The Black Prince, Edward of Woodstock, was a man who never lacked enemies in his life. The heir to the English throne lived a life on the saddle of his warhorse for as long as he could. The formidable fighter and able commander died in 1376 after years of hardship. In death, the prince wanted to return to his former glory.
A new investigation shows that the metal armor on his Canterbury Cathedral tomb was not a sculpture by an artist, it was made by an armourer. A last armor for a dead fighter. Nothing was allowed to be changed on the famous tomb. A team of historians and scholars from the Courtauld Institute of Art therefore used non-invasive techniques to study the sculpture on the tomb. They discovered an intricate system of bolts and pins beneath the surface that hold the individual parts together. Whoever made the tomb decorations was not an artist, they were an armorer and had detailed knowledge of medieval armor. The tomb decorations are identical to the Black Prince’s real suit of armor, which is also on display in the cathedral.
“There’s something deeply impressive about the way his armor is depicted on the tomb,” said team co-lead Jessica Barker. “It’s not just any armor, it’s his armor, the same armor that hangs empty over the grave, recreated with absolute fidelity to the original, down to minute details like the position of the rivets.”
There are several explanations such as Edward of Woodstock, son of King Edward III. and father of King Richard II, who came to be nicknamed the Black Prince. The British are inclined to explain that the name derives from their hero’s dark armor, which he wore in the battles of the Hundred Years’ War. Large parts of France were devastated in this war over property claims by the English royal dynasty. The view of the French – their hero from that time is the “Maid of Orleans” – is very different.
Edward got the nickname because of his abysmal black heart. Not only was the Black Prince known for his personal bravery, his ferocity was not inferior to his bravery. After the siege of Limoges, he slaughtered thousands of men, women, and children in anger at their resistance.
Edward was born for war. At just 16, Edward had his baptism of fire at the famous Battle of Crecy. When the knights of the wing the prince commanded threatened to be mowed down by a counterattack, young Edward asked his father for reinforcements. Edward III sent no one. Left to his own devices, the son should “earn his spurs” in battle or die.
Edward stood in the front row and held out. The historian Barbara Tuchmann describes him as a tough and haughty prince who was to achieve immortal fame as the “flower of knighthood”. His reputation was unscathed, according to Tuchmann, as he was fortunate enough to die before his name was tainted by responsibility for the crown. “The French saw him as ‘cruel in his way’ and ‘the proudest man ever born of a woman’.
His greatest victory came at the Battle of Poitier in 1356, when he managed to capture the French king despite his army being severely outnumbered. After a few hours of fighting, the ranks of the English threatened to break. A knight wailed despondently: “Oh dear, we are lost!”. The Black Prince cried out in anger, “You lie, wretched coward! That is blasphemy to say that as long as I live I can be beaten!”.
Edward didn’t give up. With a bold advance, the prince decided the battle. He saw that the French had gone into battle with the sacred standard of France, the Oriflamme. According to legend, the fabric of the standard came from the Holy Land and was soaked with the blood of the Savior. The Holy Flame obligated the French knights to the utmost bravery, they were not allowed to retreat a foot under the banner. And they take no prisoners.
The Black Prince knew that the French king would not make a tactical retreat under the flame for the sake of honor. A bold attack isolated the king, he was captured. Edward collected an outrageous ransom and dominion over Aquitaine. The battle came as a shock to France. The peasants openly despised the knights who allowed the king to fall into enemy hands and lived on.
The prince could not be defeated in the field. The French historian Frossart wrote that he was “brave and ferocious as a lion”. Above all, Edward had his army under control. He could give orders and obey them, even after the battle had begun. That never worked on the other side – the armies of the French king broke up into individual groups that served their masters alone.
But as capable as a man of war was Edward, as prince of his lands was incapable. Here, too, he followed the ideal of chivalry, which can be translated as generosity and extravagance. In peace, his court displayed a splendor that was disproportionate to the income. Except that now no loot could compensate for the minus. The prince sank into debt. And even in peace he maintained the customs he had brought with him from the field. His wife Johanna was considered the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, but also the “most amorous”. She wore the most extravagant clothes, modeled on the “robber wenches of Languedoc”. The illustrious pair were surrounded by beautiful but questionable ladies who dressed like fighters on horseback – in the knights’ blouses they displayed a “quirky lust” that neither “feared God nor blushed at the contempt of the crowd.” .
Through punitive actions, such extravagances and his high spirits, the prince could never bond with his subjects. That was also due to the cruelties of the war, but Edward would have failed as an English king as well. He quickly lost everything he had gained in battle. “The prince had no more and no less foresight than most military leaders and did not see the future,” says Tuchmann soberly.
Not only was his rule crushed by debt, but the proud man fell ill and lost his iron constitution. In 1371 he returned to England a broken man. He even had to give his principality to his father because he was unable to administer it. Edward of Woodstock died of dysentery in 1376 at the age of 45. Before his death, he left detailed instructions on what his grave should look like. It should once again evoke its glory. It was supposed to be made of metal and he wanted to lie there “fully armed with war gear”. That was unheard of at the time. Both the martial appearance and the shape. The tomb decoration is one of only six surviving large cast metal sculptures from medieval England.
According to legend, the motto “I serve” of the Princes of Wales goes back to Edward. According to the legend, after the battle of Crecy, the young knight wandered across the battlefield covered with dead people. There he found the body of John of Bohemia. The king, although completely blind and abandoned by his own son, had gone into battle on the French side and had died tied in the saddle. “Here lies the prince of chivalry, but he dies not,” Edward is said to have exclaimed. Edward is said to have been so impressed by this example of knightly bravery that he has ever since carried the king’s motto and his helmet ornament in the form of three ostrich feathers. To this day, the Princes of Wales carry the motto in their shields. There is also a ruby in the imperial crown, which the prince had received as a gift from Peter the Cruel after the Battle of Nájera.
Source: The Courtald, Burlingtin, Clothman The Distant Looking Glass
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