The Black Prince

by David Green

  26. He is also recorded as Sir Thomas ‘Danyers’ a Cheshire veteran of low birth, rewarded for retrieving the standard and for his deeds at Caen with a £20 land grant. This became the Lyme Handley estate and was bequeathed to his son-in-law, Peter Legh, in 1398, Philip Morgan, War and Society in Medieval Cheshire, 1277–1403, Manchester (Chetham Society), 1987, 182, 186. An annual grant of 40 marks to the prince’s bachelor made on 26 Feb. 1347, to be taken from Frodsham manor, was made as a result of Daniel’s good service in the capture of Tancarville and at Crécy, BPR, i, 45.

  27. It was probably for this that he was granted a £20 annuity from Wallingford manor on 1 Sept. 1346, BPR, i, 14. Further deeds were rewarded with a gift of 100 marks, 10 Dec. 1346, ibid., 40. There is an alternative tradition that the standard-bearer was one Richard Beaumont: Geoffrey Le Baker, Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke, 1330–56, ed. E.M. Thompson, Oxford, 1889, 261. He was said to have covered the prince with the great banner of Wales and defended him when he fell, Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Tramecourt MS, cited by Emerson, Black Prince, 45.

  28. Reinforcements may have been sent led by the bishop of Durham and the earls of Huntingdon and Suffolk, Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333–1381, ed. V.H. Galbriath, Manchester, 1927, 22. Thomas of Norwich supposedly delivered the message to the king: Froissart, Chroniques, ed. Luce, iii, 183; Brereton, Chronicles, 92.

  29. Jean le Bel, Chronique, ii, 99ff.; Baker, Chronicon, 82–5; Froissart, Oeuvres, ed. Lettenhove, v, 37–8. On the Oriflamme see, Philippe Contamine, L’oriflamme de Saint-Denis aux XIVe et XVe siècles, Nancy, 1975.

  30. Barber, Edward, 68. The prince is not mentioned as participating in the morning attack by Knighton, Baker or the Anonimalle Chronicler: Sumption, Hundred Years War, i, 530.

  31. Murimuth, Chronicarum, 247. The Hundred Years War was generally fought as a bellum hostile, i.e. declared under the authority of a prince and allowing the ransom of prisoners, E. Porter, ‘Chaucer’s Knight, the Alliterative Morte Arthure and the Medieval Laws of War: A Reconsideration’, NMS, xxvii (1983), 67. A guerre mortelle, as demanded by Edward III at Crécy and indicated by the presence of the Oriflamme, was a war to the death with no surrender or ransoming of captives.

  32. According to Knighton, the prince himself slew the kings of Bohemia and Mallorca, the latter did not die at Crécy: Knighton’s Chronicle, ed. Martin, 198, 199. For a list of the fallen see: ibid., 62, 63; Lanercost Chronicle, ed. and trans. Maxwell, 329 which differs from the casualty list given in Anonimalle Chronicle, ed. Galbraith, 23, 160.

  33. Andrew Ayton, ‘English Armies in the Fourteenth Century’, Arms, Armies and Fortifications, ed. Curry and Hughes, 33–4; Andrew Ayton, Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy under Edward III, Woodbridge, 1994, 19.

  34. Plaisse, À travers le Cotentin, 31.

  35. Bennett, ‘Development of Battle Tactics’, 9–10.

  36. ’et Franci xvi uicibus dederunt eis insultam antequam dies illucesceret’, Knighton’s Chronicle, ed. Martin, 62. Baker, refers to 16 attacks, Chronicon, 85. Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer, New York, 1985, 108, states there were 15.

  37. Ayton, ‘English Army and the Normandy Campaign’, 253–68, indicates problems associated with previous estimates of the 1346–7 armies. With regard to the specific size of individual retinues, he states, ‘… numbers of retinue personnel cannot be ascertained from these records. All they can do is offer confirmation of the general order of magnitude – and the order of precedence – of those retinues that appear on the Calais roll.’

  38. A History of Carmarthenshire, ed. John E. Lloyd, Cardiff, 1935, i, 249. See also D.L. Evans, ‘Some Notes on the History of the Principality of Wales in the Time of the Black Prince, 1343–1376’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymrodorion (1925–6), 80.

  North Wales South Wales

  Knights 3 –

  Esquires 3 –

  Leaders 4 2

  Constables 24 30

  Chaplains 1 1

  Surgeons 1 1

  Proclamator 1 1

  Standard Bearers 9 29

  Vinteners 112 108

  Footmen 2252 1990

  Total 2410 2162

  39. Peter Coss, The Knight in Medieval England, 1100–1400, Stroud, 1993, 91, 100; Hugh E.L. Collins, The Order of the Garter, 1348–1461: Chivalry and Politics in Late Medieval England, Oxford, 2000, 12.

  40. For discussion of the Round Table see Collins, Order of the Garter, 6–10. Froissart confused this with the foundation of the Garter.

  41. The whereabouts of d’Aubrechicourt and Henry Eam in 1346 are uncertain. The captal de Buch and Lancaster were involved in subsidiary action elsewhere in France, D’A.J.D. Boulton, The Knights of the Crown. The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325–1520, Woodbridge, 1987, 127–8. For biographical details see Green, ‘Household and Military Retinue’, Appendix.

  42. CPR, 1377–81, 197. John Burley was granted an annuity for his service in the prince’s bodyguard at Nájera: J.L. Gillespie, ‘Richard II’s Knights: Chivalry and Patronage’, Journal of Medieval History, 13 (1987), 154; See also Green, ‘Household and Military Retinue’, Appendix.

  43. Bodleian MS Ashmole 1128, fos. 1–8, 41–116; Collins, Order of the Garter, 22–3.

  44. In 1334, Edward III had fought incognito as Mons Lionel under the banner of Stephen Cosington and Thomas Bradeston at the Dunstable tournament, and at Dartford he competed under William Clinton’s banner, J. Vale, Edward III and Chivalry. Chivalrous Society and its Context, 1270–1350, Woodbridge, 1982, 68; R. Barber and J. Barker, Tournaments. Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages, Woodbridge, 1989, 32.

  45. BPR, iv, 73; Vale, Edward III and Chivalry, 86.

  46. The gifts for Chandos and Audley cost £6 13s. 4d., the prince’s own expenses were 20s., BPR, iv, 123. See also, ibid., 252, 284, 323–4.

  47. Cuvelier, Chronicle de Bertrand Du Guesclin, ed. E. Chariere, Paris, 1839, i, ll. 11070ff; R. Barber, The Knight and Chivalry, rev. ed., Woodbridge, 1995, 225.

  48. John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulph Higden, Oxford, 1966, 146.

  49. Thomas Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ii, ed. H.T. Riley, London (Rolls Ser.), 1863, 239; T.A. Sandquist, ‘The Holy Oil of St Thomas of Canterbury’, Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, ed. T.A. Sandquist and M.R. Powicke, Toronto, 1969, 337.

  50. Those that suffered the ‘Plague of Justinian’ in the 6th century might disagree.

  51. W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman, 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising all the Parts you can Remember, Including 103 good things, 5 bad Kings and 2 genuine dates, London, 1930.

  52. Juliet and Malcolm Vale, ‘Knightly Codes and Piety’, History Today, 37 (1987), 13, see also M.G.A. Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy among the Yorkshire Gentry, 1370–1480, (Borthwick Papers, 50), York, 1976, 11–14.

  53. Harvey, English in Rome, 60–1 and see nn. 40–5.

  54. Northburgh left £2,000 to the London Carthusians in his will of 1361, William F. Taylor, The Charterhouse of London, London, 1912, 3, 17.

  55. W. Hope St. John, History of the London Charterhouse, London, 1925, 6. A papal bull of Clement VI, 14 Mar. 1350–1 authorized the foundation of the chapel.

  56. DNB, xvi, 49–50. His mother, Katherine (d. 1381), was buried in the Hull charterhouse although his father, William, rested in the Trinity Chapel, Hull: Testamenta Eboracensia, i, ed. J. Raine (Surtees Society, 4), 1836, 76–7, 119.

  57. Nigel Saul, Richard II, New Haven and London, 1997, 298 n. 13.

  58. 3 Mar. 1362, 19 Feb. 1363, BPR, iv, 423, 462, 488.

  59. Baker, Chronicon, 103–6; Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 61–2.

  60. Chroniques, ed. Luce, iv, 88–98; Packe, Edward III, 200–1; Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 66–7.

  61. Graham J. Dawson, ‘The Black Prince’s Palace at Kennington, Surrey’, British Archaeological Reports, 26, 1976; John Harvey, English Mediaeval
Architects, rev. ed., Gloucester, 1984, 358–66.

  62. For the text of the treaty of Guînes see F. Bock, ‘Some New Documents Illustrating the Early Years of the Hundred Years War (1353–1356)’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, xv (1931), 34–6.

  63. P.H.W. Booth, ‘Taxation and Public Order: Cheshire in 1353’, Northern History, xii (1976), 19, 21–2, 28–9

  64. R.R. Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales, 1282–1400, Oxford, 1978, 271–2.

  Chapter 4

  1. Armagnac had served as lieutenant in Languedoc, 1346–7 and was re-appointed 1352–7, Dupont-Ferrier, Gallia Regia, iii, 472, no. 13675; J. Moisant, Le Prince Noir en Aquitaine, 1355–6, 1362–70, Paris, 1894, 29.

  2. Labarge, Gascony, 135–6. For a contrary view of the Gascons’ reasons for wanting the participation of the prince see J.M. Tourneur-Aumont, La Bataille de Poitiers (1356) et la construction de la France, Paris, 1940.

  3. C61/67/29; 8 Mar. 1355, CCR, 1354–60, 256; Rymer, III, i, 298–9, 302, 307, 309–10, 323, 325. Similar warrants were issued to the sheriffs of Devon and Southampton

  4. 1 Dec. 1354, BPR, iv, 158, 160; 16 June 1355; ibid., 166. Henry Keverell presumably was a merchant or supplier for ships and boats. He also supplied items to the prince’s barge, ibid., 160. Rymer, III, i, 308; Thomas Carte, Catalogue des rôles Gascons, Normans et Français dans les archives de la Tour de Londres, 2 vols, London and Paris, 1746, i, 134.

  5. C61/67/5; Kenneth Fowler, The King’s Lieutenant: Henry of Grosmont, First Duke of Lancaster, London, 1969, 147. For a tentative list of the ships arrested for the prince’s use see H.J. Hewitt, The Black Prince’s Expedition of 1355–57, Manchester, 1958, 40–2. This excludes the Saint Mary cog of Winchelsea which, at 200 tons, was the largest ship in the fleet, E61/76/4; T.J. Runyan, ‘Ships and Mariners in Later Medieval England’, Journal of British Studies, 16:2 (1977), 2 n. 3. The prince himself sailed on his father’s ship, the Christophre, Emerson, Black Prince, 90.

  6. BPR, ii, 80–8; ibid., iii, 212–6; ibid., iv, 78, 158, 161; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 26. Tiderik was also involved in delivering money to the prince’s chamber and received a gift of £10.

  7. Pierre Capra, ‘Le séjour du Prince Noir, lieutenant du Roi, à l’Archévêché de Bordeaux (20 septembre 1355–11 avril 1357)’, Revue historique du Bordeaux et du département Gironde, NS 7 (1958), 246–7; Labarge, Gascony, 136–7; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 37. Ships were arrested for Warwick’s departure from 10 Mar. 1355, C61/67/14. By 8 May, 44 ships were at Southampton for the prince’s use, E101/26/37. For the account of Thomas Hoggeshawe, admiral of the fleet and for William Wenlock’s account of mariners’ wages see E101/26/34. For the text of the oath and a list of witnesses see Livre de Coutumes, ed. Henri Barckhausen, Archives Municipales de Bordeaux), 1890, 439–44, see also the resumé, 487.

  8. BPR, ii, 77; iv, 143–5; Rogers, War Cruel and Sharp, 295 and n. 48; Harriss, King, Parliament and Public Finance, 344–5. For the prince’s appointment and duties as lieutenant see Rymer, III, i, 307, 312. Gray in Scalacronica considered the combined attacks in 1355–6 part of a coherent strategy: Barnie, War in Medieval Society, 93.

  9. Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 175–6.

  10. CIPM, x, no. 258; GEC, viii, 73–6.

  11. Emerson, Black Prince, 94; Barber, Edward, 119.

  12. Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 181.

  13. A.H. Burne, The Crécy War: A Military History of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to the Peace of Brétigny, 1360, London, 1955, 252–8; Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 183–4.

  14. Rogers, ‘Edward III and the Dialectics of Strategy’, 100–1.

  15. Robert of Avesbury, De gestis mirabilis regis Edwardi tertii, ed. E.M. Thompson, 1889, 445–7; Life and Campaigns, ed. Barber, 53.

  16. Françoise Lehoux, Jean de France, duc de Berri. Sa vie. Son action politique (1340–1416), Paris, 1966, i, 57; Pierre-Clément Timbal, La Guerre de Cent Ans vue à travers les registres du Parlement, 1337–1369, Paris, 1961, 108–9. At Béziers a tax was instituted for the repair of the fortifications, ibid., 240.

  17. Burne, Crécy War, 252. ‘…c’étatit plutot l’invasion d’une forte armée de brigands pillant le pays sans défense, faisant le plus butin possible…’, Henri Denifle, La guerre de cent ans et la désolation des églises, monasteres et hospitaux en France, Paris, 1902, ii, 86. For further discussion of the damage to ecclesiastical buildings see, ibid., 86–95. See also Pierre Tucoo-Chala, Gaston Fébus et la vicomté de Béarn (1343–1391), Bordeaux, 1959, 70. If not before, the prince and Gaston met on 17 Nov., Baker, Chronicon, 128, 135, 138; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 45; R. Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V, i, Paris, 5 vols, 1909–31, 128 n.1.

  18. Emerson, Black Prince, 97–8; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 69, 76.

  19. ’La France loyaliste deviendra ‘armagnaque”, Touneur-Aumont, La bataille de Poitiers, 65. Delachenal, Charles V, i, 127–8.

  20. Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 190.

  21. The accounts of the raids are summarized by Fowler, ‘Letters and Dispatches’, 77–8, 80, nn. 69–76.

  22. John of Reading, Chronica Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuarensis 1346–1367, ed. James Tait, Manchester, 1914, 120; Avesbury, 437, 439.

  23. The prince’s clerk, Robert Brampton, prepared the ships for Stafford’s return journey to Gascony in 1356, C61/68/4; C66/68/4. Brampton received £3 6s. 8d. as a gift from the prince for this, 24 Oct. 1356, BPR, iv, 192.

  24. Register of John de Trillek, Bishop of Hereford (A.D. 1344–1361) ed. Joseph H. Parry, Hereford, 1910–12, 242; Froissart, Oeuvres, ed. Lettenhove, xviii, 389–92; Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483, ed. E. Tyrrell and N.H. Nicolas, London, 1827, 204–8; Delachenal, Charles V, ii, 381–4; Life and Campaigns, ed. Barber, 57–9.

  25. Froissart, Oeuvres, ed. Lettenhove, v, 528–9; Chartulary of Winchester Cathedral, ed. A.W. Goodman, Winchester, 1927, 159–61, no. 370, 162–4, no. 371; Fowler, ‘Letters and Dispatches’, 77–8; Delachenal, Charles V, i, 205–6; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 79.

  26. 7 Feb. 1356, Rymer, III, i, 322. The mayor and people received letters of protection on the same day:Henxteworth ff. 13, 21, 25.

  27. Burne, Crécy War, 276; Barber, Edward, 129–30; Emerson, Black Prince, 102. Durfort’s lordship of Blanquefort had been confiscated on 21 Mar. 1355 and given to Auger de Mussidan as a result of his Valois sympathies. In 1356, he returned to favour and with it received Blanquefort. Mussidan was compensated with the chateau of Blaye, 3 offices in Bordeaux and revenue from the grande coutume on 600 tons of wine. Durfort also received rights in Saint-Foy, elsewhere and 4 bastides, C61/70/4; 71/7; Capra, ‘Le séjour du Prince Noir’, 245.

  28. Work was carried out there by Chandos’ order, for which payment was made in March: Henxteworth, 68.

  29. Sumption, Hundred Years War, ii, 193.

  30. Rymer, III, i, 325. For a description of the route from Bergerac see Eulogium Historiarum, iii, 215–22.

  31. This authority was given at the pope’s request, 15 Dec. 1355 and repeated 1 Aug. 1356, Rymer, III, i, 333.

  32. Fowler stated a definite strategic plan had been formulated in 1355, by which Lancaster was to join the prince (although he failed to cross the Loire) and the earls of March, Northampton and Stafford were obliged to provide assistance: King’s Lieutenant, 153–5; E36/278/88; BPR, iv, 145.

  33. Barber, Edward, 131–2; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 102.

  34. For the composition of the army see Delachenal, Charles V, i, 192–7. From Jan. to May the main Cheshire archer companies declined in number from around 180 to little over 50. This was due to their division along the Gascon march, withdrawal and desertion. Letters to the lieutenant-justice of Cheshire were written regarding 43 deserters and a further 20 or so were given leave of absence such as William Jodrell who received the famous Jodrell deed. His brother, John, fought at Poitiers as part of a company of bowmen raised from among the burgesses and inhab
itants of Llantrisant, Robert Hardy, ‘The Longbow’, Arms, Armies and Fortifications, ed. Curry and Hughes, 163; Morgan, War and Society, 111, 113.

  35. Delachenal, Charles V, i, 190; Denifle, La désolation, ii, 112–21; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 104; Fowler, King’s Lieutenant, 154; Emerson, Black Prince, 108–9.

  36. Letter to the mayor, aldermen and commons of London, 22 October, Life and Campaigns, ed. Barber, 57.

  37. Froissart, Chroniques, ed. Luce, v, 414–16; Delachenal, Charles V, i, 225–6; Barber, Edward, 134, 136–7; Burne, Crécy War, 276–8; Hewitt, Black Prince’s Expedition, 107–9; Labarge, Gascony, 139–41.

  38. Burne, Crécy War, 292–7; Labarge, Gascony, 141. Regarding the previous day, ‘Des ordres avaient du être donnés, le matin par le prince de Galles, soit pour une marche offensive, soit, ce qui est beaucoup plus probable pour une retraite’, Delachenal, Charles V, i, 210–1.

  39. Letter to the mayor, aldermen and commons of London, Life and Campaigns, ed. Barber, 58.