Edward the Black Prince (June 15, 1330--June 8, 1376)
The eldest son of
Edward III of
England. Edward was created
Earl of Chester (1333),
Duke of Cornwall (1337)--the first appearance of this rank in England--and
Prince of Wales (1343); he was
Prince of Aquitaine from 1362 to 1372. He joined his father in the
campaigns of the
Hundred Years War, establishing his
reputation for
valor at the
battle of Crécy (1346). Apparently it was the
French who called him the Black Prince, perhaps because he wore black armor; the name was not recorded in England until
the 16th century--
Shakespeare refers to him as
The Black Prince in
Henry V.
The prince led an expedition into
Aquitaine in 1355 and defeated
John II of France in the
battle of Poitiers in 1356. In 1367 he temporarily restored
Peter the Cruel of Castile to his
throne by the
victory of
Nájera, Spain. Due to war and private living expenses Edward levied a tax in Aquitaine that was protested by his
nobles and by
Charles V of France on their behalf. The protest led to war, and the prince, despite failing health, captured, burned
Limoges, massacring its citizens. His
poor health forced him to resign his
principalities in 1372, which left his brother,
John of Gaunt, the impossible task of holding them for England.The Black Prince, aware that he would not be alive to
succeed his father, then used his clerical influence against John of Gaunt to assure the
accession of his and
Joan of Kent's son. Because of this, he favored, and may even have directed,
the Good Parliament of 1376. The Good Parliament removed the king's
mistress,
Alice Perrers, from
court and
impeached two followers of John of Gaunt. Edward passed away soon afterwards.