BLACK PRINCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1939, Page 6

BLACK PRINCE

ONE FAILURE IN NOTABLE CAREER.

Of the long line or royal Edwards, one of the greatest was the hero of Crecy and Poitiers, Edward. Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince. Born in 1330, he was created Prince of Wales in 1333, and played a man’s part in the Battle of Crecy at the age of sixteen. In 1356 he defeated the army of France at Poitiers.

Prince Edward knew only one real failure in a distinguished career. In 1367, he led an expedition into Spain to restore Don Pedro to the throne of Castile. He won a notable victory a Navarette, but his army suffered sc severely from sickness that he had to return to France without achieving his purpose, and with his own health seriously impaired. To meet the expenses of the campaign, he imposed such heavy taxation in his duchy of Aquataine that the people appealed to Charles V of France, and this led to a resumption of hostilities between England and France. The Prince returned to England in 1371 and devoted the remaining years of his life to politics, gaining for himself considerable respect. ’He initiated several of the measures of the “Good Parliament” of 1376. He came to be known as the Black Prince on account of his black armour, which now hangs over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. His crest, three ostrich feathers, he took from King John of Bohemia, who was killed at Crecy, and his motto, Ich Dien (I Serve) from his father’s Flemish allies. He died on