Edward , the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock , Prince of Wales , Duke of Cornwall , Prince of Aquitaine , ( 15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376 ) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England . He was called Edward of Woodstock in his early life , after his birthplace , and since the 16th century has been popularly known as the Black Prince . He was an exceptional military leader , and his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime . In 1348 he became the first Knight of the Garter , of whose Order he was one of the founders . Edward died one year before his father , becoming the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England . The throne passed instead to his son Richard II , a minor , upon the death of Edward III . Richard Barber comments that Edward " has attracted relatively little attention from serious historians , but figures largely in popular history . " Life . Edward was born on 15 June 1330 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire . He was created Earl of Chester on 18 May 1333 , Duke of Cornwall on 17 March 1337 ( the first creation of an English duke ) and finally invested as Prince of Wales on 12 May 1343 when he was almost thirteen years old . In England , Edward served as a symbolic regent for periods in 1339 , 1340 , and 1342 while Edward III was on campaign . He was expected to attend all council meetings , and he performed the negotiations with the papacy about the war in 1337 . He also served as High Sheriff of Cornwall from 1340 – 1341 , 1343 , 1358 and 1360 – 1374 . Edward had been raised with his cousin Joan , " The Fair Maid of Kent . " Edward gained permission for the marriage from Pope Innocent VI and absolution for marriage to a blood - relative ( as had Edward III when marrying Philippa of Hainault , his second cousin ) and married Joan on 10 October 1361 at Windsor Castle . The marriage caused some controversy , mainly because of Joan ' s chequered marital history and the fact that marriage to an Englishwoman wasted an opportunity to form an alliance with a foreign power . When in England , Edward ' s chief residence was at Wallingford Castle in Berkshire ( since 1974 in Oxfordshire ) , or at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire . He served as the king ' s representative in Aquitaine , where he and Joan kept a court which was considered among the most brilliant of the time . It was the resort of exiled kings such as James IV of Majorca and Peter of Castile . Peter of Castile , thrust from his throne by his illegitimate brother Henry of Trastámara , offered Edward the lordship of Biscay in 1367 , in return for the Black Prince ' s aid in recovering his throne . Edward was successful in the Battle of Nájera ( April 3 ) , in which he soundly defeated the combined French and Castilian forces led by Bertrand du Guesclin . However Peter did not pay fully and excused to yield Biscay alleging lack of consent of its states . Edward retreated to Guienne by July . The Black Prince returned to England in January 1371 and died on 8 June 1376 ( a week before his 46th birthday ) , after a long - lasting illness that was probably amoebic dysentery contracted ten years earlier while campaigning in Spain . Marriage and issue . Edward had illegitimate sons , all born before his marriage . By Edith de Willesford ( d . after 1385 ) : By unknown mothers : Edward married his cousin , Joan , Countess of Kent ( 1328 - 1385 ) , on 10 October 1361 . She was the daughter and heiress of Edmund of Woodstock , Earl of Kent , the younger son of King Edward I by his second wife Margaret of France . They had two sons from this marriage . Both sons were born in France , where the Prince and Princess of Wales had taken up duties as Prince and Princess of Aquitaine . From his marriage to Joan , he also became stepfather to her children , including Thomas Holland , 2nd Earl of Kent whose daughter , Joan Holland , would marry Edward ' s brother , Edmund of Langley . Edward ' s other stepson , John Holland , 1st Duke of Exeter , would marry Edward ' s niece , Elizabeth of Lancaster , daughter of his brother , John of Gaunt . Edward and chivalry . Edward lived in a century of decline for the knightly ideal of chivalry . The formation of the Order of the Garter , an English royal order of which Edward was a founding member , signified a shift towards patriotism and away from the crusader mentality that characterised England in the previous two centuries . Edward ' s stance in this evolution is seemingly somewhat divided . Edward displayed obedience to typical chivalric obligations through his pious contributions to Canterbury Cathedral throughout his life . On the one hand , after capturing John the Good , king of France , and Philip the Bold , his youngest son , at the Battle of Poitiers , he treated them with great respect , at one point giving John permission to return home , and reportedly praying with John at Canterbury Cathedral . Notably , he also allowed a day for preparations before the Battle of Poitiers so that the two sides could discuss the coming battle with one another , and so that the Cardinal Périgord could plead for peace . However , some argue " he may have been playing for time to complete preparation of his archers ' positions . " Though not agreeing with knightly charges on the battlefield , he also was devoted to tournament jousting . On the other hand , his chivalric tendencies were overridden by expediency on many occasions . The Black Prince ' s repeated use of the chevauchée strategy ( burning and pillaging towns and farms ) was not in keeping with contemporary notions of chivalry , but it was quite effective in accomplishing the goals of his campaigns and weakening the unity and economy of France . On the battlefield , he favoured pragmatism over chivalry in the massed use of infantry strongholds , dismounted men at arms , longbowmen , and flank attacks ( a revolutionary practice in a chivalric age ) . Moreover , he was exceptionally harsh toward and contemptuous of members of the lower classes in society , as exemplified by the heavy taxes he levied as Prince of Aquitaine and by the massacres he perpetrated at Limoges and Caen . Edward ' s behaviour was typical of an increasing number of English knights and nobles during the late Middle Ages who paid less and less attention to the high ideal of chivalry . This growing disregard for chivalry ' s demands and the accompanying decline in martial and general conduct was soon to influence the nobility of other countries . Death and Burial . Edward died at Westminster Palace . He requested to be buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral rather than next to the shrine , and a chapel was prepared there as a chantry for him and his wife Joan , Countess of Kent . ( This is now the French Protestant Chapel , and contains ceiling bosses of her face and of their coats of arms . ) However , this was overruled after his death and he was buried on the south side of the shrine of Thomas Becket behind the quire . His tomb consists of a bronze effigy beneath a tester depicting the Holy Trinity , with his heraldic achievement s hung over the tester . The achievements have now been replaced by replicas , though the originals can still be seen nearby . The tester was restored in 2006 . " Such as thou art , sometime was I . " " Such as I am , such shalt thou be . " " I thought little on th ' our of Death " " So long as I enjoyed breath . " " But now a wretched captive am I , " " Deep in the ground , lo here I lie . " " My beauty great , is all quite gone , " " My flesh is wasted to the bone . " - Epitaph inscribed around his effigy Titles , styles , honours and arms . Arms and heraldic badge . Arms : " Quarterly , 1st and 4th azure semée of fleur - de - lys or " ( France Ancient ) ; " 2nd and 3rd gules , three lions passant guardant or " ( England ) ; " overall a label of three points argent " . Crest : " On a chapeau gules turned up ermine , a lion statant or gorged with a label of three points argent " . Mantling : " gules lined ermine " . As Prince of Wales , Edward ' s coat of arms were those of the kingdom , differenced by " a label of three points argent " . Edward also used an alternative coat of " Sable , three ostrich feathers argent " , described as his " shield for peace " ( probably meaning the shield he used for jousting ) . This shield can be seen several times on his tomb chest , alternating with the differenced royal arms . His younger brother , John of Gaunt , used a similar shield on which the ostrich feathers were ermine . Edward ' s " shield for peace " is believed to have inspired the badge of three ostrich feathers used by later Princes of Wales . The name " Black Prince " . Although Edward is often referred to as the " Black Prince " , there is no record of this name being used during his lifetime , nor for more than 150 years after his death . He was instead known as Edward of Woodstock ( after his place of birth ) , or by one of his titles . The " Black Prince " sobriquet is first found in writing in two manuscript notes made by the antiquary John Leland in the 1530s or early 1540s : in one , Leland refers in English to " the blake prince " ; in the other , he refers in Latin to " " Edwardi Principis cog : Nigri " " . The name ' s earliest known appearance in print is in Richard Grafton ' s " Chronicle at Large " ( 1569 ) : Grafton uses it on three occasions , saying that " some writers name him the black prince " , and ( elsewhere ) that he was " commonly called the black Prince " . It is used by Shakespeare , in his plays " Richard II " ( written " c " . 1595 ) and " Henry V " ( " c " . 1599 ) . It later appears prominently in the title of Joshua Barnes ' s " The History of that Most Victorious Monarch , Edward IIId , King of England and France , and Lord of Ireland , and First Founder of the Most Noble Order of the Garter : Being a Full and Exact Account Of the Life and Death of the said King : Together with That of his Most Renowned Son , Edward , Prince of Wales and of Aquitain , Sirnamed the Black - Prince " ( 1688 ) . The origins of the name are uncertain , though many theories have been proposed . These fall under two main heads : The black field of his " shield for peace " is well documented ( see Arms above ) . However , there is no sound evidence that Edward ever wore black armour , although John Harvey ( without citing a source ) refers to " some rather shadowy evidence that he was described in French as clad at the battle of Crecy " " en armure noire en fer bruni " " – in black armour of burnished steel " . Richard Barber suggests that the name ' s origins may have lain in pageantry , in that a tradition may have grown up in the 15th century of representing the prince in black armour . He points out that several chronicles refer to him as Edward the Fourth ( the title he would have taken as King had he outlived his father ) : this name would obviously have become confusing when the actual Edward IV succeeded in 1461 , and this may have been the period when an alternative had to be found . Edward ' s brutality in France is also well documented , and David Green believes that this is where the title has its origins . The French soldier Philippe de Mézières refers to Edward as the greatest of the " black boars " – those aggressors who had done so much to disrupt relations within Christendom . Other French writers made similar associations , and Peter Hoskins reports that an oral tradition of " L ' Homme Noir " , who had passed by with an army , survived in southern France until recent years . In Shakespeare ' s " Henry V " , a reference by the King of France to " that black name , Edward , Black Prince of Wales " suggests that the playwright may have interpreted the name in this way . There remains , however , considerable doubt over how the name might have crossed from France to England . Cultural references . Plays . Edward the Black Prince features prominently as a character in " Edward III " , a sixteenth - century play possibly partly attributable to William Shakespeare . Edward is referred to in Shakespeare ' s " Richard II " and " Henry V " . Roger Boyle , 1st Earl of Orrery devoted his 1667 play " The Black Prince " to Edward . Edward the Black Prince is an important character in the play " King Peter the Cruel " in Scribd , and " El Rey Don Pedro el Cruel " in Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes . Both plays written by Santiago Sevilla .