THE BLACK PRINCE.

New Zealand Herald, 29 June 1914, Page 12

THE BLACK PRINCE.

DISCOVERY OF HIS DIARY.

COOT LIFE IN 14TII CENTURY.

[from OCR OWN correspondent.]

London, May 15. 'An illuminating sidelight on the doings cl the princes and nobles of $00 years ago is thrown by a book which has just been rediscovered in London. Tho relic once belonged to the Black Prince, the victor of Crecy and Poictiers, and there is a romantic story attaching to the find. Just as now everyone is searching for antiques, in the days when Samuel Pcpys went his way there was a great "boom" in ancient manuscripts, and one of those old-time collectors came upon a great bargain. He found a roughly-bound parch-ment-leaved book, which a cursory examination showed to be a register of the Slack Prince. Taking it home in triumph, he placed it in a position of honour among his hundred odd similar prizes, and there its history for the moment ends abruptly. {The collector died, tho "boom" followed the course of all booms, and no one thought anything more about that untidy heap of ill-bound manuscripts. The books for many years occupied a corner of a solicitor's library in Bloomsbury, and recently the time arrived for the owner to move. These books then came in for notice. The collector, now long forgotten, had not omitted to label his possessions, and a neat square of white paper pasted to the back of one of them bore in faded letters the inscription, "Black Prince's Diary." The lawyer sent for an expert, who at once realised the importance of the book. He in turn took ii to a high official at the Record Office, who, too, was in raptures over the dispovery.

Document of Great Interest. The diary of the Black Prince is bound in age-blackened calf, ornamented with blind tooling. The 280 pages of parchment measure 16in by 10.in. In reality it is a letter book, containing copies of communications sent out by the Prince, and similar to three in the Record Office. At the top of each page the month is written in a small neat hand in ink that has become brown with the passing of centuries. There is a wide margin round the text, and in this a short abstract appears. Latin and French are the languages employed, and each word is contracted in a manner that makes translation exceedingly . difficult. The document has not yet been thoroughly examined, but a translation will probably shortly be available for publication. It has three dis-,.-tiijct , aspects. * First, it throws light on Poictiers and the expedition into Gascony. Second, it is strong in topographical interest, and includes documents relating to all the Prince's property in England outside the Duchy of Cornwall and the Earldom of Chester. Last, it teems with jrhat may be termed social interest.

Much-Captured Knight. A very striking passage in the book is the account of a sort of court of honour held by the prince after the battle of Poictiera. Before him a "confession" was made by Charles Count of Dampmartin, his conduct then "having been challenged by certain persons." The "confession" runs thus:—"l confess and admit in loyaltv that I was taken and surrendered myself a prisoner on the battlefield to one wfglse name I did not then know, but who was of the household of the, Lord Prince of Wales, and whose name (I know now) was John Trailly. The said esquire demanded from me that I should surrender myself, and I did thus and pledged my faith in such a, way that he spared me, and he replied that I should be spared and need doubt nothing, find ho bade me open mv bacynet (helm), and he took my bacynet and my gauntlets, and then he again demanded my faith to be his lawful prisoner, and I gave him my faith, and thereon he mounted me on his own horse and placed me in the charge of bis vadlet (groom), and soon after the vadlet left me alone, and afterwards there came a Gascon and demanded of mo my faith, and 1 replied to him that I was a prisoner, and nevertheless I pledged him my faith, and he took from me an escutcheon of mv coat-armour, and I asked him if another came what ho wished me to do then, and he replied 'Save thyself if thou canst.' Then another came, who was of (the troop of Mr. John de Blankmonster, and he demanded my faith, and I replied to him that I had given my faith to two others, and I 'gave him also my faith, and ho stayed with me and guarded me and took me before the Earl of Salisbury, and I pledged my faith to the said Earl, the J eaid Lord Prince being present." This > much-captured knight was adjudged by the Black Prince to his esquire, John Trailly.

"Troy Town" Skipper. Fowey, the " Troy Town " of " Q's" Hovels, seems hardly changed from our owp 'days, as we read how the Prince " hired a vessel called tho Goods Beate, of Fowy, of which John Treget is master, to carry our wines, purveyed to our use in the Countv of Cornwall, from there to the City of London.'' A proclamation " given at our manor of Bifleto (Byflete) on the 29th day of July (1361)" has a very different interest. "Whereas," it runs. "our wellbeloved lord and father the King has assigned us to receive by the hands of Thomas of Brantyngltam, his receiver of Calais. 40,000 moutons (a French gold coin stamped with a lamb) of good weight of the coin of France, part of the sum of 200.000 moutons in which the noble Duke of Burgundy, our well-beloved cousin, and other lords and burgesses of his country are bound by their letters to our said dearly beloved lor-.' and father for the ransom of Iheir country. "Know that we have received from the said Thomas in divers moneys the value of 39,000 moutons of the coin of France, the payment of which we admit, and quit and dischargo the said Thomas by thew letters patent tfealcd with our privy seal."