Edward the Black Prince: A Study of Power in Medieval Europe

Description

This fully updated second edition uses the career of Edward the Black Prince to explore key developments in the history of late medieval Europe. The eruption of the Hundred Years War, the arrival of the Black Death, England’s first religious heresy, and major innovations in the role of parliament all took place during Edward’s lifetime. As king-in-waiting and one of the most significant noblemen in the realm, the prince was a major influence over local and international politics, and his example helped reshape concepts of lordship throughout the Plantagenet estates. This thoroughly revised edition includes new sources and builds on the wealth of scholarship which has been published in recent years about the fourteenth century. It includes considerations of the prince’s military career in France and Iberia, his household and the ‘colonial’ characteristics of his administrations in Wales and Aquitaine. The prince’s career also reveals the influence of the chivalric ethic and the importance of Gascony to the English crown, while his relationship with Joan, ‘the Fair Maid’ of Kent is suggestive of the changing character of female agency in the later middle ages. Drawing on central themes such as plague, chivalry, lordship, parliament, gender, and religion, Edward the Black Prince is essential reading for all students and scholars concerned with society, culture, and power in medieval Europe. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Illustrations Figures Maps Table Series Editor’s Foreword Preface to the Second Edition Abbreviations Acknowledgements Acknowledgements for the Second Edition A Note on Money Glossary Map 1: Key Locations Map 2: The Military Campaigns of the Black Prince Family Tree: The Royal Houses of England and France(c.1270–c.1410) Introduction: The King’s Son Military Apprenticeships: Scotland and France Infantia et Pueritia A Career in Arms The Power of Princes Power in the Principalities Notes Chapter 1: England at War The Hundred Years War – Origins and Causes Opening Gambit Crécy: A Military Apprenticeship Transitions of Military Power: Strategy and Tactics Vegetian Strategy: Avoiding Battles or Seeking Them? Notes Chapter 2: The Black Death Portents of the Apocalypse Pandemic and Epidemic The Economy and Agriculture Social and Religious Impact Clerical Deaths and Clerical Responses Notes Chapter 3: Chivalry and Nobility Chivalric Commentaries Birth and Virtue Knights, Mercenaries and Professional Soldiers The Aristocracy: Nobility and Gentry Orders of Knighthood Qualities of Chivalry: Prowess and Skill-at-Arms Qualities of Chivalry: Loyalty Qualities of Chivalry: Courtesy Notes Chapter 4: A Prince’s HouseholdLordship and Status Display and Ceremony Location and Personnel Sovereignty and the Tensions of Lordship Notes Chapter 5: Parliament, Representation and the Body Politic Kings and Parliaments: A Changing Balance Political Representation The Black Prince, the Council and the Good Parliament Notes Chapter 6: Religion: Piety and Patronage Salvation, Judgement and Memorialisation Lollardy Joan of Kent and the Lollard Knights Notes Conclusion Notes Bibliography Manuscript Sources British Library National Archives, Public Record Office (Kew, London) Printed Sources Secondary Sources Index