" - those aggressors who had done so much to disrupt relations within Christendom.[12] Other French writers made similar associations, and Peter Hoskins reports that an oral tradition of L'Homme Noir, who had passed by with an army, survived in southern France until recent years.[13] The King of France's reference in Henry V to "that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales" suggests that Shakespeare may have interpreted the name in this way. There remains, however, considerable doubt over how the name might have crossed from France to England.

Cultural references

Plays

Edward the Black Prince features prominently as a character in Edward III, a sixteenth-century play possibly partly attributable to William Shakespeare.

Edward is referred to in Shakespeare's Henry V

Clipper ship Black Prince

Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery devoted his 1667 play The Black Prince to Edward.

Novels

Art

The statue of Edward the Black Prince in Leeds City Square

Films

Games

See also

Biography portal

Ancestry

Ancestors of Edward, the Black Prince
16. Henry III of England
8. Edward I of England
17. Eleanor of Provence
4. Edward II of England
18. Ferdinand III of Castile
9. Eleanor of Castile
19. Jeanne of Dammartin
2. Edward III of England
20. Philip III of France (= 28)
10. Philip IV of France
21. Isabella of Aragon (= 29)
5. Isabella of France
22. Henry I of Navarre
11. Joan I of Navarre
23. Blanche of Artois
1. Edward, the Black Prince
24. John I, Count of Hainaut and Lord of Avesnes
12. John II, Count of Holland
25. Adelaide of Holland
6. William I, Count of Hainaut
26. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg
13. Philippa of Luxembourg
27. Margaret of Bar
3. Philippa of Hainault
28. Philip III of France (= 20)
14. Charles of Valois
29. Isabella of Aragon (= 21)
7. Joan of Valois
30. Charles II of Naples
15. Marguerite of Anjou and Maine
31. Maria of Hungary

Notes

  1. ^ Barber, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  2. ^ Chandos Herald (1883). The life & feats of arms of Edward the Black prince. J. G. Fotheringham. p. 294. http://books.google.com/books?id=2iElbk69KaoC&pg=PA294. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  3. ^ Edward I was Joan's grandfather and Edward's great-grandfather.
  4. ^ Weir, Alison., Britains royal families (London, 2008) pg., 95
  5. ^ The Three Edwards by Thomas B. Costain (1958, 1962) p 387
  6. ^ H. E. Marshall, Our Island Story, ch XLVII
  7. ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
  8. ^ Barber 1978, p. 242.
  9. ^ Richard Grafton, A Chronicle at Large (London, 1569), pp. 223, 293, 324
  10. ^ Harvey 1976, p. 15.
  11. ^ Barber 1978 pp. 242-3.
  12. ^ Green 2007, pp. 184-5.
  13. ^ Hoskins 2011, p. 57
  14. ^ Judith Barker: The Tournament in England, 1100-1400 (Woodbridge, Boydell 1986), p. 86.

Further reading

External links

Edward, the Black Prince House of Plantagenet Born: 15 June 1330 Died: 8 June 1376
English royalty
Preceded by John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall Heir to the English Throne as heir apparent 15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376 Succeeded by Richard of Bordeaux, Prince of Wales later King Richard II
Vacant Title last held by Edward of Carnarvon, Prince of Wales later King Edward II Prince of Wales 1330–1376 Vacant Title next held by Richard of Bordeaux, Prince of Wales later King Richard II
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Cornwall Portal
Persondata
Name Edward, The Black Prince
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth 15 June 1330
Place of birth Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire
Date of death 8 June 1376
Place of death

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