Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. The teenage prince was leading the vanguard. It was a position of honour and a position of danger. His father wanted his son bloodied.
He wanted his son to win his spurs, to emerge from his shadow a leader in his own right. And that is exactly what the young prince did that day. August 26th, 1346. At that battle of Crecy. Prince Edward of England. Well, he came within a hair's breadth of being hacked to death, but it's in those margins that legends are made.
Henry V only just survived taking an arrow to the face when he was a lad. Alexander the Great came millimetres from having his skull split in two at the launch of his invasion of Asia. Napoleon took a bayonet in the thigh in his first battle. and so it was with Prince Edward on that battlefield.
Crecy was the first major clash of the Hundred Years' War, and after that battle, overnight, Edward became one of Europe's most admired warrior princes. You'll listen to Dan Snow's history, and we are talking all things Edward the Black Prince on this podcast. He's the eldest son of Edward III, one of the most celebrated military leaders of the Middle Ages.
His part in the victories at Crecy and Poitiers during the Hundred Years' War made him a national hero, a figure of fascination across Europe at the time and through subsequent centuries, because he also embodied the ideals of chivalry and knightly honour. All the while, obviously, such is the contradiction of these things, he commanded campaigns marked by devastation and cruelty.
As you'll hear, he lived at a time of shifting fortunes. I'll tell you, that wheel of fortune was spinning in that period. There was war with Scotland. There was war with France. There was the devastation of the Black Death. His life and his early death left a legacy that shaped England and France.
We're going to look at his rise, we're going to look at his triumphs, the contradictions of the right prince, the man behind the myth. We're going to look at his tragic early death. We're going to talk about the prince that might have been a truly great king.
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Chapter 2: Who was Edward the Black Prince and what made him a formidable warrior?
The other day I was exploring Canterbury Cathedral in Kent. We are filming for a History Hit documentary, make sure you go and subscribe. And I found Edward the Black Prince's tomb. He chose to be buried in that great cathedral of Englishness. And there's the most extraordinary inscription on that tomb. His effigy, him in his armour, corrects down to the rivets.
There's an inscription on that tomb which is very, very arresting. It's haunting. Such as thou art, so once was I. Such as I am, such shalt thou be. I little thought on the hour of death, so long as I enjoyed breath. Great riches here did I possess. I had gold, silver, wardrobes, great treasure, horses, houses, land. But now a poor caitiff I am, meaning a sort of miserable wretch.
Deep in the ground, lo, here I lie. My great beauty is all quite gone. My flesh is wasted to the bone. Something to think about there. It's the fate that awaits us all. Here's Dr Michael Jones, brilliant historian and broadcaster, to talk us all through. He's written a book called The Black Prince. Make sure you go and check it out. Enjoy. Michael, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Big pleasure, Dan.
the Plantagenets are one turbulent family, but actually the Black Prince, when he was born, he was born into a family that was feeling reasonably settled and sort of together without members of each, various branches killing each other. I mean, it was a pretty good time to be born as a Plantagenet prince.
Well, as a baby, he was in a turbulent time because his birth was actually the catalyst for Edward III, his father, and his mother, Philip of Eno, he was the catalyst for Edward sorting things out and creating what would be a very stable family. Because when the prince was born, young Edward was a puppet really being manipulated by a shadowy
regime of his mother, Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer.
Oh, yes, that's true. So he's still being dominated by his mum. Ah.
He's being dominated by his mum and having his own son galvanise the 18-year-old Edward III.
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Chapter 3: What significant events marked the rise of Edward during the Hundred Years' War?
Yeah, up to a point. One of the big issues in the early Parthian reign is the war with Scotland. The young prince would have certainly been hearing about that. Philippa of Hainaut, his mum, liked to travel and liked to support her husband.
And certainly, even as a very young child, the black prince would have been brought up near the frontier to stay in a nursery, would have heard stories about it all. But this war with Scotland, the French were supporting the Scots. So I think, yes, there was an element of stability a bit. war was ever present, and it starts with Scotland and moves on to France.
Yes, I guess peace in medieval Western Europe is a sort of relative concept.
A relative concept, yes, well put.
And so Edward III doesn't undo the damage done by his father Edward II, but how would you define the end of that war with Scotland? Just quickly, before we get into the Black Prince's life, they fix, roughly speaking, a border that is still the border today, interestingly.
Well, that war will still go on after the war with France opens. And fortunately, there are two big victories in the same year. I mean, we're jumping ahead. But the thing that knocks Scotland out is that an invading army is defeated and the King of Scotland is captured in 1346. And after that, it's quiet again. But why I say this is that Edward undertakes a high risk strategy.
Some of his advisors were saying exactly what you were saying. Don't even think about France, mate, until you form some kind of stability, some kind of peace with Scotland. And Edward does something rather similar to Henry V. He just goes for it. So high risk, high stakes. Exciting because it's very proactive, but risky.
And that is the start of what we might all recognise as the Hundred Years' War. But let's quickly come back to the Black Prince. So he's no stranger to the military camp. He's travelled around a lot with his dad. He must have been impressed with his dad. I mean, there was this sort of martial revival going on.
I mean, it felt like England and the English, the Plantagenet family, were back after a very, very rough... Massively so.
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Chapter 4: How did the Black Prince's early life influence his military career?
Massively so. This deployment of the Longbow within the battle line, previously the missile-bearing troops kind of came out at the beginning and got out of the way. took years to perfect because the longbow is a deadly weapon, but also the bowmen would be lightly armored. So if there are a series of cavalry attacks, if you're not coordinating it properly, the French will take a hit.
They'll take casualties, but they'll punch through the line when the bowmen are. It required a lot of practice, but a formation was found that worked, and it led to a devastating advantage. I think there are a whole host of factors here. Decisive generalship, because the French king had the misfortune to see the battle starting before he'd even got to where the army was.
There was a huge traffic jam, a gridlock. Don't we know about these roadworks? Well, the French king found out that the Count de Alençon was preparing to start the battle without him and just basically said, okay, go ahead. So we have measured strong leadership on the English side, a lot of tactical awareness, and of course, this new disposition using the power of the longbow.
And on the French side, it's chaotic, adrenaline-fueled, rushing into action. So it's a huge, devastating defeat for France.
This is Dan Snow's History. There's more on this topic coming up. The flower of French nobility. I feel like I've said this many times on the podcast, but there must be lots of flowers of French nobility because it is always said that they are lying dead on the field of Crecy. The king lucky to escape. The king of Bohemia. The blind king of Bohemia dead as well.
Yeah, big influence on the Black Prince. And this was because, again, we're entering this strange world of chivalry, this parallel universe where the King of Bohemia, our great personal friend of the French King, losing sight in both his eyes. He says to his retinue that he wants to basically die fighting. And they tether their horses together.
They don't abandon him and say, get on with it, you silly old fool. But they all die together when the prince not only witnesses the body of the blind king of Bohemia, Jean Luxembourg, but also sees those horses tethered together. He's deeply moved because in a way, that is the embodiment of chivalry. And a famous comment that was made to Simon de Montfort when he
Before the Battle of Yishun, he said to one of his companions, look, the bridge is open. You can get out of here. There'll be no dishonor. And the companion simply said, no, Simon, we have drunk from the same cup. And this is the abiding sense of loyalty that chivalry could create. And the prince decided to emulate. So he adopts the ostrich feather.
One sees that on his tomb in Canterbury, which was the King of Bohemia's own emblem as a reminder of that principle.
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