Edward of Woodstock (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father, and his son Richard II therefore succeeded to the throne instead. Edward was one of the most successful English commanders of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). He was regarded by English contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his era, while French sources remember him for his brutality.
Edward was made Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom, in 1337. He was made Prince of Wales in 1343, and knighted by his father at La Hougue in 1346. That same year, Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy. 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 sacked Avignonet, Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, and Narbonne. In 1356, on another chevauchée, he ravaged Auvergne, Limousin, and Berry, though he failed to take Bourges. The forces of King John II of France met Edward's army near the city of Poitiers. After negotiations between them broke down, the Battle of Poitiers began. Edward's forces routed the French army and captured John II.
In 1360, he negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny. He was made 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 in 1364 to suppress raids of the English and Gascon free companies. He made an agreement with Kings Peter of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Peter covenanted to mortgage Castro Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan; in 1366, a passage was secured through Navarre. In 1367, he defeated Henry of Trastámara, Peter's half-brother and rival, at the Battle of Nájera. After waiting 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. Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, which alienated the Lord of Albret and other nobles.
Prince Edward returned to England in 1371 and resigned the principality of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1372. He led the Commons in their attack upon the Lancastrian administration in 1376, before dying soon after.
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, Oxfordshire, on 15 June 1330. On 10 September, Edward III allocated five hundred marks per year from the profits of the county of Chester to financially support his son; on 25 February 1331, the whole of these profits were assigned to the queen for supporting Edward and the king's sister Eleanor. cites Fœdera, ii. pp. 798, 811. In July 1331, the king proposed to marry Edward to a daughter of Philip VI of France. cites Fœdera, ii. p. 822. Tensions between England and France reached a breaking point during the reign of Edward III. Disputes over English lands in France, feudal obligations due to king Philip IV of France, and Edward III's claim to the French throne culminated in Edward declaring war on France in 1337, beginning the Hundred Years' War.
On 18 March 1333, Prince Edward was invested with the earldom and county of Chester, and in the parliament of 9 February 1337, he was made Duke of Cornwall, and received the duchy by a charter dated 17 March. This is the earliest instance of the creation of a duke in England. By the charter's terms, the duchy was to be held by Edward and the eldest sons of kings of England. cites Courthope, p. 9. His tutor was Walter Burley of Merton College, Oxford. His revenues were placed at the disposal of his mother in March 1334, for the expenses she made in raising him and his two sisters, Isabella and Joan. cites Fœdera, ii. p. 880. Rumours of an impending French invasion led the king in August 1335 to order that he and his household leave Nottingham Castle for their safety. cites Fœdera, ii. p. 919.When two cardinals came to England at the end of 1337 to make peace between Edward III and Philip VI, Prince Edward reportedly met them, and brought them to Edward III. cites Holinshed. On 11 July 1338, his father, who was about to leave England to campaign in the Low Countries, appointed him guardian of the kingdom for his absence, and he was appointed to the same office on 27 May 1340 and 6 October 1342; cites Fœdera, ii. pp. 1049, 1125, 1212. due to his age, he had only a small role in the administration, which was managed by the council. To bring John III, Duke of Brabant into his cause, in 1339, the king proposed a marriage between Edward and John's daughter Margaret, and in the spring of 1345, wrote urgently to Pope Clement VI for an exemption from the marriage. cites Fœdera, ii. p. 1083, iii. pp. 32, 35.
On 12 May 1343, Edward III made Edward the Prince of Wales in a parliament held at Westminster. Edward 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 made his effort futile. In September 1345 and in April 1346, Edward was called on to give supplies to troops from his principality and earldom for the upcoming campaign in France, and as he incurred heavy debts in the king's service, his father allowed him to make his will. It was determined that, in case he died in the war, his executors would receive his revenue for a year. cites Fœdera, iii. p. 84.
Early campaigns (1346–1353)
Battle of Crécy
Edward, Prince of Wales, sailed with his army and Edward III on 11 July 1346, and as soon as they landed at La Hougue, his father knighted him at a church in Quettehou. cites Fœdera, iii. p. 90; letter of Edward III to Archbishop of York, Retrospective Review, i. 119; Rot. Parl. ii. 163; Chandos, l. 145. He then rode his army through the Cotentin, while burning and sacking the area. Edward distinguished himself at the Battles of Caen and Blanchetaque, against Godemar I du Fay's army which tried to prevent the English from crossing the Somme. cites Baron Seymour de Constant, Bataille de Crécy, ed, 1846; Louandre, Histoire d'Abbeville; Archæologia, xxviii. 171.
Early on 26 August 1346, before the start of the Battle of Crécy, Edward received the sacrament with his father at Crécy, and took the command of the right, or van, of the army with Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick; John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford, and other leaders. An unconfirmed source says that they commanded 800 men-at-arms, 2,000 archers, and 1,000 Welsh foot soldiers. When the Genoese bowmen and the front line of the French became disordered, Edward apparently left his position to attack their second line. However, the Count of Alençon then charged his division, endangering Edward, and the leaders who commanded with him sent a messenger to beg Edward III for assistance. When Edward III learned that his son was not wounded, he responded that he would not send help, to give Edward an opportunity to "win his spurs", despite already being knighted. In the battle, Edward was thrown to the ground, then rescued by Sir Richard Fitz-Simon, his standard-bearer, who protected him as he regained his feet. Probably by this time, the French advanced to the elevated ground of the English position. Earl of Arundel, having been sent for help by Harcourt, forced back the French.A flank attack on the side of Wadicourt was then attempted by the Counts of Alençon and Ponthieu, but the English were entrenched there, and the French were unable to penetrate the defences. The French lost the Duke of Lorraine and the Counts of Alençon and Blois. The two front lines of their army were broken, and Philip VI's division then engaged. Edward III perhaps advanced at the head of the reserve, and the rout was soon completed. When the battle was over, Edward III told his son that he had acted loyally. Edward was present at the siege of Calais (1346–1347), and after the town surrendered, he sacked and burnt the surrounding countryside.cites Knighton, c. 2595. He returned to England with his father on 12 October 1347, and was invested by the king with the new Order of the Garter in 1348.
Battles of Calais and Winchelsea Prince Edward went on the king's expedition to Calais in the late 1349, once coming to the rescue of his father. cites Froissart, iv. p. 82. When the king embarked at Winchelsea on 28 August 1350 to intercept the fleet of La Cerda, the Prince sailed with him in a different ship, alongside his brother, John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond. During the Battle of Winchelsea, Edward's ship engaged with a large Spanish ship, and became endangered by leaks. He and his knights failed to take down the Spanish. Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Lancaster, came to their rescue by attacking the Spanish from their other side; the ship was soon taken by the English, as her crew were thrown into the sea, and as the Prince and his men got on board, their own vessel foundered. cites Froissart, iv. p. 95; Nicolas, Royal Navy, ii. 112.
Cheshire expedition In 1353, some incidents seem to have broken out in Cheshire, as 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 stop the assize, but the justices opened an inquisition of trailbaston, took a large sum of money from them. They seized houses and swaths of land for their earl, the prince. Upon returning from Chester, the prince reportedly passed by the Abbey of Dieulacres in Staffordshire, and granted five hundred marks—a tenth of the sum he had taken from his earldom—to a church his great-grandfather Edward I had built, which was almost certainly Vale Royal. cites Knighton, c. 2606; Monasticon, v. 626, 704; .
Further campaigns (1355–1364)
Aquitaine When Edward III decided to resume the war with France in 1355, he ordered Edward to lead an army into Aquitaine while he acted with the King of Navarre in Normandy, and the Duke of Lancaster defended John of Montfort in Brittany. Edward was accompanied by some of the Gascon lords. On 10 July, the king appointed Edward his lieutenant in Gascony, and gave him powers to act in his stead and to receive homages. cites Fœdera, iii. 302, 312. Edward left London for Plymouth on 30 June, was stopped there by contrary winds, and set sail on 8 September with about 300 ships, along with four earls—Thomas Beauchamp; John de Vere; William Ufford, Earl of Suffolk; and William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury—and in command of 1,000 men-at-arms, 2,000 archers, and many Welsh foot soldiers. cites Avesbury, p. 201.
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 1,500 lances, 2,000 archers, and 3,000 light foot. Whatever plan the king may have formed during the summer, Edward's expedition was purely for sacking the area. After brutally attacking the counties of Juliac, Armagnac, Astarac, and part of Comminges, he crossed the Garonne at Sainte-Marie, north of Toulouse—which was occupied by John I, Count of Armagnac, and a large force. The count refused to allow the garrison to make a sortie, and Edward went on into the Lauragais. His troops stormed and burnt Montgiscard, killing many residents, cites Froissart, iv. 163, 373 and captured and pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary. cites Jehan le Bel, ii. 188; Froissart, iv. 165). The only castle to resist the English was Montgey. Its châtelaine defended its walls by pouring beehives onto the attackers, who fled in panic.