The Black Prince Edward of Woodstock. The Last Years of Life and Death of a Commander
В previous article we talked about the famous battle of Poitiers, which became the "finest hour" of Edward of Woodstock's military career. After the battle, the Black Prince turned out to be magnanimous and even gallant: instead of putting the French king in chains, he invited the prisoner to dinner on the occasion of the defeat of his army. They say that John was not at all embarrassed by such an excuse to have a good meal, and he ate with great appetite. It was after the battle of Poitiers that the Dauphin Charles was forced to free the King of Navarre Charles II, who, as we remember, was captured by his father right at a feast a year and a half ago.
Dauphin Charles reconciles with King Charles of Navarre, miniature from the second half of the 14th century
The End of the Edwardian War
In captivity, John II also did not live in poverty, led a truly royal lifestyle, kept a personal astrologer with him, even bought furs, jewelry and racehorses. The French people paid for everything, and were also imposed additional taxes to ransom the king. In the end, this led to the Parisian uprising of 1358 and the famous Jacquerie, during the suppression of which at least 20 thousand peasants were killed. Meanwhile, they demanded a ransom of 4 million ecus and 10 provinces on the mainland from John. Later, they managed to agree on a ransom of three million, and the number of ceded provinces was reduced to seven.
Leaving his son Louis as a hostage to the English, John went to collect the ransom. He hoped to get the money not only from his already rather impoverished subjects, but also from the Milanese Duke Galeazzo Visconti, to whom he promised his daughter Isabella in exchange. And when Prince Louis fled from London, John returned to hospitable England, where he died on April 8, 1364. His body was brought to France and buried in the monastery church of Saint-Denis.
But let's go back a little and see that the Dauphin Charles, who was "left in charge" and became the regent of the French kingdom, the future King Charles V the Wise and father of Charles VI the Mad, albeit with difficulty, managed to defend Reims in 1359 and Paris in 1360. And finally, on May 8, 1360, in Bretigny, the Dauphin and the Black Prince Edward of Wales signed a peace treaty, according to which England received (without any vassal obligations to the French kings) Normandy, Aquitaine, Touraine, Poitou, Maine, Ponthieu and Calais. Incidentally, these lands also contained the feudal possessions of the Navarrese King Charles II.
The territories of France and England after the conclusion of the peace of Bretigny in 1360.
In return, King Edward III agreed to renounce his claims to the French throne and reduced the ransom for his French counterpart from four to three million ecus. Thus ended the first stage of the Hundred Years' War – the Edwardian War. And the Prince of Wales, Edward, also became the Prince of Aquitaine.
Prince Edward receives Aquitaine as a gift from his father, depicted in 1390.
The Black Prince's Wife and Sons
In 1361, Prince Edward finally found time to marry. His wife was his cousin, Countess Joanna of Lancaster, nicknamed the Fair Maid of Kent, the daughter of the youngest son of King Edward I by his second wife Margaret of France, whose father was executed by order of Lord Mortimer, the lover of the "She-Wolf of France" Isabella, grandmother of the Black Prince. Later, Joanna became a ward of Queen Philippa, the wife of Edward III and mother of the hero of this article.
Joan of Kent
By the way, according to one version, it was she who dropped a blue velvet garter during a dance with Edward III, the father of the Black Prince, and the king picked it up and said the famous words "Honi soit qui mal y pense" ("Let him who thought ill of this be ashamed"). And then the Order of the Garter was created. But according to another version, this lady was Joanna's mother-in-law, Katherine Grandison.
Albert Chevalier Tyler. The Garter Ceremony
Joanna was the widow of Thomas Holland, during whose lifetime she managed to enter into a marriage with William Montagu, which was declared illegal. She had two sons and one daughter with Holland, and the Black Prince was the godfather of her firstborn (!). However, the hero of the article seems to have fallen seriously in love with his aunt, which displeased his father, who wanted to marry him to Margaret of Flanders. Nevertheless, Edward III came to terms with his son's choice and even asked the Pope for permission to marry him to this rather scandalous marriage, which was concluded on October 10, 1361.
By Prince Edward, Joanna bore two more sons. The first of them, born in Angoulême on July 27, 1364, died in January 1371. The second, named Richard, born on January 6, 1367, became heir to the English throne after the death of his father, was proclaimed king at the age of 10, but in 1399 was overthrown by the founder of the Lancastrian dynasty, Henry IV Bolingbroke.
Joanna outlived the Black Prince by 10 years and for some reason bequeathed that she be buried not next to him in Canterbury Cathedral, but in the Minorite church in Stamford – next to the grave of her first husband, Thomas Holland.
The Black Prince's Castilian Campaign and Its Consequences
In 1367, the Castilian King Pedro I the Cruel (aka the Just), who had been dethroned by Count Enrique of Trastamara, his father's illegitimate son, turned to Edward for help. Since Enrique II had become an ally of the French, and they had even provided him with a commander, Marshal Bertrand du Guesclin, Edward sent his army to Castile. In the spring of 1367, he led his army through the famous Roncesvalles Gorge, and then defeated the usurper's army in the Battle of Najera (Navarette).
The Battle of Najera. Miniature from Froissart's Chronicles (The Black Prince and his army on the left)
It is curious that the English captured Bertrand du Guesclin, who was not yet a great commander at the time, and Marshal Arnaud d'Audrey, who had been captured earlier in the Battle of Poitiers. The Marshal was then accused of taking weapon, although he had not yet paid the ransom, he declared that he had fought not against England, but against the Castilians of Pedro the Cruel, and was acquitted by a knightly court.
Edward spent four months in Castile, during which time he developed an illness that ultimately led to his death (or hastened his death). Due to diarrhea, Prince Edward's legs swelled and he became so weak that he could not stay in the saddle.
It should be noted that 9 years passed from the first symptoms to the death of the prince, and therefore, perhaps, the significance of this disease is still somewhat exaggerated.
According to the traditional version, the prince developed amoebic dysentery in Castile, which, in the absence of adequate treatment, became chronic. However, one of the publications of the American journal BMJ Military Health suggested that Edward suffered from paratyphoid fever in Castile. In any case, in 1370, during the suppression of a rebellion in the city of Limoges, the prince was in such a state that he arrived at the city walls on a stretcher.
It is often said that he completely burned and destroyed the city, but this is not entirely true. The fact is that the city was divided into approximately two equal parties. Representatives of the pro-French party, led by the local bishop, opened the gates, but the supporters of the English took refuge in the city fortress. The city was indeed badly damaged during the assault, but Prince Edward had no reason to punish everyone - both loyal residents and traitors. As a result, 60 soldiers of his garrison out of 140 and 300 townspeople were executed.
The last years of Prince Edward's life
In 1369, the new king of France, Charles V, resumed hostilities. This monarch was not a good military leader and was generally in poor health. John of Gaunt, the brother of the hero of the article, contemptuously called him "the lawyer". Jean Froissart writes about this:
"When these words were reported to King Charles V, he laughed and said cheerfully: "Let them! If I am a lawyer, I will arrange for them a lawsuit for which they will not have the means!"
Charles V of France, miniature from the 14th century.
At the end of 1370 or the beginning of 1371, the prince's eldest (and favorite) son, 5-year-old Edward of Angoulême, died. And in 1371, the completely ill Black Prince, having handed over command to his younger brother John of Gaunt, returned to England and apparently felt relief in his homeland. He was able to go to France with his father and Henry of Lancaster, but soon returned to his estate in Berkhamsted. In August 1372, he again went to the continent - to help Tours, which was besieged by the French, but the weather conditions did not allow him to land. Subsequently, an unknown illness bothered him more and more, and on June 8, 1376, the Black Prince died in Westminster Palace in London.
At that time, the great Timur ruled in Samarkand, Dmitry Donskoy ruled in Moscow, who would lead his troops to Kulikovo Field 4 years later, Pope Gregory XI moved from Avignon to Rome that year (putting an end to the “Avignon captivity of the popes”), Andronicus IV Palaeologus, who had escaped from prison, overthrew his father with the help of the Genoese and Turks and captured Constantinople, and the Bulgarian city of Sredets received its current name – Sofia.
The Black Prince was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
Prince Edward's Tomb
Tombstone with a sculpted portrait of Edward Woodstock
It is curious that the armor on the sculpture of the prince is an exact copy of the real one, and, apparently, this statue was created with the participation of experienced armorers.
England after the death of the Black Prince
The English King Edward III outlived his eldest son by only a year. After his death, the 10-year-old son of the Black Prince, Richard II, the hero of Shakespeare's play of the same name, was enthroned. Incidentally, it is believed that he was the first king of England to speak English fluently.
The coronation of Richard II in a miniature from the Old English Chronicle by Jean de Wavrin, 1479-1480.
This portrait of Richard II by an unknown artist is considered the first lifetime depiction of the English monarch
And the French king Charles V, who did not like and did not know how to fight, had good commanders, among whom the Breton nobleman Bertrand du Guesclin stood out, who had the telling nicknames of "The Eagle of Brittany" and "The Black Dog of Brocéliande". He is one of the heroes of Conan Doyle's novel "The White Company". Although illiterate, du Guesclin managed to significantly reform the French army and achieved great success on the battlefield, becoming famous for his ability to take well-fortified castles. In 1370, he received the title of Count de Longueville, became constable with powers that effectively equalized him with the French princes of the blood.
Charles V appoints du Guesclin as constable. 15th century miniature
It was largely thanks to him that the French were able to recapture the southern provinces, Poitou, La Rochelle, Moncontour, and then Brittany and Gascony, so that by 1375 the English controlled only Calais, Bayonne and Bordeaux. The French fortunes ended with the death of du Guesclin during the siege of Châteauneuf-de-Randon on 13 July 1380 and the death of Charles V on 16 September 1380. Interestingly, Bertrand du Guesclin was buried in the royal crypt of the Church of Saint-Denis – next to Charles V.
The eldest son of the deceased French king was 12 years old at the time, in 1392 after some illness accompanied by fever, he showed the first signs of madness, but his madness became especially obvious after a fire at a masquerade ball held in January 1393 on the occasion of the wedding of one of the maids of honor. The result of his reign was the actual collapse of the state. During the reign of his son, Joan of Arc had to save France, whose closest associates were later accused of witchcraft Gilles de Rais (the most likely prototype of Duke Bluebeard) and Etienne de Vignoles, nicknamed La Hire, who became a symbol of the Jack of Shields (hearts) in France.
Allen Douglas. Saint Joan of Arc in the War with the English.
Vincent Cassel as Gilles de Rais, a film by Luc Besson
Richard Ridings as La Hire and Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc in Luc Besson's 1999 film.
French Jack of Hearts card, cardboard, woodcut, stenciled, 1816-1840.
Jeanne convinced the Dauphin to be crowned in Reims, but Charles VII soon betrayed her, refusing to ransom her from captivity, after which the highest hierarchs of the French Catholic Church and the most authoritative professors of the Sorbonne "established" that the voices calling on the girl to defend the Fatherland belonged not to the Archangel Michael and Saints Catherine and Margaret, but to Satan and the demons Behemoth and Belial.
But let's return to the son of the article's hero - the young King of England Richard II. During his reign, the famous peasant rebellion led by Wat Tyler (1381) took place. And in 1399, he was overthrown by his cousin - Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, the son of the Black Prince's younger brother John of Gaunt. Who, by the way, in 1390, at the head of his own detachment of 150 people (including 11 knights), went on a campaign against Lithuania with the Teutons. The Annals of Torun say:
"At the same time, the marshal with a great army stood at Vilna, and with him was the lord of Lancaster, an Englishman, who had come with his men before the day of St. Lawrence. The Livonians and Vitovt with the Samogitians also came there. And at first they took the unfortified castle of Vilna and killed many, but they did not capture the fortified castle."
Of interest are the arguments that Henry Bolingbroke gave in his speech to Parliament on September 30, 1399, to justify his right to the throne: high birth, the right of conquest, and the need for reform. He ascended the English throne under the name of Henry IV.
Henry IV in a portrait by an unknown artist
The deposed King Richard II was assassinated in January or February 1400.
Ultimately, the premature death of the Black Prince led to a war between the descendants of King Edward III. They were representatives of two lines of the Plantagenet dynasty: the Lancasters (with a red rose in their coat of arms) and the Yorks (with a white rose in their coat of arms). The War of the Roses lasted from 1455 to 1487 and ended with the victory of… the Tudors, who then ruled England and Wales for 117 years.
The Black Prince was not forgotten either in England or in France: he became the hero of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels Sir Nigel Loring and The White Company, a character historical Maurice Druon's books "The Lily and the Lion" and "When the King Ruins France", A. Dumas's novel "The Bastard de Mauléon", and the works of many other, lesser-known authors. And also a character in some feature films.
James Purefoy as the Black Prince, still from the film A Knight's Tale, 2001.
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