technically rebelling against the throne. It was thus an important diplomatic and
propaganda tool in his war with France.
How seriously did Edward take his claim? There is little doubt that his major aim in
the war was to defend and secure his patrimony in Gascony, and in a number of
negotiations he seemed willing to relinquish his claim to the throne of France in exchange
for full sovereignty (rather than feudal tenure) over a Gascony freed of French territorial
inroads. Edward was a master opportunist, and keeping his claim alive gave him many
opportunities. Yet it is also probable that Edward and many of his English followers
thought that his becoming king of two kingdoms was at least within the realm of
possibility. Indeed, in the three years after the capture of King John II at Poitiers in 1356,
culminating in the campaign against Reims and Paris in 1359, Edward must have felt
within reach of this goal. In fact, it was always unlikely that Edward could have been
accepted as king by a sufficient number of the French nobility. His great-grandson Henry
V actually came closer to making good on the family claim.
Stephen Morillo
[See also: CALAIS; CHARLES V THE WISE; CRÉCY; HUNDRED YEARS’
WAR; ISABELLA OF FRANCE; PHILIP VI]
Le Patourel, John. “Edward III and the Kingdom of France.” Hisrtoy 43(1958):173–89.
Perroy, Édouard. The Hundred Years War, trans. W.B.Wells. New York: Capricorn, 1965.
Prestwich, Michael. The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272–1377. New York: St.
Martin, 1980.
EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE
(1330–1376). Son of Edward III of England. Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales and
Aquitaine, known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son of Edward III and the father of
Richard II. He was the chief English commander in France throughout the second phase
of the Hundred Years’ War (1355–70) and from 1362, by his father’s creation, the ruler
of Aquitaine, England’s greatest possession in France. Like his father first and foremost a
warrior, he was regarded by his contemporaries as the model of chivalry and the greatest
knight living. His personal prowess aside, he was a competent though not brilliant field
commander and was victorious in a series of campaigns in France and Spain. Heir
apparent all his life, he died a year before his father, and the throne went to his ten-year-
old son, Richard.
Edward’s military career began at the age of sixteen, at his father’s greatest victory,
the Battle of Crécy (1346). After a profitable chevauchée (or mounted raid) through
Languedoc in 1355, Edward led another the next year into Poitou. Although caught and
forced to fight by John the Good, king of France, near Poitiers, he emerged victorious in
one of the most spectacular English successes of the war. Outnumbered by perhaps
25,000 French, Edward’s 6,000 troops, mostly longbowmen, handily won the Battle of
Poitiers on September 19, 1356, capturing thousands of prisoners, including the king of
France himself. His second most notable victory, at Nájera (April 3, 1367), was the
culmination of a campaign launched into Spain to settle the succession of Castile, and
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