The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior

The remarkable and inspiring story of one of the greatest warrior-princes of the Middle Agesand an unforgettably vivid portrait of warfare and chivalry in the fourteen century. As a child he was given his own suit of armor; at the age of sixteen he helped defeat the French at Crcy. At Poitiers in 1356 his victory over King John II of France forced the French into a humiliating surrender that marked the zenith of Englands dominance in the Hundred Years War. As lord of Aquitaine he ruled a vast swathe of territory across the west and southwest of France holding a magnificent court at Bordeaux that mesmerized the brave but unruly Gascon nobility and drew them like moths to the flame of his cause. He was Edward of Woodstock eldest son of Edward III and better known to posterity as the Black Prince. His military achievements captured the imagination of Europe: heralds and chroniclers called him the flower of all chivalry and the embodiment of all valor. But what was the true nature of the man behind the chivalric myth and of the violent but pious world in which he lived? This exemplary new history uses contemporary chronicles plus a wide range of documentary materialincluding the Princes own letters and those of his closest followersto tell the tale of an authentic English hero and to paint a memorable portrait of society in the tumultuous fourteenth century.