The Black Prince was born to a military inheritance. There were few, if any, aspects of his life which were not shaped by the Anglo-French conflict, and the administration of his estates and the complement of his retinue were governed by such concerns. The life story of the man who died on Trinity Sunday (the feast-day for which he had particular reverence) in 1376 is well known. On that day, in the midst of the political crisis of the Good Parliament,theprincewaslaudedandmourneddespitehis(partial) responsibility for the loss of the principality of Aquitaine and much of the territoryacquired bythe English from the opening of hostilities in 1337 to the treatyof Bre'tigny(1360). This was the man who, as a boyof sixteen, had won his spurs fighting in the vanguard at Cre'cy. Ten years later his reputation reached its height when, outside Poitiers, he captured the king of France in battle. The consequence of that victory, despite the failure of the Reims expedition to enforce the demands of the treaties of London, was a prin- cipality for Edward of Woodstock. It was from there that the Black Prince launched his last campaign when he became involved in the Castilian civil war. Disaster followed victory at Na'jera (1367) and the prince returned to Bordeaux, bankrupt and broken with the illness that would eventually claim his life. The Gascon rebellion, probably engendered by Charles V and Louis of Anjou, as much as by the haughtiness of the prince and his predominately English officers, was further encouraged, perhaps even excused, by the 1367 fouage and war soon followed.1 It was to be a war in which the prince could play almost no part.

The military aspects of the prince's career are well known and their ramifications influenced every other facet of his life, but such matters were not his only concern and this was demonstrated in the composition of his household and retinue. Men were drawn to the prince's service because of the potential financial rewards and his military reputation. Furthermore, he was the heir apparent and as such, his influence at court was considerable and could be used to bring his servants and retainers to the attention of that greatest of all patrons, the king - an office and dignitythat would, in time, be held by Edward of Woodstock.