Letters, reports, campaign diaries and the chronicles of Geoffrey le
Baker and Chandos Herald document the life and dazzling exploits of the
legendary Black Prince.
Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, known as the Black
Prince, is one of those heroes of history books so impressive as to seem
slightly unreal. At sixteen he played a leading part in the fighting at
Crécy; at twenty-six he captured the king of France at Poitiers; and
eleven years later he restored Pedro of Castile to histhrone at the
battle of Najera. His exploits were chronicled by Jean Froissart, but
Froissart was writing three or four decades after the events he
describes. There are other sources much closer to events, and it is on
these that the present volume draws.
Most immediate are the reports sent home by the prince's
companions-in-arms and his own letters, which graphically convey the
hardships and difficulties of campaigning, its dangers and sheer
fatigue. These are followed by campaign diaries and the story of Crécy
and other exploits of the prince's from Geoffrey le Baker's chronicle
(c.1358-60), itself drawing on similar letters and diaries. Finally
there is the chronicle of Chandos Herald, which shows the prince as he
appeared to an English writer in the 1380s. Each of the sources is
discussed in detail in the introductions to the extracts.
RICHARD BARBER's books on the age of chivalry include The Knight and
Chivalry, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, King Arthur: Hero and
Legend and Arthurian Legends. He has also written the Companion Guide to
Gascony and the Dordogne, the background to so many of the Black
Prince's exploits, and the Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe.
