Welsh Journals

EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES AND Aquitaine. A Biography of the Black Prince. By Richard Barber. Allen Lane, 1978. Pp. 298; 22 black and white plates, 8 maps. £ 7.50. In the belief that the received image of the Black Prince is that derived from Froissart, the author has justifiably sought to penetrate behind the chivalric mask, already encasing Edward in his own lifetime, by using record and other literary sources to counterbalance that chronicler's all- pervading views. These have been the source of much legendary material gratefully pillaged by generations of biographers, although Mr. Barber seems unfairly to imply that all recent writers have been uncritical in their use of Froissart. Nevertheless, amongst currently available lives of the prince, his work must now be acknowledged as the fullest and most reliable account. He has carefully synthesized much recent work on diplomatic, military and administrative history and provides a very competent survey of all the main campaigns, whether military or diploma- tic. The major omissions from his bibliography appear to be the contribu- tions of Trautz, Capra and Rey, together with the important reassessment of the position of Jean II of France which is emerging from M. Cazelles's recent work. Whilst readers of this Review will be disappointed as usual by the lack of any serious treatment of the prince's relations with Wales, and local pride necessitates the correction of a slip on p. 17 where Nottingham castle, not Northampton, was the location of Mortimer's arrest in 1330, Mr. Barber brings into consideration some fresh literary, documentary and archaeological evidence which helps to fill out the picture, for example, of the prince's household and style of life. He shows an awareness of current concerns by an informal analysis of the evolving membership of the prince's retinue and council in the course of his narrative, thus partially meeting criticisms which can be made of other recent works (ante, vol. 8 (1977), 476-78). But, as he admits, 'When all is said and done, the prince remains a shadowy figure.' (p. 238). Unless there is some important future discovery of extensive private correspondence, it is unlikely that our views of the prince's personality or role in politics will need to be changed. Mr. Barber is not the first to remark on the apparent lack of interest in the minutiae of diplomatic intrigue or, indeed, in wider questions of policy, despite the implicit contrast here with evidence for personal concern with the more efficient administration of his widely scattered estates. A little can obviously be added-relations with some of the great Gascon lords get attention but deserve more, an alliance with Jean IV, duke of Brittany, in 1365 which had economic as well as political implications goes unmentioned-but the overall picture remains. The prince was the personification of contempor- ary chivalric ideals; orthodox, pious and seemingly only interested in living out a life cast in a conventional aristocratic mould, Froissart surely captured, as Mr. Barber is finally forced to admit, the essential features of what many will now feel to be a rather unattractive personality as well as the atmosphere of the prince's court in peacetime and his tent on campaign. Though there are points of detail over which one might quibble, this biography performs a useful service in making available to a wider audience a solid summary of the present position of studies relating to the prince and the matters which concerned him most during his lifetime. MICHAEL JONES Nottingham