Edward The Black Prince

He was called Edward of Woodstock after the palace of his birth in 1330 (not quite a hundred years after a would-be assassin tried to kill his great-great grandfather Henry III in that same palace). The first mention of Edward as “the Black Prince” did not appear until almost two centuries after his death in 1376.

While there is much speculation about the origin of his nickname, his military exploits, both brilliant and brutal, made him a legend in his own lifetime. It is also a reminder that he never lived to become king. His life was cut short by a long wasting disease that afflicted him just as his fortunes, and England’s, fell into decline.