The Black Prince

March 1, 2018
Jones (Bosworth 1485: The Battle that Transformed England, 2015, etc.) brings the Middle Ages--and one of England's greatest knights--to life.Leaving the final battle of the War of the Roses, the author thrillingly dives into the 100 Years' War and its shining star, Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376), the eldest of Edward III's sons. Edward was the epitome of a hero; he was pure of heart and soul and guided by the code of chivalry. He was a warrior, trained by his father in the tournaments and strong enough to lead his men at the Battle of Cr'cy at age 16. He watched as his father fought Scotland, carefully planning every battle and using the longbow to significant advantage. However, the prince showed his cruel streak as he rampaged from Bordeaux to the Mediterranean, devastating towns in a wide swath. He destroyed Carcassonne to impress his father rather than accept their monetary offer to spare it. With the prince's help restoring Gascony and winning Aquitaine, Edward III regained almost the entire Angevin empire once held by Henry II. Unfortunately, the prince's political acumen was lacking, and he treated the defeated Count of Armagnac poorly, a move that would bring him down in the end. An ill-advised raid into Spain--against all better judgment but on his father's orders--produced a hollow victory and the beginnings of the disease that would debilitate him during much of the last decade of his life. The author discusses the evil legend fostered by Jean Froissart's writings of the Black Prince at the Siege of Limoges, but the reality was that he was a man of courage, generous to a fault (always in debt), and loyal to his followers. Jones provides a refreshingly even portrait. Even the prince's greatest enemy, the French king, honored him as no other foe with a solemn memorial Mass.A strong biography of a man who has inspired great love across the ages--a must for shelves and collections devoted to medieval times.

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April 9, 2018
With a knack for storytelling, Jones (Bosworth 1485) describes how England’s Edward of Woodstock (1330–1376) embodied the idealized chivalrous warrior prince—both a successful military leader and a fair ruler—while governing large areas of what is now France. Jones’s accounts of Prince Edward’s military prowess shine with clear explanations of military movements and strategy; medieval-era concepts of chivalry and good governance are also explained. Much attention is devoted to Edward’s close but complicated relationship with his father, King Edward III, which allowed the prince to “earn his spurs” at an early age but also led to some of his greatest crises. While the prince wrestled with gambling debts and disagreements with his father, his role as a founding member in the Order of the Garter personified the intense belief in duty and honor he retained down to his last military campaign, during which he had to be carried, weak but determined, on a stretcher. Jones combines easy prose with annotated accounts from many sources of the era that exemplify the English point of view and that of the other European powers at the time. In Jones’s strong portrait, the Black Prince towers as a potentially great king whose illness-shortened life devastated English hopes, leaving him to become a potent legend and reminder of what could have been. Illus. Agent: Claire Kennedy, Head of Zeus.

April 15, 2018

Jones's (Bosworth 1485) engaging biography of Edward of Woodstock (1330-76), known to posterity as "the Black Prince," eldest son of King Edward III, seeks to place his subject into the events and culture of the later Middle Ages and away from the mythologized version of him that has been built up through the years. Although Edward never reigned--his father outlived him--his life and person, Jones argues, embodied the ideal of the medieval knight. Contemporaneously, Edward was acclaimed for his martial achievements (e.g., Battles at Crécy and Poitiers) as well as his adherence to chivalric notions of piety and conduct, both in war and as an aristocrat, and for influencing the major events of the tumultuous time in which he lived. Jones's study moves away from a mere time line to offer historical analyses using contemporary evidence (chronicles, personal letters, etc.) and general period context to argue his point aptly: that the Prince was a product of his age, for better and for worse. VERDICT History buffs and readers with a penchant for larger-than-life personalities will find this read extremely worthwhile.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

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