Where does the name Black Prince come from? The color of his armor? The terror it inspires on the battlefield, and in particular the French? Both of these hypotheses are plausible, especially since this denomination was not used by chroniclers of the time.
It was not until William Shakespeare in 1599 that this nickname was popularized in history books.
The rides of the prince, if they ruined the provinces of the kingdom of France, in turn made the fortune, the happiness and the glory of Bordeaux. All strata of society took advantage of the accumulated manna: the nobility by recovering land and castles conquered, the bourgeois by the wine trade and the distribution of spoils, the clergy by increasing their domains and therefore their collections of tithe, the small people benefiting from the crumbs of this opulence.
1337-1340: three years of siege of capital of Aquitaine
In 1337, in a letter to the Bordelais, Edward III ordered the jurats and the mayor to refuse the king of France their services and their oaths.
War resumes. The threat is becoming clearer in the commune of Bordeaux.
The city is well protected by its three wall enclosures.
The Bourgeois have weapons forged by their own gunsmiths and enjoy gold reserves at the Hôtel des Monnaies de l’Ombrière. An important militia crosses the city.
The Gascon and English-speaking nobility possessed a powerful cavalry. The French attack from all sides, take Libourne, but cannot conquer Blaye. The siege of Bordeaux lasts three years.
Meanwhile, the King of England Edward III waged war in Flanders and won several victories. Troops of the King of England march on Paris.
In 1340, the King of France abandoned the siege of Bordeaux. In 1340, the city breathes.
Gascon Lords Rally With King Of England
In 1342, the king of England carried hostilities in Brittany, then, in 1345, a powerful expeditionary force landed in Bayonne. The main lords of Gascony, the sires of Montferrand, Mussidan, Albret, Rozan, Duras, Langoiran, as well as the captal of Buch rally the king of England.
The Bordelais prefer English domination to that of the French whom they consider as enemies of the freedom of the cities. The King of England hastens to confirm the privileges.
“We, Edward III allow in good faith that, notwithstanding the kingdom of France belonging to us, we will not deprive you in any way of your liberties, privileges, customs, jurisdictions or any other rights whatsoever, as in the past, without any infringement of our part or that of our officers. “
The war between the kings of France and England spreads to Aquitaine
Edward III sends troops to reinforce Bordeaux with the intention of reconquering Aquitaine.
The entire expeditionary force, led by Henry de Lancastre, nephew of the King of England, entered Bordeaux in August 1345 and received a triumphant welcome.
The mayor of Bordeaux Jean de Saint-Symphorien offers a flotilla of 50 boats to take over Libourne.
Henry de Lancastre seizes Bergerac, Angoulême, La Réole, Aiguillon. One after the other, the cities fall and the inhabitants according to the chronicler Froissart promise to become henceforth good Englishmen.
French knights or their allies such as the Count of Périgord or the Seneschal of Toulouse are taken prisoner, brought back to Bordeaux, imprisoned in the Palais de l’Ombrière. The war intensified throughout the territory of France.
John the Good new king of France intensifies the war
In 1350, Philippe VI died. His son, the Duke of Normandy, became King of France under the name of Jean II dit Jean le Bon. The new king thinks only of reconquering the territories of Aquitaine and breaks the truce.
He recruits mercenaries, bribes the counts and the barons, claims the allegiance of Gaston Fébus, viscount of Béarn, of Charles of Navarre, sire of Isle-Jourdain.
The coups against the Duchy of Aquitaine become incessant. Saint-Jean-d’Angély in the North, Aiguillon in the South, fell under the thumb of the King of France. Blaye is threatened, Guitres and Abzac are under siege. The war draws near to Bordeaux. We must raise taxes, collect taxes to ensure the defense of the duchy. But that is no longer enough. The financial situation is dire. A delegation of noble Gascons, led by Jean III de Grailly, leaves for London and begs the English to intervene.
King of England to help Bordeaux residents
Edward III reacts belatedly but energetically by deciding on September 8, 1355 to send an expedition to save Gascogne under the command of his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, Edward of Woodstock, known as the Black Prince. (This nickname only appears in the XVe century, but most history books commonly use it for the time of the Hundred Years War).
Responsible for the resumption of the war: Jean d’Armagnac
In 1352, the count of Armagnac, become lieutenant of the king of France Jean II, attack the duchy of Aquitaine, takes several cities to the English and in May 1354, after having crossed the Agenais, moves dangerously towards Bordeaux. The king of England Edward III, feeling the threat, not only wants to defend his duchy, but also to harm the king of France by ransacking the rich possessions of the count of Armagnac.
Bordeaux enthusiastically welcomes its protector: the Black Prince
On both sides preparations for war begin. The Count of Armagnac regroups the nobility and settles in Toulouse. Edward III entrusts to his son, the Black Prince, an important expedition which sets sail towards the coasts of Aquitaine. He entered Bordeaux on September 16, 1355 and went to the church of Saint-Seurin under the cheers of the Bordelais to receive there, from the hands of the archbishop, the sword and the standard.
Palais de l’Ombrière lithograph by Robert Giraud
On September 21, 1355, in the Saint-André cathedral, with the mayor of Bordeaux Thomas Roos, the Black Prince reads the royal letters which appoint him lieutenant in Aquitaine and give him full powers to drive out the rebels and restore the ‘order.
He swears an oath, with his hand on the Gospels, “to safeguard all privileges, rights, franchises, freedoms and customs and to be good and loyal lord”.
The first ride of the Black Prince
The Black Prince has no time to lose. Before winter, he wants to conquer as much land as possible. It brings together more than 10,000 men who, in three columns, leave by Villenave-d’Ornon and Bazas to attack the cities belonging to the Count of Armagnac.
On October 10, 1355, at the head of his troops, he embarked on a fantastic ride. The slogan for the soldiers is “to plunder, to ransack and to make take of all that they find in their passage in lords and spoils”.
At the end of October, the Black Prince arrives at the gates of Toulouse where the Count of Armagnac took refuge. He does not attack the city, which is too militarily protected, and prefers to practice the scorched earth tactic by setting fire to the villages in its path. He continues his journey to Carcassonne, Narbonne, Montpellier, Limoux where, in passing, he receives tributes from the powerful Gaston Fébus, count of Foix.
The coming of winter 1355 imposed the truce
The Count of Armagnac and the French soldiers leave Toulouse, cross the other bank and cut the bridges behind them. The Black Prince returns to the banks of the Garonne. Winter is coming. Prince Edward’s troops begin to tire and the lords tire of warfare. The Prince abandons the pursuit of the French. On November 28, 1355, in Mézin (south-west of the Lot-et-Garonne department), he gave leave to the Gascons by promising them a new campaign as soon as the sunny days returned.
The Black Prince’s Loot
At the end of the ride, on December 9, the Black Prince returns to Bordeaux, with five thousand prisoners and a thousand carts overloaded with booty, to the point that the horses cannot keep up with the archers. This lightning ride will have destroyed more than five hundred cities and villages belonging to the allied lords of the French. The Black Prince, aware that such a policy of desertification can only provoke grudges, expects and is preparing for a resumption of hostilities.
The King of France refuses the good offices of the cardinal
On July 6, 1356, the Black Prince, followed by the Gascon lords, left Bordeaux for a new ride across the Périgord, Quercy, Limousin, Berry. The capture of Vierzon and Romorantin forced the king of France Jean le Bon to descend with his army on the banks of the Loire. 
Black prince in knight of the order of the Garter 1453A game of hide-and-seek begins. The King of France seeks confrontation. The Black Prince, having fewer armed men, retreats cautiously. Jean le Bon crosses the Loire at Tours and heads towards Poitiers with the intention of cutting the road to the Anglo-Gascons.
No great battle takes place, but raids, lootings, fires, destruction of castles are numerous. The two armies meet face to face on September 19, 1356, at Maupertuis near Poitiers. Before the confrontation, Cardinal Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord strongly advises to avoid bloodshed.
The Black Prince, with far fewer troops than the King of France, agreed to hand over the conquered places, to deliver the prisoners, to sign a seven-year truce. John the Good refuses and demands the surrender of the English Prince accompanied by 100 of his lords.
The Black Prince replied: “My knights will only be taken with weapons in hand, as for me, whatever happens, England will not have to pay a ransom”. He harangues his troops by declaring “to avoid a fight against superior forces I submitted myself to the most reasonable conditions, but our enemy did not want to accept any. He offered us some so shameful that he would have us less dishonored by asking us for our lives … Let their multitude not terrify you, it is only likely to throw confusion into their ranks. The French are only to be feared in their first fire, if you support the first shock , victory is yours. “
For his part Jean le Bon, king of France, all banners deployed, mounted on a white horse, addresses his troops:
“There they are, my children, those Englishmen whom you so much want to see … hidden in the middle of the bushes and hedges like ferocious beasts, they cannot escape you, would you not have more courage than women … Consider that you are eight against one and that all the French nobility is here and this army is powerful enough to defeat all of Europe … “
Beat drums
The trumpets sound, the battle begins. The French throw themselves with their heavily harnessed horses on the English who await them behind the trees with their archers. The French ranks break, the Black Prince, with his captal Buch, Jean III de Grailly, and his Gascon lords, founded on the square of the king of France Jean le Bon who defends himself with heroism, supported by his third 13-year-old son Philippe, who keeps saying to him according to the legend: “Father keep right, Father keep left …”
Black Prince Riding PoitiersThe disaster is total for the French troops. King John the Good and his main barons were taken prisoner, then brought under good escort to Poitiers then to Bordeaux, via La Rochefoucauld and Blaye.
The prize includes the king and his son, the Archbishop of Sens, 17 counts, 66 barons, 2,000 knights and squires and their suite, as well as a huge booty in gold, silver, precious vessels, jewels and belts.
Arrival in Bordeaux triggers immense enthusiasm and transforms the Black Prince into a legendary hero in the hearts of all Bordeaux residents
At the end of October 1356, the king of France was imprisoned somewhere between the gardens of the archbishopric and the palace of the Ombrière. The big bourgeois of Bordeaux joined the local nobility by marriage. The Colom and the Solers are ennobled and fight alongside the Captal de Buch and other sires loyal to the English crown. They profit from the battles, receiving the confiscated goods and sharing the ransoms. In addition to the taxes levied, nobles and bourgeois received mission costs for the conduct of the war, the drafting of treaties, the management of the annexed territories. Proud victors, ennobled warriors, alongside their Ladies, they appear in sumptuous receptions or during oaths of loyalty to the Black Prince in Saint-André cathedral.
The Black Prince returns to England with his prisoner: Jean le Bon
A truce, concluded in Bordeaux on March 23, 1357, ordered free movement between France and England for two years. The Black Prince leaves Bordeaux in April with his prisoners. John the Good is locked up in the Tower of London while awaiting payment of his ransom.
Shade Gate of the Palais Léo Drouyn – Bordeaux
The great festivals of Bordeaux
Bordeaux hosts not only the English soldiers, but also the hostages captured during the campaigns. After each ride, long lines of carts laden with gold and other riches, followed by captured prisoners and soon exchanged for heavy ransoms, enter the city.
Each victorious return from battle offers the occasion for great celebrations where “the English nobles and the Gascon frolic and play with the bourgeois and ladies of the city”. The archbishop blessed and sumptuously received the victors. Mayor and jurates participate greatly in the festivities.
Froissart notes that in “the good city of Bordeaux, nobles and bourgeois and clergy … spent madly and largely this gold and this money which they had won” and he adds that “the state of the prince and madam the princess ( Jane of Kent) was so large and so full that no other prince or lord can match theirs. “
The sick Black Prince must leave Bordeaux and abandon Aquitaine
the Black Prince contracts the seeds of a deadly disease in Castile. He left Bordeaux, without waiting, in January 1371. His departure gave rise to moving scenes. The mayor Sir Robert de Roos, the jurats, the bourgeois come to greet him in the great hall of the Palais de l’Ombrière. 
Alongside the Prince are his wife, Jane of Kent, Princess of Wales and her son, Richard, born in Bordeaux. Edward III’s brother, Jean de Gand, duke of Lancaster takes command of Aquitaine.
When the “Black Prince enters his ship”, the returned sighs of the bourgeois are those of Bordeaux merchants who sense that with the departure of the Prince a large part of their fortune will disappear.
Death of the Black Prince
On June 8, 1376, Trinity Day, at the age of 46, the Black Prince died in Westminster. The same year disappears the captal of Buch, Jean de Grailly, in prison in Paris. The Black Prince rests in Canterbury Cathedral, the only secular prince alongside the tombs of the archbishops.
The legend can begin …
Raised in the profession of arms, the Black Prince only had a passion for war, the looting of treasures and, too often, the massacre of the vanquished. The big festivals were more feasts and debauchery than fine entertainment. Valiant knight, not shrinking from any danger, the victories of Crécy and Poitiers bear his mark of bravery and fine tactician. Prince of Aquitaine, he remains a man of arms little inclined to political subtleties. The Gascon lords too often humiliated in front of their English war brothers abandoned it in favor of the King of France. Only Guyenne remained faithful to him. Unwilling to love and generous to his subjects, he nonetheless remained popular. The most grateful remained the merchant bourgeois, the mayors, the jurats of Bordeaux. He retained most of their privileges and offered them legendary feasts, in place of a good and sincere administration of property and territories.
Black Prince Canterbery Cathedral – DDA Archives
HISTORY OF BORDEAUX
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The cultural publishing association “Les Dossiers d’Aquitaine et d’Ailleurs” and its editorial team, on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, will publish a History of Bordeaux, in six volumes, entitled “From Ausone to Mauriac, from Antiquity to the present day, 2000 years of History by the characters who are committed to making Bordeaux and Guienne live “.
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Editorial Credit Aquitaine Files
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