Chronicles

The Black Prince is also known as Edward of Woodstock or by his title, the Prince of Wales. This nickname, “Black Prince,” was derived from either the black armor he wore or his fearsome reputation in France. As the oldest son of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, he was the heir to the English throne. Like his father, he was a skilled military commander, leading the English to a decisive victory at the Battle of Poitiers.

Froissart mentions that even the Black Prince’s rival King Charles V of France “maintained that the Prince ruled his domains nobly and worthily” while Froissart himself praises the Black Prince as “the flower of the world’s knighthood […] and the most successful soldier of his age” (193). Still, Froissart decries the Black Prince’s massacre of the population of Limoges, writing, “I do not understand how they could have failed to take pity on people who were too unimportant to have committed treason” (178). The Black Prince died from illness in 1376. Edward III would instead be succeeded by the Black Prince’s son, who came to the throne as King Richard II.

A cousin of both King Philip VI of France and King Edward III of England, Charles the Bad was another rival for the crown of France. In addition to being the king of the Spanish kingdom of Navarre, Charles the Bad was a French nobleman, who owned territories around the country.

As a result of his schemes for the French crown, Charles the Bad was imprisoned. He was freed when Étienne Marcel came to power. Also, Froissart recounts a story that alleges that Charles the Bad plotted to poison his brother-in-law, Count Gaston Phoebus of Foix, a scheme that inadvertently resulted in the death of the Count’s only legitimate son and heir (266-274).

Born Humphrey of Woodstock, he was the youngest son of King Edward III. Froissart refers to him by his title Duke of Gloucester and knew him personally. The Duke of Gloucester was the fiercest critic of his nephew King Richard II, encouraging the merchants of London to rally against Richard II’s alleged misuse of tax revenues on luxuries and plotting to replace the king with his great-nephew, the Earl of March. Richard II had his uncle arrested and imprisoned in the French port city of Calais, where he was secretly assassinated. The scandal surrounding the Duke of Gloucester’s death was a major catalyst toward Richard II’s downfall.

Along with Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, John Ball was one of the leaders of the English peasant revolts of 1381. He was originally a priest from Kent. During the revolts, he gave a speech urging the people to go to London and see King Richard II. During his speech, he argued, “If we all spring from a single father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can [the nobles] claim or prove that they are lords more than us, except by making us produce and grow the wealth which they spend?” (212). After the rebels returned to their villages following the actions of Richard II, John Ball was tracked down and hanged.

Before he became king, Froissart often refers to King Charles V by his title, the Duke of Normandy. During both times his father King John II was held captive in England, the Duke of Normandy ruled France. However, his first time as regent of France was marred by his conflict with Étienne Marcel, the Provost of Merchants in Paris, who tried to take power for himself.

After his father died during his second captivity in England by 1364, the Duke of Normandy became King Charles V. It was Charles who restarted the war in England in 1369 after nobles in Gascony petitioned the king against the Black Prince, who had been ruling on behalf of his father Edward III in Gascony. It was Charles V who drastically changed tactics in the war, focusing on guerilla tactics rather than direct clashes with the English, and this changed the course of the Hundred Years War in France’s favor (189-190). Charles V died in 1380, leaving the throne to his oldest son, who became King Charles VI.

Following the death of his father Charles V in 1380, he was crowned as King Charles VI. He married Isabella of Bavaria, niece of Duke Stephen of Bavaria, whose ceremonial entry into Paris was personally witnessed by Froissart (351). Also, it was Charles VI who led the French to victory at the Battle of Roosebeke and crushed the revolt against the Count of Flanders.

While leading a military campaign into Brittany, Charles VI suddenly started attacking his own men. This was the beginning of a lifelong mental illness where Charles VI suffered delusions and was non-responsive. However, in Froissart’s narrative, Charles VI recovers under the care of a doctor named Guillaume de Harselly.

Edward was made King of England in 1284 and reigned until 1327, when he was overthrown by his queen Isabella of France and her lover, the English nobleman Roger Mortimer. During his reign, the English lost its war against the Scottish, and Scotland again became independent under King Robert Bruce. Also, he was deeply influenced by his suspected lover Hugh Despenser the Younger, whom Froissart describes as “an evil counsellor” (40), and Despenser’s father Hugh Despenser the Elder.

Edward II was captured and forced to abdicate in favor of his son and heir, Edward III. However, Isabella and Roger Mortimer practically ruled England with the new king as a figurehead. Hugh Despenser was executed as a “heretic and sodomite” (44). It is not mentioned in this edition of Froissart what happened to Edward II, but some medieval sources and modern historians agree he was likely murdered in his prison at the orders of Isabella and Roger Mortimer.

After his father King Edward II was forced to abdicate after an invasion led by Edward II’s own queen Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer, King Edward III was crowned King of England in 1327 at the age of 16. At first, England was actually ruled by Isabella and Roger Mortimer. However, Edward III eventually asserted himself, having Roger Mortimer executed and imprisoning his mother. Also, he married Philippa of Hainault, the daughter of one of his closest allies, the Count of Hainault, whose territories covered northeastern France and modern-day Belgium.

Edward III fought against the Scots when they raided England, but he could not reconquer Scotland. However, he did claim the French throne through his mother Isabella of France, which led him to declare war on King Philip VI of France, beginning what historians call the Hundred Years War. In no small part because of the archers in his army, Edward III won devastating victories against France at the Battle of Crécy and the Siege of Calais. After a 50-year reign, Edward III died on June 21, 1377, leaving the throne to his young grandson, Richard II. Froissart presents him as an ideal king, writing, “His like had not been seen since the days of King Arthur, who once had also been King of England, which in his time was called Great Britain” (195-196).

The Provost of the Merchants of Paris, Étienne Marcel was a leader of the Three Estates, a representative body summoned to help lead France during the captivity of King John II. Marcel vied for power against King John’s son and heir, the Duke of Normandy (also the future King Charles V). This conflict went so far that Marcel’s supporters killed a representative of the Duke of Normandy in his presence, and Marcel seized control of Paris.

Marcel tried to support Charles the Bad against the Duke of Normandy. However, the Parisians turned against Marcel, and he was killed during a riot. Afterward, the Duke of Normandy took control of Paris and several of Marcel’s key supporters were executed.

Froissart refers to the man who would become King Henry IV by his titles, the Earl of Derby and later the Duke of Lancaster. However, modern historians also call him by his name, Henry Bolingbroke, before he became King Henry IV. When the Earl Marshal, one of Richard II’s friends, heard him make a comment mildly critical of Richard II, he accused the Earl of Derby of treason before Richard II. Under pressure to intervene in the matter, Richard II allowed the Earl of Derby and the Earl Marshal to fight in a duel to settle the matter, but then he exiled them both. When the Earl of Derby’s father, the Duke of Lancaster, died, Richard II seized the Duke of Lancaster’s estates even though the Earl of Derby’s exile was supposed to only be temporary.

After spending time at the French court, the Earl of Derby returned to England at the head of an army of dissidents. Then, he overthrew Richard II and pressured him to abdicate. Afterward, Henry claimed the crown as King Henry IV. According to Froissart, Henry IV was reluctant to have Richard II killed despite the threat Richard II’s existence posed to his reign (468). Before too long, Richard II died suddenly in prison under mysterious circumstances.

After the death of his father Philip VI in 1350, John II became the king of France and carried on the war against King Edward III of England. He was captured and taken as a hostage to England after leading an army against the Black Prince at the disastrous Battle of Poitiers. John II was released after the signing of the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360.

Like he did with John II’s father, Froissart hails John II for his honorable behavior. When John II’s son, the Duke of Anjou, broke the terms of the peace by escaping English custody, John II offered to again return to England as a hostage. At the Palace of Savoy in London, John II was treated extremely well until he fell ill and died in April of 1364. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the Duke of Normandy, who became King Charles V.

When King Charles IV of France died in 1328 without an heir, the established royal succession laws in France, called the Salic Law, dictated that the crown of France could not pass to a woman. Therefore, the French throne was offered to Charles IV’s nearest living male relative, his cousin Philip of Valois, who took the regnal name Philip VI. However, the idea that a claim to the throne could pass from a woman to her male descendants went unchallenged. In that situation, the crown would go to the son of Charles IV’s sister Isabelle, who happened to be King Edward III of England. On this basis, Edward III declared war on Philip IV for France itself.

Philip IV lost the important Battle of Crécy against the English. Still, Froissart approvingly describes Philip as acting in a courteous manner. For example, he graciously receives Edward III’s ambassadors when he receives Edward III’s declaration of war (59-60) and chivalrously asks Edward III when he is fortified at the port city of Calais for a fair fight (102-103). Philip VI died in 1350 and was succeeded by his son, who became King John II.

The son of the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent, Richard II succeeded his grandfather King Edward III to the throne of England in 1376. However, like his ancestor King Edward II, according to Froissart Richard II was led astray by bad, self-interested advisors, namely Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland. His uncles rebelled against him and forced Richard II to follow the guidance of the nobles of the kingdom, with “the King […] not master in his council. It was controlled by his uncles and the barons and prelates” (327).

Richard II’s unpopularity grew as he tried to end the war in France by marrying King Charles VI of France’s daughter Isabelle and faced attacks by his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, who tried to rally the merchants of London against Richard II. Abandoned by his uncles, Richard II resorted to having the Duke of Gloucester imprisoned and secretly killed and executing several of his supporters. Later, he exiled his cousin, the Earl of Derby, on a trumped-up charge of treason and deprived him of his inheritance from his father, the Duke of Lancaster. The Earl of Derby returned with an army and overthrew Richard II, who was imprisoned, forced to abdicate, and died under suspicious circumstances. Claiming the throne through the right of conquest and rightful inheritance and because Richard II abdicated (albeit under force), the Earl of Derby declared himself King Henry IV.