by Green, David
2 Tomb of Sir William Kerdeston, Reepham, Norfolk. Kerdeston was one of the Black Prince’s Norfolk retainers. He fought as a banneret in the vanguard at Crécy and brought reinforcements to the siege of Calais in 1347. He was also MP for Norfolk between 1337 and 1344 and again in 1360. He died on 14 August 1361. His tomb shows the knight lying in a slightly contorted manner on rocks and boulders. This may reflect some changes in funerary monuments after the Black Death, revealing the painful nature of life, but it is possible that this is a more romantic image showing the chivalric adventurer lost in a mythical forest.
4 Sunday – Initial Dispositions.
5 The Attack of the Marshals.
6 The Dauphin’s Attack.
7 The Final Clash.
8 Tomb of Sir Hugh Calveley, Bunbury church, Cheshire. Calveley was one of a number of Cheshire routiers who found employment in the Hundred Years War. He fought at Poitiers with the Black Prince and later was closely involved in Iberian affairs. He played a leading role in both the deposition and subsequent reinstatement of Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Castile.
9 Henry of Grosmont, duke of Lancaster, KG, 1299–1361 (from the Hastings brass). One of the finest military commanders of the late middle ages, he led numerous campaigns in the war and was involved in vital diversionary expeditions in 1346 and 1356.
10 Mounted men-at-arms, showing a version of the barrel-style helm and visored and open bascinet. Copyright Kate Green.
11 Chevauchée. Copyright Kate Green.
12 Archers and infantry. Copyright Kate Green.
13 The Anglo-Welsh longbowmen. Copyright Kate Green.
14 The Black Prince kissing the standard of St George. Copyright Kate Green.
15 Cavalry. Copyright Kate Green.
16 Statue of Edward the Black Prince, Leeds City Square. The statue was commissioned in recognition of Leeds gaining city status at the turn of the twentieth century. The prince was seen, somewhat strangely, as a symbol of good government. The equestrian image is much more in keeping with the military reputation he gained at the battles of Crécy and Poitiers.
17 Arms of Edward III
18 Coin of the Black Prince.
19 Coin of the Black Prince.
20 Great Seal of Edward III.
21 Seal of Edward, prince of Aquitaine.
22 Stall plate of Sir John Chandos
23 Jupon with the arms of Edward the Black Prince. Part of his funeral ‘achievements’ above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.
24 Tomb of Sir Nicholas Dagworth (d. 1402), Blickling church, Norfolk. The son of Sir Thomas and heir to estates in East Anglia, he forged a military career through service with the Black Prince at Poitiers and later as captain of Flavigny in Burgundy. He fought in the Castilian campaign of 1367 and after the reopening of the Hundred Years War he became closely linked to the English royal household receiving an annuity of 100 marks and became a knight of Richard II’s chamber
25 Stall plate of Sir John de Grailly
26 Memorial brass of Sir Hugh Hastings, d. 1347, Elsing, Norfolk. One of the finest and most elaborate brasses in England and one of the last in an East Anglian tradition that was ended with the onset of the Black Death. Hastings was closely involved in the military operation of 1346, leading a diversionary raid from Flanders. His brass (this is a reconstruction) also bears the images of a number of his most illustrious comrades in arms.
27 The funeral achievements of the Black Prince, Canterbury cathedral.
28 Shield with royal arms from the prince’s tomb.
29 Coin of the Black Prince
30 Coin of the Black Prince
31 Warwick castle. Thomas Beauchamp was a close military associate of the Black Prince. He fought alongside him at Crécy and was constable of the army in 1355–56. He captured the archbishop of Sens at Poitiers. He died in 1369. A number of the prisoners from Poitiers were lodged in Warwick castle. The original motte and bailey fortification was begun by William the Conqueror in 1086. The lordship passed to the Beauchamp family in the thirteenth century. In the 1330s and ‘40s, Thomas, the 11th earl, made a number of domestic improvements. Later in the fourteenth century the east curtain wall was built, flanked by Caesar’s Tower to the south and Guy’s Tower (1392–93) to the north.
32 Jousting helm of Richard Pembridge
33 Tomb of Sir John Wingfield, Wingfield, Suffolk. Wingfield served the Black Prince (as did his first cousin, William). He was a key figure in the preparation for the 1355–56 expedition as governor of the prince’s business and examined closely the fiscal implications of the chevauchée on Valois finances. He died in 1360.
34 Tomb of Sir Michael and Lady de la Pole, Wingfield, Suffolk. Michael de la Pole, c.1330–89, fought with the Black Prince in the Reims campaign and during the rearguard action defending the principality of Aquitaine. He was present at the siege of Limoges in 1370. On 6 August 1385 he was created earl of Suffolk, a remarkable rise in fortune for the descendant of a wool merchant. However, as a favourite of Richard II he became a target for the Appellants in 1387 and fled to Paris. He was buried alongside his wife, Katherine, the daughter of John Wingfield, the Black Prince’s business manager.
35 Plantagenet/Valois Geneaology
36 The Grand Chevaucheé, 1355
37 The Black Prince's Military Campaigns
38 The raid of 1356
In 1364, on the return of King John to England, he was ordered with Sir Alan Buxhull and Sir Richard Pembridge to receive him at Dover and conduct him to Eltham and the Savoy palace. On 4 April 1369 Lord Burghersh made his will at Hendine and he died the next day. He was buried at Walsingham.
Sir John Chandos d. 137015
He came from a Derbyshire family and was the son of Thomas Chandos, sheriff of Herefordshire and a descendant of Robert Chandos who came over with the Conqueror. He was closely associated with the Black Prince from an early age and became his most eminent companion in arms. His early military experiences were probably on the continent and he may have been at the siege of Cambrai in 1337. However, he returned to England and fought in the Scottish campaigns and was knighted by Edward III at Boroughmuir in 1339. He probably was in the service of the king around this time and he later served as the king’s chamberlain although he was a part of the prince’s entourage at times from 1337–9. In 1340 he fought at Sluys and was alongside the prince in the first division at Crécy as a consequence of which he was among the founder knights of the Order of the Garter.
He was a leading figure in the 1355 campaign. During the hiatus before the 1356 chevauchée, he was based at Brassac and involved in raiding the country around Agen. He was in command of the scouts in advance of the main army when it rode in 1356. He fought at Poitiers where he may have saved the Black Prince’s life. He was rewarded with a grant of 600 gold crowns, from the revenues of Marmande as well as an additional annuity of £40 per year.
During the Reims campaign, for which he returned to the service of Edward III and as such was described as a king’s knight in December 1359, he attacked Cernay-en-Domnois, Autry and Manre with Lancaster and Gaunt. He was a party to the negotiations at Longjumeau in April 1360, which led to the treaty of Brétigny. In this year also he was created a banneret, although he would not display his banner until 1367. He became warden of Barfleur on 22 August 1360 and the king’s lieutenant and captain-general in France for the transfer of lands after the treaty and later constable of Aquitaine. He became vicomte of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 30 July 1361 and, perhaps as a result of his newly acquired interests in Normandy, on 29 October 1361, he was granted a pension by Charles of Navarre.
He also had other interests in accordance with his knightly status and had something of a reputation as a huntsman as no less an authority than Gaston Fébus requested to see his dogs while negotiating the status of his estates with the Black Prince. One or two of Sir John’s minstrels were hired by Louis d’Anjou after his death.
He became involved in the Brittany question in 1364 and on 24
February was with the prince at Poitiers seeking an agreement over the issue. He was later, possibly as a result of this, called to Brittany by Jean de Montfort. He was commander of the victorious forces at Auray in 1364 where he captured the vicomte de Fou and du Guesclin who was ransomed for 100,000 crowns. Du Guesclin remained his prisoner for some time at least until the late autumn of 1365.
He tried to prevent English involvement in du Guesclin’s army which deposed Pedro but probably also argued against the wisdom of the prince’s participation in Iberian affairs. In spite of his objections he led the first party over the Pyrenees. At Nájera, he and Gaunt commanded the vanguard and again he captured du Guesclin. Chandos argued that after Auray du Guesclin had sworn never to take up arms against the prince again. Bertrand argued that he fought against Pedro not Edward. The story is highly reminiscent of that concerning Audrehem and may be confused with it.16
He may have gone into retirement in Normandy after the return to Aquitaine or following a disagreement about the imposition of the fouage. However, he soon returned and was appointed captain of Montaubon and seneschal of Poitou (1369) to face the renewed French attacks. He was involved in a siege at Compeyne in June 1369 and fatally wounded in a skirmish at Lussac. He died at Chauvigny on 1 January 1370 and was buried at Mortemer. His estates fell to his sisters Elizabeth and Eleanor and his niece Isabella.
Geoffroi de Charny17
Charny was a younger son of Jean de Charny and Margueritte de Joinville, a daughter of the famous friend and chronicler of (St) Louis XI. He was probably born in the first decade of the fourteenth century and first came to prominence in 1337 in his first major campaign in south west France fighting under Raoul, count of Eu. With the opening of the Hundred Years War and Edward III’s campaigns in Flanders and the north Charny was sent to Tournai and in 1340 he was involved in the defence of the town. Later he fought in Brittany and at the battle of Morlaix where he was captured by Richard Talbot and then purchased by the earl of Northampton who soon ransomed him. He was knighted by 1343 and in 1345 joined the futile crusade of Humbert II, dauphin of Viennois to Smyrna in Anatolia. He returned in the following year but did not fight at Crécy since he was involved in the siege of Aiguillon under the command of the duke of Normandy, the future King Jean II.
Charny was closely involved in a scheme to recapture Calais by bribing the captain of the citadel, Aimery de Pavia. However, he informed Edward III and with the Black Prince and others, the town was reinforced and Charny’s plan failed and he was captured once more. He was clearly considered very valuable to the new king of France, Jean who contributed 12,000 écus towards his ransom. It was at this time that Jean began the formation of the Company of the Star of which Charny was a leading member and for which he was commissioned to write a series of chivalric works.
He became Captain General of the Wars of Picardy and the Frontiers of Normandy and had already been awarded the ultimate honour of bearing the Oriflamme in 1347 as he would again in 1355. It was accorded only to the ‘most worthy and most adept warrior’. He was occupied in numerous diplomatic missions before his last campaign. He died fighting to the last alongside his king at the battle of Poitiers. He was buried first at Poitiers and later reinterred in 1370 in the church of the Celestines in Paris where he was laid to rest with another bearer of the Oriflamme, Marshal Audrehem.
Sir Alan Cheyne18
Cheyne first came to attention on 6 October 1349 when he was granted the wardship and marriage of Elizabeth, the heiress of one Thomas Praers. His career was of a somewhat mixed character and involved charges of burglary on 25 October 1352 and also patronage from the Black Prince with whom he found service as a yeoman. He married Joan, the step-daughter of William Praers, presumably related to his ward. His military skill must have been considerable as he was one of the prince’s bodyguards at Poitiers and by this time he may have acquired greater status in the household with the title of knight bachelor. In recognition of his Gascon service he was granted a £40 life annuity in Easter 1357.
Following the Reims campaign his annuity was increased to 100 marks and the continuing favour of the prince is evident from gifts of items of game and his appointment as constable of Beeston castle on 24 April 1363. To this was added the office of constable of Rhuddlan on 13 December 1366 for which he was paid £40 a year. He still held the post in 1385 and Richard confirmed his father’s grants on 26 March 1377 and later once again as king. These may, at least initially, have been sinecure offices since he was probably a member of the prince’s household in Aquitaine. Whether he participated in the Spanish expedition is uncertain. He was certainly summoned to the muster at Northampton in 1369 with two esquires.
Jean de Clermont19
The son of Raoul, lord of Thorigny and Jeanne de Chambly he saw service under the count of Eu in Flanders and Hainault in 1340 and then with the duke of Normandy in Avignon and Languedoc. He was rewarded on 3 November 1346 with the lordships of Boomont and Chantilly. As marshal of France (appointed in November 1352), he was sent with the duke of Bourbon to negotiate with the English and was later appointed the king’s lieutenant in Poitou, Saintonge, the Angoumois and lands between the Loire and the Dordogne. At Poitiers, his argument with Audrehem led to the disruption of the opening cavalry charge and also to his death.
Sir Reginald Cobham20
He was the son of John Cobham and Joan Neville and may have accompanied the young Edward III to France when he did homage for Aquitaine. On 16 April 1337, with the bishop of Lincoln, earls of Salisbury and Huntingdon, William Trussel and Nicholas la Beche, he was named an ‘intimate secretary’ of the king and as such was to treat with officials in Bruges, Ypres, Ghent and Flanders. At some point before 28 October 1341 he travelled to the papal curia at Avignon. He was to return in 1344 to treat with Philip of France concerning the truce. He was also an ambassador to the French council from 18 March to 7 May 1349.
In addition to his administrative, diplomatic and political work he was an accomplished soldier. At some point before 8 August 1337 he was made a banneret and provision was made for him by the king to sustain himself in this rank. He was involved in the expedition of 1338 and in 1345 he was appointed admiral of the fleet from the Thames westwards, an office which was renewed in 1349. In c.1348 he was granted £500 a year by the king.
Cobham fought at Crécy, where he commanded the first division. He was also at Calais and Winchelsea. In 1352 he became a knight of the Garter and in the following year, captain of Calais. He was captain of the town from at least 1353. He fought alongside the prince in 1355–6 when he was marshal of the army and was closely involved with the capture of Castelsagrat. He fought in the main ‘battle’ and captured the count of Longueville (his ransom was worth 6,500 florins) at Poitiers and saved King Jean from his quarrelling captors. He signed the truce of Bordeaux. He participated in the Reims expedition and died, probably of pneumatic plague in October 1361 and was buried in Lingfield parish church. On his tomb were the arms of Cobham impaling Berkeley which commemorated his marriage to Joan Berkeley.
Sir Stephen Cosington21
His early military career was in the service of Henry of Lancaster whom he accompanied in his 1345 expedition. He may have returned to England prior to or during the earlier stages of the siege of Calais. He had certainly come to the prince’s attention by this time as in 1348 he gave him eight harnesses all decorated with the Cosington arms. He had a place on the prince’s council by June 1351 and he rode in the chevauchée of 1355 and fought at Poitiers where he was a member of Edward’s bodyguard. As a result of this he was granted £100 a year, or lands of the same value. However, he may have been in receipt of an annuity before this. He delivered the order to Lancaster to raise the siege of Rennes as a result of the truce of Bordeaux. Following this, he spent much of 1358–9 acting as an ambassador in Normandy and elsewhere in France. Such experience may have qualified him for the commission of overseeing the transfer of land after the treaty of Brétigny. He may have been able to c
ombine this with the duty, given him on 13 July 1360, to conduct the constable of France and other captives back home across the Channel. In this year also he was granted the castle of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, although presumably this was only for a short period as it was granted to Chandos on 30 July. He was present at the ratification of the Anglo-Castilian treaty of 1363. He stayed with Edward as prince of Aquitaine, although in April and May 1364 he was acting as an ambassador in Flanders. In addition he had close relations with Charles of Navarre by whom he was retained.
He was marshal of the army (and of Aquitaine) for the Nájera campaign and crossed Ronsevalles in the vanguard. He remained in Gascony after the return of the prince to England serving under a number of commanders in the rearguard actions. He had returned to England by 1373 when he was appointed to commissions of oyer and terminer and of the peace in Cornwall. Over the next few years he was to be closely involved with affairs in the duchy.
Sir Roger Cotesford22
The lord of Bletchingdon and Tusmore, Oxfordshire, he served in Scotland and was a friend of the king. As the prince’s yeoman he was appointed constable of Llanbadarn castle on 23 October 1347 as a reward for his services at Crécy. As a bachelor in the prince’s household he was presumably often in residence and prior to the Gascon expedition he witnessed documents alongside Edmund Wauncy and Nigel Loryng, important household officials. His friendship with the king made him an ideal conduit for news and information when the Black Prince led his first expedition and he served as a messenger between Bordeaux and London at irregular intervals between 1355 and 1358. In this role he presumably acted as a link with the king for the discussions concerning the captivity of Jean and the treaty of Bordeaux.