Edward of Woodstock, Duke of Cornwall


Edward of Woodstock, later known as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of Edward III, King of England, and Philippa of Hainault and participated in the early years of the Hundred Years War. He died before his father and so never became king. His son, Richard II, succeeded Edward III.

Edward was created Duke of Cornwall 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 Hogne in 1346.

In 1346 Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy, his father intentionally leaving him to win the battle. He was named the Black Prince after the battle of Crécy, at which he was possibly accoutred in black armour. 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 the Black Prince returned to England. In 1360 he negotiated the treaty of Bretigny. He was created Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1362; his suzerainty disowned by the lord of Albret and other Gascon nobles. He was directed by his father to forbid the marauding raids of the English and Gascon free companies in 1364.

The Black Prince entered into an agreement with don Pedro of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Pedro covenanted to mortgage Castro de Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan; in 1366 a passage was thus secured through Navarre. In 1367 he received a letter of defiance from Henry of Trastámara, Don Pedro's half-brother and rival. The same year he 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.

The Black Prince prevailed on the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth-tax of ten sous for five years, 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles; drawn into open war with Charles V of France, 1369; took Limoges, where he gave orders for an indiscriminate massacre (1370) in revenge for the voluntary surrender of that town to the French by its bishop, who had been his private friend.

The Black Prince 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 and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, where his surcoat, helmet, shield, and gauntlets are still preserved.

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