Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

he Black Prince's reputation as a chivalric and
perfect knight was built early and survived
long after his death. As he was Edward Ill's
eldest son, the heir to the nation and to his father's
pretensions to the crown of France, it could hardly
do otherwise. Like Henry the Young King, Henry ll's
eldest son, he had resources that enabled him to play
the chivalric hero to the utmost. Like the Young King,
he was to die whilst his reputation was at its height,
before time and the inevitable reverses and pressures
of kingship could sully it.
The Prince's military reputation was earned in
a very few engagements, although it should be
remembered that few men could boast of
participating in three pitched battles, particularly in
a life so short as his. The Hundred Years War battle
of Crecy set his reputation in 1346, although the
prince's command here, aged but 16, may have been
something of a fiction: Edward Ill's injunction to 'let
the boy win his spurs' did not prevent him from
putting the prince alongside three of the most
experienced commanders in the realm. It was
confirmed at Poitiers, in the same conflict, in 1356,
when the prince's heavily outnumbered army
defeated and captured the French king Jean II. Najera
in 1367, during his intervention in the Castilian civil
war that saw the capture of the French commander
Bertrand du Cuesclin, set it in stone.
The tactics with which these battles were won,
combining dismounted men-at-arms with large
numbers of archers, were well established, having
been developed and refined in numerous
engagements in Scotland and France since Dupplin
Moor in 1332. Likewise the raid, or chevauchee, was
also a long-standing strategy. The prince may have
made it his own, and shown a good tactical sense -
Poitiers proving he had a good eye for ground and
the ability to command - but he showed no sign of,
indeed had no need for, an innovative approach to
military affairs.
The chivalry of the prince is undeniable. His
treatment of Jean II after Poitiers is a regularly held up
as an example of high chivalry. In the evening after
the battle the prince has a lavish meal prepared and
'served before the king as humbly as he could,
and would not sit at the king's board for any desire
that the king could make, but he said he was not
sufficient to sit at table with so great a prince'. The
prince was, like his father, a great lover of pageantry
and tournament. It is no surprise that he was a founder
member of the Order of the Garter. Both father and
son regularly appeared together, taking on the disguise
of the knight incognito or the role of Arthurian heroes.
He spent lavishly on such events. The celebrations
and tournament organized to celebrate the birth of
his son Richard lasted ten days and over 900 knights
and noblemen attended the festivities.
Politically his career was less shining. As Prince
of Aquitaine and Wales he was a king in all but
name. The prince had a clear sense of his royal
personage and the deference due him. He was also
politically naive, perhaps inevitably in his short life
dominated by the relatively simple matters of battle
and tournament. His desire to make use of the fullest
extent of his authority, both in order to fund his
chivalric court and as a statement of his royal power,
led to a great deal of friction with a nobility long used
to a considerable autonomy and themselves jealous
of their status. For them the prince's administration
had an air of tyranny about it.