Blackwell Reference Online

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(1330–76) This brilliant knight, whose tomb and armour can still be admired in Canterbury Cathedral, was also a great military leader, faithful to the judicious advice of his mentor, Sir John Chandos. He was the eldest son of Edward III, King of England, and although he fought alongside his father at Crécy (1346), his real career began in 1355 with his marauding expedition through Languedoc, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. In the following year, a new expedition, towards the Loire, culminated in the Battle of Poitiers where he defeated and captured the King of France, John the Good. In 1362, Edward III created him Prince of Aquitaine. For the next eight years, he maintained a substantial court, based at Bordeaux. In 1367, responding to an appeal from the King of Castile, Peter the Cruel, he won the Battle of Nájera over Peter's rival Henry of Trastámara and took Bertrand du Guesclin prisoner. He then contracted a serious illness which forced him to return to England in 1371. Henceforth, he played only a subordinate role in military affairs. However, he lived long enough to see the reconquest of the greater part of Aquitaine by the French armies of Charles V. See also france ; great britain ; guesclin . , Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine ( London , 1978 ); Richard Barber, The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince (Woodbridge, 1986); Herbert J. Hewitt, The ... log in or subscribe to read full text