Edward the Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince (1330–1376), was Edward III's eldest son and heir. Created Duke of Cornwall in 1337 and Prince of Wales in 1343, he commanded the English vanguard at Crécy in 1346, aged sixteen.

His chevauchées of 1355–1356 sacked Narbonne and ravaged Auvergne and Limousin, and at Poitiers in 1356 his army routed the French and captured King John II. English contemporaries saw him as chivalry's model; French sources remember his brutality. He negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 and ruled Aquitaine as prince from 1362.

In 1367 he defeated Henry of Trastámara, Peter of Castile's rival, at Nájera, but Peter never repaid the debt, and a hearth tax he secured in 1368 alienated Aquitanian nobles. In failing health he returned to England in 1371 and died in June 1376; his son Richard II succeeded Edward III.