As such, Prince Edward's Arms were those of his father with a plain white three-pointed Label. If he had used Arms up to the age of ten when his father started quartering the French Arms, he is likely to have shown England with a plain blue Label.
Edward was also the first Knight of the Garter. This gave rise to the tradition that the Order accompanies the title Prince of Wales unless the next incumbent has already been appointed to the Order.
The exact reason for the sinister-sounding nickname of The Black Prince and his reputation is still debated by historians. There are several theories from the colour his armour, the colour of his Shield or Surcoat to his attitude. However, there is no evidence that he was called by this nickname during his lifetime and it may have come about during the Tudor period.
Legend has it that he adopted the Shield after the Battle of Crecy. The old blind King John of Bohemia fought on the French side and had two of his household knights tie their horses to either side of his own so that he could “strike a blow against the English.” After the Battle, the old kings’ body was found among the dead and Edward was so moved that he adopted the king’s Arms of three Ostrich Feathers on a black Field, with the motto “Ich Dien” (I serve in German). However, whilst at least 36 Silesian families show a plume of three feathers, John's Seal shows an Eagle and a Lion rampant.
It is more likely that the Black Prince adopted the Feathers from a device from his mother, Philippa of Hainault. Oestrevans was a subsidiary title of the Counts of Hainault, although the Ostrich was a known Badge of the Counts of Luxembourg, from whom Philippa was descended. Whilst the Ostrich Feather was frequently used by a great many descendants of King Edward III and Queen Philippa, the distinctive Badge was only first used by Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of King Henry VII.
Edward's tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, hailed as one of the finest in medieval England, closely follows instructions left in his will. Only the location of the tomb was changed. Edward directed he should be buried in the crypt near the chapel of Our Lady Undercroft but was in fact placed close to Becket's shrine. The base of the tomb is of Purbeck marble, the effigy of latten overgilt (a form of medieval brass). Edward's Shield, Helm and Crest, Jupon (or Surcoat), Scabbard and Gauntlets are carefully preserved in a glass case nearby, but modern copies of these appear above his tomb. The Jupon (close fitting tunic) is probably the only 14th Century example surviving in England. |
These items as well as the tomb itself are a rich source of heraldry.
Joan of Kent
Joan was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330) the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife, Margaret of France, and therefore a cousin of Edward’s. Edmund supported his elder brother King Edward II and was executed after Edward was deposed. When Edward III reached adulthood, he brought Joan’s family out of exile and looked after them well.
Joan’s first marriage to Thomas Holland of Up Holland, Lancashire was either secret or invalid. When it came to her family wanting to arrange for her to marry the heir of Earl of Salisbury, there were difficulties. When Holland returned from the French campaigns in about 1348, his marriage to Joan was revealed. Holland confessed to the King and appealed to the Pope for the return of his wife. Salisbury held Joan, whom he thought to be his daughter-in-law, captive so that she could not testify until the Church ordered him to release her. In 1349, the proceedings ruled in Holland's favour. Pope Clement VI annulled Joan's marriage to Salisbury and Joan and Thomas Holland were ordered to be married in Church. Holland was created Earl of Kent in right of his wife in 1360 but he died the same year.
It is suggested that Edward's parents did not favour a marriage between their son and their former ward, but this may be contradicted by the fact that King Edward assisted his son in acquiring all four of the needed dispensations for Edward to marry Joan. Among the problems was Edward and Joan's birth placement within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. Queen Philippa (wife of Edward III) had made a favourite of Joan in her childhood. Both she and the King may have been concerned about the legitimacy of any resulting children, considering Joan's complicated marital record, but such concerns were remedied by a second ruling of Pope Clement's successor Innocent VI.
In 1362, the Black Prince was invested as Prince of Aquitaine, a region of France that had belonged to the English Crown since the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II of England in 1152. He and Joan moved to Bordeaux, the capital of the principality, where they spent the next nine years. Two sons were born during this period to the royal couple. The elder son, Edward of Angoulême (1365-1370), died at the age of five. The second son was the future King Richard II.
By 1371, the Black Prince was no longer able to perform his duties as Prince of Aquitaine due to poor health, thus he and Joan returned to England shortly after burying their elder son. The following year, the Black Prince forced himself to attempt one final, abortive campaign in the hope of saving his father's French possessions, but the exertion completely shattered his health. He returned to England for the last time on 7th June 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, and died in his bed at the Palace of Westminster the next day.
Joan's son Prince Richard was now next in line to succeed his grandfather Edward III, who died on 21st June 1377. Richard was crowned the following month at the age of 10.
Joan died at Wallingford Castle during a quarrel between John Holland, her son from her first marriage, and the young King, who then pardoned Holland. Joan was buried beside her first husband, as requested in her will, even though the Black Prince had had a chantry chapel built for her in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral with ceiling bosses sculpted with likenesses of her face.
Joan’s Coat of Arms was that of her father, who, as a Prince himself, bore England with a plain white Bordure for difference.