The Black Prince - England's Greatest Prince Documentary

It is August 26, 1346 in the countryside south of Calais an outnumbered English army commanded by the English king Edward III confronts the forces of the French king Philip VI while the fighting rages the right of the English line is assaulted in fury for the the earl of allah makes the english ranks buckle under the pressure the second in command of the english right the earl of warwick sends a message to king edward asking for help telling him that his son,

prince

edward of wales, of 16 years old, he is in danger of death but the English king decides that his son must continue fighting and prove his worth, stating that the

prince

must earn his spurs and shortly after being thrown to the ground in the crowd and rescued by his standard bearer, the young Eduardo gathers his men and rejects the advance. french until dusk the countryside belongs to the english and the legend of the

black

prince is born before we begin a few words from our sponsor surf shark in the modern era staying safe and secure online has never been more important this is where surf shark vpn When When you go online, your location and all the data you send and receive are open to attack, while Surfshark hides or encrypts your location along with all your data so you can browse the Internet safely knowing that no one knows. who or where you are, surf the web incognito by downloading surfshark today via the link in the video description below and entering the special promo code and receive three months free along with 85 percent off your subscription, The man known to history as Edward of Woodstock or Edward the Black Prince was born on June 15, 1330 at Woodstock Palace in the county of Oxfordshire, England.

His mother was Philippa of Heinolt, the daughter of William the First Earl of Atrocious, who was Queen of England from 24 January 1328 until her death on 15 August 1369. She married Edward III of England in 1328 after Elizabeth, the king's mother, had decided that an alliance with Flanders would be beneficial to her attempt to remove her husband from the throne of England. Philip's marriage to the king would have 13 children, of whom Prince Edward was the eldest, Prince Edward's father, King Edward III of England was the son of Edward II and Elizabeth of France, who was crowned king at the age 14 after his weak and unpopular father was deposed by his wife Isabel. and his lover Roger Mortimer, a powerful English nobleman who along with Isabella organized an uprising while in France and invaded England in 1326, quickly supplanting Edward's government, which had lost the support of England's nobles.

The English lords felt no loyalty to the king as they resented the influence of Edward II's unpopular favorites, first Piers Gaviston and then Hugh de Spencer, who exercised considerable influence over the government through their close relationships with Edward. which were resented by his wife Elizabeth, furthermore, the English lords saw the reign as a disaster after the crushing defeat. against robert the bruce of scotland at the battle of bannockburn in june 1314, which left northern

england

vulnerable to the raids of the scottish king, as well as the devastating famines of 1314 to 1321, against which edward was considered to have a weak and insufficient response.

Assisted by a popular uprising against the king and the dispenser in London on 26 October, Isabella and Mortimer announced their right to rule England in the name of the 13-year-old Edward III, and Edward II and the dispenser were captured in Wales while attempting to flee. to Ireland. and while edward was imprisoned at kenworth castle in warwickshire, the hated dispenser was brutally hanged and quartered on 24 november 24 january 1327, edward ii was forced to abdicate and his son was crowned edward iii of

england

on 1 February, but all effective power was in the hands of Isabella and Mortimer, needless to say, the 14-year-old king was shocked by the sudden destruction of his previously stable family and political life, and although he was not very attached to his father, the boy was still saddened by the news that he had been deposed by Isabella, which was quickly followed by her death in September 1327, however, Edward would soon prove that he was nothing like his father in terms of his political and military skills;

It was the birth of his son and heir Edward of Woodstock that prompted the king to act against the increasingly unpopular Mortimer and Isabella and on October 19, 1330 Edward III raided a castle where the couple resided in Nottingham and captured them and on the 29th On November 11, Mortimer was accused of murdering Edward II and executed while Elizabeth was confined to a Norfolk castle and excluded from all political activity, Edward's quick and decisive reassertion of royal power was welcomed by the English nobility and brought a sense of relief. to the entire country, who embraced their 18-year-old monarch as a similar king. to his grandfather Edward I, whose military prowess had united and strengthened England, so the king decided to make war on the Scots as his grandfather had done to avenge the humiliation of Bannockburn, as well as his numerous raids into the north of England.

England and Edward III. He proved that he did indeed take after his grandfather and not his father when it came to military talent and his well-disciplined and well-trained army, using the longbow to great effect, secured a complete victory over the Scottish forces at the Battle of Halidon. Hill on July 19, 1333, killed numerous Scottish lords and drove their army from the field. Edward was greeted as a hero upon his return to England and comparisons were made between the young warrior king and the legendary King Arthur and with this resounding victory Edward decided to pursue. the redemption of his kingdom from the disaster of his father's reign through military glory and in this task his son would become a capable and willing participant.

Details of Edward of Woodstock's early life are scarce, although he was created Earl of Chester in 1333. He was first created Earl of Chester and grew up around a magnificent court where banquets and celebrations abounded. The young prince was dressed in fine silk clothes and was given a personal tailor. However, the prince's father not only showered his son with luxuries, but also wanted to make sure. that his heir embraced and dominated the world of chivalry and for this the prince received his first armor at the age of seven and from the age of 13 he participated in numerous cheval rick tournaments organized by the king in which duels and jousts were held between aristocrats.

The knights figured prominently in the first decade of his reign, Edward and Broad were in conflict with the Scottish king David Bruce, son of the legendary Robert Bruce, leading multiple campaigns in the Scottish border areas after Halidon Hill; However, his thoughts soon began to turn more towards France, England's

greatest

enemy. and in 1337 edward would take a bold step to claim the french throne launching what would become known as the hundred years war the conflict in which the

black

prince would establish himself as one of the

greatest

military leaders of the medieval period the origins of the claim Edward's death arose from the death in 1328 of Charles IV of France without a male heir, leaving two main claimants to the throne, Philip a Countervalue who was Edward's cousin and Charles's closest relative in the male line and Edward himself, whose mother Isabella was the sister of Charles and in early 1329 the French aristocracy elected Philip de Valvar to become Philip VI of France.

This choice was not questioned at first mainly because in 1329 Elizabeth and Mortimer wanted to maintain good relations with the French and when Edward took personal control of England, he also had cordial relations with Philip, but relations between the monarchs soured when Philip supported to David Bruce of Scotland and deteriorated further when in 1337 Philip threatened to confiscate Gascogne, England's only possession on the continent, so in February 1337 Edward III presented his claim to the French throne before parliament and in this parliament He also described his intention to make the black prince guardian of the kingdom when the king was absent, although the boy was only six years old at the time the king wanted the prince to learn from experience at this young age so that he could be prepared to exercise more substantial authority in the future.

Edward wanted to draw French forces into battle and so invaded northern France in the fall of 1339 using scorched earth tactics to devastate the countryside. However, Philip refused to engage the king in battle and withdrew his forces to a defensive position. The English king therefore retreated to Flanders without winning a victory, but in January 1340, in the city of Ghent, Edward formally declared himself king of France by raising his shield upon which the shields of England and France were now joined. to the leopards of England in two. Barracks alongside the French fleur-de-lys in 1340, Edward was desperate for a victory over the French as his heavy taxes on England were coming under increasing scrutiny, so he mustered over a hundred ships at Holbrook, in the east of England, to transport his troops to Flanders and begin a new offensive with his Flemish allies, however the French had gotten ahead of Edward and were blocking his entrance to Flanders with a fleet twice his size.

Eduardo received news of this but decided to set sail, however, on June 22 the fleets clashed. near the town of sloyes and although the French ships were faster and more maneuverable, their sailors had no combat experience, while Edward's ships were crowned with archers and men-at-arms hardened by the fighting in Scotland, furthermore, the ships The French were united in maintaining a defensive position making the fleet extremely immobile and on June 24 the English won a complete victory capturing almost the entire French fleet and inflicting thousands of casualties on the enemy; However, despite the surprising naval success at the Battle of Sloyes, Edward was still unable to force King Philip to make a decisive decision. battle on French territory and soon ran out of funds and was forced to abandon his campaign of 1340 after peace talks with France in 1344 ended in failure, Edward made plans for a major military campaign in Normandy to begin in 1346, one in which the Black Prince would participate, the boy would have been 16 years old when the campaign began and, having grown up surrounded by visions of Chavarrica glory through his father's tournaments and military campaigns, the prince was eager to join the quest. of his father for the crown of France, the king and his son, who was named.

The Prince of Wales in 1343 landed in Normandy on July 12, 1346 with an army of 14,000 men with the intention of razing the rich agricultural lands of the duchy and leading Philip into battle. Upon his arrival, his father knighted him and gave him command of the army vanguard, the leading unit after the sack of Kong in late July, with the black prince playing a leading role in the army's capture of the city. Edward continued his march eastwards through Normandy before turning south to advance towards Paris and as criticism of the French king increased for failing to defend his kingdom from plundering invaders, he sent a letter on 14 August Eduardo challenging him to a battle.

This was what the English king had been waiting for and he immediately marched north to select a battlefield of his choice and then crossing the River Somme on 24 August he reached a ridge of high ground between the villages of Cressie and Wadi Court. with woods to the rear of its position. The king had about 2,500 men-at-arms, 3,000 cavalry, 2,000 spearmen and five. Between one thousand and seven thousand archers at Cressie, while the approaching French force was much larger, with a force of approximately thirty thousand men, however, while the English were well rested on August 26, they had arrived on the battlefield a day before the French, the French army was exhausted.

After their long march north, Philips' nobles were eager to engage the enemy immediately and the king was pressured to call for an immediate attack, giving the English troops an advantage over the tired and disorganized French, while the King Edward commanded the center of the army and the earl. of northampton the left the black prince was given command of the right wing of the english force which was ahead of the rest of the army and would therefore bear the brunt of the french attacks the french advance was led by genoese crossbowmen no matter how they reached the battlefield without their shields, they were left stunned further back on the baggage train and were met by masked volleys from Edward's archers that forced many to retreat in disorder while the French cavalry had begun to accumulate behind them and, at the Seeing the Genoese falter, they charged through the crossbowman. causing chaos and confusion in the French ranks as they charge towards the English line and adivision of knights led by the blind king john of bohemia who was tied to his horse charged the english just below the black prince forcing the archers to stay behind the men. weapons and which led to a severe fight in which the prince himself was felled and his standard felled, however, reinforcements from the English left helped to repel the French attack and Prince Edward, although badly shaken, soon rose and He continued to fight bravely. two horses died under him during the battle and he received an arrow wound to the face and as night fell with his army disintegrating around him against a steady English advance, he reluctantly fled the field conceding a terrible defeat to King Edward's triumphant army. .

The Battle of Cressie was one of the greatest English victories of the Hundred Years' War and with Edward's army suffering less than 300 casualties, while French casualties, although not known with certainty, were probably around fourteen thousand, including a large number of prominent nobles and princes, such as Philip's brother, the Earl of Alonson and King John of Bohemia, in fact the Black Prince and His father came across John's body while inspecting the battlefield the next day and was left deeply moved because John was one of the most outstanding warriors of his time, he lost his sight during a crusade and bravely perished while charging the English line and it is said that the Therefore, the prince took the emblem of the three white feathers of Jon and made it his own, and Jon's emblem remains the symbol of the Prince of Wales to this day after the battle.

Edward later besieged the port of Calais as an invading Scottish army encouraged by Philip to exploit Edward's power. Absence was decisively defeated at Neville's Cross by an English force under the command of the Archbishop of York on 17 October 1346. Calais finally surrendered in August 1347 and in October of that year King Edward negotiated a truce and returned to London. after having had his first taste of knighthood. glory at cressy prince edward also achieved independence by establishing a household complete with knights and squires priests scribes messengers and armory keepers and took an active role in the administration of his estates, in fact the prince became famous for his generosity toward their intimates giving them gifts of great value and opulence for their family and their closest associates;

However, the spirit of jubilation throughout England surrounding Edward and his son's great victories soon came to an end when, in August 1348, the Black Death crossed the English Channel and devastated the country, killing between 40 and 60 percent of the population. In fact, the population was personally affected by the disease, as it claimed the life of his sister Juana on September 2. However, despite the plague, on 23 April 1349, King Edward inaugurated his Cheval Wreck order at Windsor Castle and named it. The order of the league had 26 members, including the black prince who had helped his father select the other founding members, all of whom were selected based on acts of valor rather than simply their rank, furthermore, the order It was another step in Edward's quest to imbue his country with a chivalrous and pious spirit, a dedicated religious observance and a marshal's prowess united the knights of the order, the order would be possibly the most lasting legacy of the reign of Edward III, as it remains the highest-ranking order of knights in the United States. present kingdom When the effects of the plague began to dissipate in late 1349, King Edward saw the opportunity to return to the offensive against France and after learning of an imminent attempt to recapture Calais, the king and his son headed to the port vital before the French. and laid a trap for his enemy by repelling the French force on 1 January 1350, although not before the black prince had to lead his garrison to save his father after Edward was stranded outside the city gates against an enemy force much greater than the black prince possessed. large estates across the country and, although he implemented a number of cash-generating policies when his income fell after the Black Death, the prince proved to be a tough but fair landowner and instructed his revenue officer in Cornwall in 1351 to treat equitably. and properly with his tenants and to protect them from oppressions and extortions, furthermore, after local unrest in the county of Cheshire in the summer of 1353, the prince himself traveled to the county to hold court sessions to settle grievances and also agreed to grant Cheshire a charter of liberties, which he did on September 10, although he showed himself to be a fair and equitable owner, the black prince was also gaining a reputation as an overindulgent spender, as well as his usual expensive gifts, the prince was constantly living longer. beyond his financial means to finance his extravagant lifestyle and by 1350 he was facing mounting debt;

However, it should be noted that the prince's extravagance and generosity were not absurd expenses, since in medieval England a lord needed to be generous in banquets and in the giving of gifts to recruit men into his service and maintain their loyalty and thus hit The balance between rewarding his men and avoiding the burden of debt was a challenge many medieval lords faced in 1355. Jean de Grayley, a knight of Gascony, an English-controlled province in the south of France, informed King Edward that English supporters in the region were concerned. with jean's actions the count of armagnac had been appointed by king john ii of france as governor of the southern region of longadoc and had captured several gascon towns and fortresses and in 1354 was attempting to gain gaskin nobles for the french because edward was eager for resuming the offensive against France and on May 24 his great council decided that the black prince should lead an expedition from Gascony to secure the province and punish the count of Armagnac.

Furthermore, on July 10, the prince was appointed. The king's lieutenant in gascony allowed him to act with the king's authority in the region and he was assigned an army of 2,600 men reinforced by gascon soldiers who accompanied the prince for 14 nights of the league, including the experienced earls of warwick and suffolk and The prince's special advisors and close friends, Sir John Chandos and Sir James Orderly, and after setting sail from Plymouth on 8 September, the prince arrived in Bordeaux on 20 September 1355, after meeting with his military advisors and nobles. of the junta, a ceremony was held on September 21 in the cathedral of saint andré where the prince took the oath as lieutenant of gascogne and after the ceremony the prince spoke directly to the inhabitants of bordeaux telling them of his hatred towards the count of armagnac and his plan to take the offensive against the longest dog. governor marching east and devastating their lands in the great chevy a french term meaning brutal looting where land was burned on both sides of the advancing column the goal of a chevy chain was to plunder and destroy the wealth and resources of the lands of an enemy lord to ruin his ability to wage war, humiliate him and demonstrate to his vassals that he was incapable of protecting them and this was carried out with fire, devastation and slaughter;

However, although this may sound brutal and shocking in the modern era, it was a common tactic. In medieval times used by the Scots against northern England in 1327 and by King Edward in Normandy during the Cressie campaign with Gascon contingents joining his army, the Black Prince's force reached about 8,000 men and on October 5 They set out from Bordeaux following the Garon River and entering the land of Armagnac on October 12, where the troops began to burn and soon the fires raged for many miles around the army. In fact, Anglo-Gascon soldiers now wreaked havoc on Armagnac properties while villages and castles were plundered and elevated to the status of Although out of pity, the prince ordered that all church property be preserved, although Armagnac was in command of a much larger force than the Anglo-Gascons, the quality of his soldiers was low and he did not want to risk fighting against the Black Prince's experienced men.

So he gathered his army at the fortified city of Toulouse and destroyed the bridges over the Garrow and Arya rivers that turned south and hindered the prince's march and then Armagnac waited in the hope that the raid would fail or be stopped before On the rivers on October 28 the prince reached the goron eight miles south of Toulouse and although many in his army trembled with fear at the rapid river, the local guides in his service had informed the prince that the current could advance and so he directed his army across the Garonne and Aries in a single day and this bold move greatly raised the morale of the Anglo-Gascon army while causing panic and commotion among Armagnac and the French, who assumed that the prince would return before the rivers in place of his army.

We now advance eastwards through the county of Longadoc, a region totally unprepared for the carnage that befell them as the Anglo-Gascons sacked the poorly defended villages and towns of Longadoc, the army reaching the main city of Carcassonne and raising its outer settlements. on November 6 and then continued to the Nar Bomba which was occupied on November 8 and the prince's troops had already covered 250 miles since they left Bordeaux and were in sight of the Mediterranean Sea after holding a war council the prince decided return to Gascony before the winter weather arrived, so on November 10 the Anglo-Gascons turned around and marched west, continuing to burn and loot as they went, even as the prince visited and prayed at numerous abbeys and religious houses across her return.

On the journey, the prince's army crossed the garron again on November 20 and, after receiving reinforcements, the count of Armagneck ultimately lost out, but despite his numerical superiority, the count still wanted to avoid a set-piece battle. with the enemy, so he simply followed the enemy. The Anglo-Gascons as they marched westwards, much to the fury of John II, the French king, on November 28, the prince returned to Gascon soil and spent Christmas in Bordeaux amidst great rejoicing and celebration because the expedition had been a clear success. as in the In an eight-week raid, the prince's army had destroyed more than 500 towns, cities and castles, paralyzing a region that was an important economic base for the French king's war effort, as royal tax revenues from the Longer pier were a substantial component of the king's military budget before the great raid; furthermore, many Gascon lords who had joined the French now joined the English cause, as Armagnac's failure to protect the lands of his vassal had been brutally exposed.

The Chevoshe also demonstrated the Black Prince's skill as a military commander, as he had stunned the French with force. and the speed of his raid, particularly at the crossing of the Garonne and Arias, and he had honed his Anglo-Gascon army into a disciplined, resilient and formidable fighting force; However, the raid had also alienated him from the Count of Armagnac and their mutual enmity would eventually return. To pursue the prince upon seeing the unstable political situation in France in 1356, Edward III sensed the opportunity to launch a broader offensive against his enemy while King John II faced a crisis in his relations with the nobility arising from John's arrest. of the powerful aristocrat Charles of Navarre and other Norman lords at a dinner in Rua when he imprisoned Charles and executed four nobles, causing Normandy to rebel against the French king to exploit this situation while his son conquered territory around the borders of Gascogne.

King Edward sent a small force under the command of the Duke of Lancaster to Normandy in early June 1356 and urged the Black Prince to march north to join with Lancaster's army in order to attack John the Second Son to counter At Poitiers, who was in charge of the defense of France south of the Loire River, the prince was delayed in his expedition by the resurgence of the Count of Armagnac, whose raids on Gascogne forced the prince to leave 2,000 of his 8,000 troops in the duchy. to defend it before beginning their march on August 4 towards the north through France and devastating the lands as they advanced avoiding castles and well-fortified cities;

However, as the prince approached the Loire River, he began to realize the grave danger his army was in, as Lancaster had ended his campaign in Normandy against a larger French force. while John II was forming an immense army in charge, since although John remained unpopular among the French aristocracy, they now joined him out of fear of theblack prince and his feared Anglo-Gascon army and thus the king was able to muster a force more than twice as much. The size of the princes who were now desperate to locate and unite with the Lancastrian army, especially after a skirmish between their vanguard and a French reconnaissance force on 31 August, confirmed that the French were close.

On September 7, the prince's army arrived in the area. loire in the suburbs on tour with the aim of joining lancaster which was only 70 miles away on the north bank, however heavy rains soon made the swollen river impassable and after receiving news that the army of Juan was advancing towards him just 20 miles away, the black prince ordered a retreat. While Lancaster withdrew to Brittany, leaving the Black Prince to his fate with both armies advancing south, the French had managed to reach and break through the English line of march and were now to the west of their enemy, near Poitiers, gathering reinforcements and then of the brief attack of the Anglo-Gascon.

Facing the French rearguard, it was clear that a major confrontation was imminent; However, while the prince led about 7,000 men, King John had between 20 and 30,000 men in his army. On September 18, the prince took his position southeast of Poitiers. and deployed his army as he had at Cressie in a strong natural position, occupying a ridge of high ground, its flanks protected by thick forests on one side and a steep escarpment on the other with baggage train cars used to further protect their flanks. His forces were placed behind a line of thick hedges and the terrain in front of the English line was full of natural obstacles such as vines and swamps.

The prince placed the Warwick and Oxford division to his left and suffocating Salisbury to his right while he commanded the center. Longbowmen were placed on the wings of the army on the morning of September 19. Jon had arrived before the English army and both sides prepared for battle. Jon ordered most of his men to dismount due to the difficulties of a massive cavalry attack. the rugged terrain and forming his army into three divisions led by the Dauphin Carlos Juan's brother, Philip de Ducovolion, and himself, at 7:30 a.m., the prince gathered his chariots and moved them in a southerly direction as if he were retreating. to ensure that the French attacked because their army was low on supplies and therefore needed an immediate battle, the weak worked and the French heavy cavalry, desperate to prevent the English from escaping, charged the English line, in fact this charge He met initial success as the armored French horses resisted the prince's archers and crashed into the Anglo-Gascons;

However, only the horses on the front line were armored and after repositioning to the side the English archers took aim at the horses behind the front line with devastating effect which destroyed the momentum of the French assault and the cavalry that had been there. After breaking through the defenses they were surrounded and cut off, then, behind the cavalry, the Dauphin infantry advanced towards the English and were hit by a hail of arrows as they marched. The English attacked the exhausted French men-at-arms and poured out. around the flanks of the French line, forcing them to retreat after two hours of bloody combat, Dofan's retreating men collided with the advancing Duke of Ollion, sending his men back in confusion, however, the French division strongest under the command of King John saw the massive retreat in The front of them now began to advance, however, the black prince and his advisors had a cunning plan to launch a surprise cavalry charge directly against the French line while secretly sending another force mounted a large scale flanking maneuver to fall on the French left causing a major invasion. panic and confusion in John's ranks, meanwhile the English archers, having spent their arrows, threw down their boats and rushed into battle with the French army now disintegrated and with many soldiers fleeing, the French king was surrounded and then of a last brave resistance was captured by the English on the afternoon of September 19 the French dead amounted to 2,500 men-at-arms and a greater number of other ranks and dozens of notable lords were captured, while English casualties are unknown. and no Anglo-Gascon nobleman died.

Indeed, it was clear that from the jewels of defeat the Black Prince had snatched an improbable and total victory, one of the greatest victories in English history. The captured King John was treated with the utmost courtesy and respect by the Black Prince who served in his table the night after the battle and praised the king's valor and bravery, even refusing to sit with John while he ate because he did not consider himself worthy of such an honor, if the central principles of medieval chivalry were bravery in battle and the show of respect towards the enemy in Poitiers.

The Black Prince had demonstrated why he would be remembered in history as the embodiment of a chivalrous warrior. The Anglo-Gascon army returned to Bordeaux on October 5 to great public jubilation, having met no resistance from the astonished French and having signed a two-way agreement. years truce with john on march 23, 1357 the prince and his royal captive set sail for england arriving on may 3 and on the 24th of that month edward of woodstock rode triumphantly through london parading his captive before the joyful crowds at the undoubted summit of his career as warrior prince of england on may 8, 1358, edward iii signed an agreement with john ii in which john agreed to pay 4 million french crowns for his release and recognized edward as sovereign ruler of the great southern province of Aquitaine and in The Return of Edward he would renounce his right to the French throne.

This was a treaty that was a substantial victory for the English. After his victory, the prince fell back into his ever-persistent problem of overspending and debt when he began extensive rebuilding projects at his residences and embarked on an ambitious expansion of Val Royal in Cheshire, an abbey started by his great-grandfather Edward the First. and this combined with the generous reward to his followers after the Poitiers campaign meant that by the summer of 1358 the prince's finances were in serious crisis; The French provisional government rejected the treaty with John the Black Prince and his father once again led a large expedition to France on 28 October 1359 with the intention of marching in reams and crowning Edward III as king of France, however, the army failed to capture reams.

Due to the city's tough resistance and after a strong storm hit the troops in mid-April 1360 near Paris, Edward decided to negotiate and agreed to the Treaty of Brittany on May 8, 1360 with the Dhofar Charles who planted to Edward in Aquitaine, as well as some lands in the north amounting to about a third of the territory of modern France, while Edward renounced his right to the French throne and reduced John's ransom to three million crowns. The following summer of 1361, the 31-year-old black prince decided to marry Joan of Kent. A 33-year-old cousin who was married twice and, although his father had wanted his son to marry a younger foreign bride to secure a continental alliance, by all accounts the prince was in love with Joan and married her for love more than for political gain.

Edward of Woodstock would soon return to France, however, on 19 July 1362 he was invested prince of Aquitaine, the newly won French province of England, in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey as a reward for his victory at Poitiers and, after Extensive preparations, the prince left England the following summer bringing with him most of his family, as well as the service, 600 soldiers arrived at Lauremont, near Bordeaux, on June 29. Upon his arrival, the prince held a series of ceremonies while touring Aquitaine and throughout the summer he received tributes from the various lords of the province as they swore allegiance. to his new English lord often reluctantly, however, the prince was quite popular at the beginning of his rule, as his extremely generous hospitality and grand parties endeared him to local knights and lords and his magnificent court was a uplifting place for a war-weary region, furthermore, the prince and his wife were extremely happy in their new domain, especially with the birth of their first child in January 1365, a son they named Edward.

Furthermore, at a meeting of the three estates, the representative body of Aquitaine, in September 1365, the prince showed himself willing to listen to the grievances of his subjects and act to address them by working to reduce anarchy in his lands after hearing complaints of marauding bandits and feuding lords Meanwhile France had a new king after the death of John II in March 1364 as the weak and sickly Charles Dorfan became Charles V of France, but despite his physical weakness, Charles would prove be a strong and effective ruler and a formidable adversary to the Black Prince, who in 1365 was already experiencing some tension with his nobles, including his former enemy, the Count of Armagnac who had not yet paid homage to the prince and Charles V would work to exacerbate These tensions, however the Black Prince's attention was soon diverted from Aquitaine to Spain when he received a message in 1366 from the deposed King of Castile Pedro begging the prince to help him restore him to the throne, Pedro, aged 32, had succeeded his father Alfonso with honor and affection while isolating Peter, who forged a strong resentment towards his half-brothers, especially towards the eldest, Henry of Trastámara, as King Peter was a valuable ally of Edward III after their agreement in 1362, as Castile It was the largest and most powerful state in the Iberian Peninsula. peninsula, however, in 1366 Peter was removed from the throne by his staunch enemy Henry in an invasion supported by Charles V of France, which caused him to flee to Gascogne in July of that year, many of the prince's advisors and initially the prince himself opposed assist Peter as in his quick evacuation he had brought no soldiers with him, which meant that the prince would have to mobilize an army and bear the financial burden of the campaign and, more importantly, Peter would be known to posterity as the cruel for his numerous acts of violence as king. and he was widely considered an unstable tyrant and was also excommunicated from the Catholic church where the prince who followed a strict code of morality and piety was intensely loyal to the church and was therefore personally repelled by the Castilian monarch;

However, Edward III was tired of allowing Castile to come under French influence and was determined to maintain the Anglo-Castilian alliance and the prince, whose loyalty to his father overrode his disapproval of Peter, reluctantly signed a treaty to help restore the Castilian king to September 23, 1366 on the condition that Peter took an oath. to amend his life and rule by returning to the throne and repairing his relations with the church after the birth, on 6 January 1367, of his second son, Richard, who later became King Richard II of England, Prince He left Bordeaux to join his assembled army. more than 6,000 men in the foothills of the Pyrenees and on February 14, the prince's vanguard under the command of Sir John Chandos crossed the Pyrenees, followed on the 20th by the prince and the main body arrived in Pamplona, ​​capital of Navarre, the On February 23, as the prince's army reached victory, it suffered severe weather and lack of supplies and while camping around Victory it was ambushed on March 25 by the Franco-Spanish force under Henry's command, losing hundreds of men, however , this shock put the prince into action and then retreating to Navarre, he marched south along a new route while exchanging letters with Henry as the two commanders incited each other to battle.

On April 3, the two armies would meet on an open plane. one mile east of the city of Najira and across the same route The sizes of the armies are in dispute, it is likely that Enrique de Trastámara had the numerical advantage, but the black prince used the advantage of the element of surprise by protecting his advance behind of a ridge and unexpectedly appearing with his army on Enrique's left flank, the surprised Franco Español. He launched a poorly coordinated cavalry charge that was shot down by Anglo-Gascon archers. In fact, Henry's Spanish soldiers were unaccustomed to the devastating effectiveness of the English longbow which broke the similarly advancing infantry and the prince, seeing the enemy's distress, charged his mounted soldiers to defeat the troops.

Spanish and FrenchBattle of Najira was another complete victory for the Black Prince, whose army inflicted heavy casualties on the Spanish while suffering very few casualties to the delight of Edward III, who had English propaganda glorify the prince's achievements despite this, The Prince Negro soon became frustrated when he learned that Henry had escaped to France to be protected by Charles V. On May 2, in Burgos, Peter was presented with the cost of the campaign and the sum he owed to the prince was more than 400,000 pounds and although he intended to remain with his army in Spain to ensure that the debt was paid off.

An outbreak of dysentery hit the army in August when the prince himself suffered the illness, so the Anglo-Gascons crossed the Pyrenees and returned to Bordeaux in early September 1367. In autumn 1367, Peter's failure to pay his debts left the black prince on the verge of bankruptcy with most of his army still unpaid, so the prince was forced to resort to taxing Aquitaine by introducing a property tax known as fuage which was approved by the estates in January In 1368, however, a minority of nobles led by the Count of Armagnac and the Lord of Albre, who were facing serious debts, denounced the tax as oppressive and refused to allow its collection in their lands after their Spanish expedition, many of the prince's taxes.

His political strengths were fading as he now lacked the financial means to maintain loyalty through his generosity and gifts, and his personal charm was greatly diminished by a debilitating illness that tormented him continually from the summer of 1368 and into June of that year, Carlos saw his opportunity. and he took it by signing an agreement with Armagnac Albre and Contra Perigord, three influential nobles of Aquitaine who resented the prince and his new tax, pledging to defend them if the prince ever attacked their domains and granting them lands and funds while the nobles They promised to fight. for Charles to recover Aquitaine for the French crown.

As the prince's health worsened, his control over Aquitaine became increasingly precarious. Edward III, whose energy and determination had diminished with age and ill health, was unable to provide the prince with adequate financial resources and had wavered while Louis Duke of Anjou, brother of Charles V, began to gather troops in southern France in coordination with rebel nobles to threaten the prince's authority, furthermore the prince's position was further weakened when Henry of Trustamara reconquered castile and killed Peter in March 1369 placing a French ally directly south of the prince's lands in June 1369, After months of tension, war broke out once again between England and France and Edward III sent a small force under the Earl of Cambridge and Pembroke to assist the Black Prince Charles, meanwhile he had saved prudently during his reign and had large funds. with which to supply the rebel laws as towns and castles in vulnerable eastern Aquitaine began to fall into French hands while he remained crippled by illness, to add to the prince's woes he began to lose some of his companions At the end of August, while their most experienced captain in Aquitaine, Sir John Chandos, was killed in a skirmish at Poitu on 1 January, the French launched an offensive in the summer of 1370. with two large armies, one of which was commanded by Charles V's brother, John.

The Duke of Berry captured the town of Le Moj in northeastern Aquitaine in mid-August after Bishop Jean de Croc, a trusted friend of the Black Prince, handed it over to the French. However, the majority of the inhabitants remained loyal to the English. The Prince was horrified. Surrendering the city he joined an army of four thousand men and marched towards Limage in what would be his last expedition, although he had to be carried in a litter because he was already too ill to ride a horse, however the army arrived and besieged the city. On 14 September and 19 September, the prince's miners managed to destroy a large section of the city wall, allowing English troops to invade Limoge and drive back the French defenders.

The city was sacked and burned by the retreating French and advancing English, and when the bishop of Limage was brought before the prince he was told that he deserved execution although he was ultimately saved. The recovery of Limage was an important victory for the English however. On 29 September the prince learned of the death of his eldest son Edward from the plague and his devastating news, combined with his declining ability to provide effective leadership due to illness, made him decide to leave Aquitaine and return to England. . However, the capture of Limoge would remain mired in infamy, as the French chronicler Jean-Fraser, who was not present at the siege, wrote. an account of the capture that shows an angry prince unleashing his vengeance on the city by ordering his soldiers to kill civilians indiscriminately.

Despite this, there is much contemporary evidence to suggest that Fossard's account was largely fabricated, for, although there was substantial property damage, combined civilian and military casualties were by almost all accounts around the year 300 in place of Fossart's 3000 and therefore it is likely that Fossa's description of the prince's cruel revenge was propaganda intended to tarnish his reputation rather than an accurate account of the event; However, this story of the capture of Limage would act as a stain on the prince's reputation even to this day, in early January 1371, the prince and his family sailed for England, where he would spend the rest of his life residing. primarily at Birkensted Castle, having left his brother John of Gaunt in charge of the worsening military situation in Aquitaine, while plagued by dysentery in his final years in England, the prince became even more devout to religion and of the church, becoming a close friend of Thomas de la Mer, the abbot of Saint Albans, who helped the prince form a strict regimen of penance and prayer.

As the prince suspected that his illness was a divine judgment for having helped Peter of Castile an excommunicant and therefore sought God's forgiveness, the summer of 1372 saw further military advances for the French and Aquitaine when Charles's men took Poitiers on 7 August In fact by the time the one-year truce was signed in June 1375, England's possessions on the continent had diminished considerably at home, Edward III had lost much of his immense popularity as he became increasingly low the influence of his young lover, Alicia Pérez, the Black Prince, meanwhile remained a figure. of great admiration by the people of England when the prince approached his 46th year in 1376 he was practically unable to get out of his bed and on June 1 he was taken to the Palace of Westminster so that he could spend the last of his days with his father , whom the prince had served with the greatest devotion throughout his life although their relationship had been somewhat strained since the Spanish campaign on Sunday 8 June 1376, Edward of Woodstock made a final prayer and died to the despair of the people from England. who, according to contemporary chroniclers, always felt safe from invasion while the prince was alive, was a man admired even by his enemies, in fact, Charles V and his court, upon learning of the prince's death, celebrated a mass in Paris to honor him and he was buried.

At Canterbury Cathedral, where his tomb can still be seen today, the origins of the Black Prince's name are not known with certainty, although Prince Edward was not called by this name while he was alive, but was adopted during the era Tudor, more than 150 years after his Some speculate that his name arises from the black armor he is said to have worn in battle, while some claim that it arises from his dark reputation in France, where his 1355 chevy and the stories of his sacking of limoge earned him the black title, while others argue that it has its origins in his coat of arms, which depicted three ostrich feathers on a black background.

Whatever the origin of his name, the black prince is considered one of the greatest medieval warriors in english history, playing a prominent role in two of the most decisive. and iconic English victories in the Hundred Years' War, namely Cressie and Poitier, and by winning another complete victory in Spain at Najira, he was admired and respected by the people of England throughout his life and by his friends and soldiers throughout his life. who never failed to reward him generously for his service to him and even by the French kings John II and Charles V, who recognized the value and honor of the prince. civilians and the destruction of significant tracts of the french countryside, furthermore, his persistent overspending meant that he was almost always in serious debt which could hamper his ability to govern effectively and, as prince of aquitaine, he failed to maintain english possession of aquitaine, Although it was largely due to Edward III's failures to adequately support him, it still leaves a stain on his career.

However, the Black Prince was above all a hero for his time, labeled by his surgeon John ardern, who accompanied him on many campaigns as the very flower of chivalry, but there are few men in history who embodied medieval chivalry as Edward of Woodstock did. The principles of courage in battle, showing honor toward opponents, and a dedication to God and his sovereign defined the life of the warrior prince who lived and died adhering to a code of chivalry that was widely aspired to by knights and nobles in medieval Europe. in fact, of chivalry in many ways to find the era of the black prince and the black prince in many ways defined chivalry what do you think of the black prince was a ruthless warrior and a winning tyrant? at all costs or he was pious, brave and honorable and in every way the greatest king England ever had, let us know in the comments section and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.