1337 to make peace between the king and Philip, the Duke of Cornwall is said to have met them outside the city of London, and in company with many nobles to have conducted them to the king (Holinshed). On 11 July 1338 his father, who was on the point of leaving England for Flanders, appointed him guardian of the kingdom during his absence, and he was appointed to the same office on 27 May 1340 and 6 Oct. 1342 (Fœdera, ii. 1049, 1125, 1212); he was of course too young to take any save a nominal part in the administration, which was carried on by the council. In order to attach John, duke of Brabant, to his cause, the king in 1339 proposed a marriage between the young Duke of Cornwall and John's daughter Margaret, and in the spring of 1345 wrote urgently to Pope Clement VI for a dispensation for this marriage (ib. ii. 1083, iii. 32, 35). On 12 May 1343 Edward created the duke Prince of Wales, in a parliament held at Westminster, investing him with a circlet, gold ring, and silver rod. The prince accompanied his father to Sluys on 3 July 1345, and Edward tried to persuade the burgomasters of Ghent,Bruges, and Ypres to accept his son as their lord, but the murder of Van Artevelde put an end to this project. Both in September and in the following April the prince was called on to furnish troops from his principality and earldom for the impending campaign in France, and as he incurred heavy debts in the king's service his father authorised him to make his will, and provided that in case he fell in the war his executors should have all his revenue for a year (ib. iii. 84). He sailed with the king on 11 July, and as soon as he landed at La Hogue received knighthood from his father (ib.p. 90; letter of Edward III to Archbishop of York, Retrospective Review, i. 119; Rot. Parl. iii. 163; Chandos, l. 145). Then he 'made a right good beginning,' for he rode through the Cotentin, burning and ravaging as he went, and distinguished himself at the taking of Caen and in the engagement with the force under Godemar du Faÿ, which endeavoured to prevent the English army from crossing the Somme by the ford of Blanquetaque. Early on Saturday, 26 Aug., he received the sacrament with his father at Crécy, and took the command of the right, or van, of the army with the Earls of Warwick and Oxford, Geoffrey Harcourt, Chandos, and other leaders, and at the head, it is said, though the numbers are by no means trustworthy, of eight hundred men-at-arms, two thousand archers, and a thousand Welsh foot. When the Genoese bowmen were discomfited and the front line of the French was in some disorder, the prince appears to have quitted his position in order to fall on their second line. At this moment, however, the Count of Alençon charged his division with such fury that he was in much peril, and the leaders who commanded with him sent a messenger to tell his father that he was in great straits and to beg for succour. When Edward learned that his son was unwounded, he bade the messenger go back and say that he would send no help, for he would that the lad should win his spurs (the prince was, however, already a knight), that the day should be his, and that he and those who had charge of him should have the honour of it. It is said that the prince was thrown to the ground (Baker, p. 167) and was rescued by Richard de Beaumont, who carried the banner of Wales, and who threw the banner over the prince, bestrode his body, and beat back his assailants (Histoire des mayeurs d'Abbeville, p. 328). Harcourt now sent to Arundel for help, and he forced back the French, who had probably by this time advanced to the rising ground of the English position. A flank attack on the side of Wadicourt was next made by the Counts of Alençon and Ponthieu, but the English were strongly entrenched there, and the French were unable to penetrate the defences and lost the Duke of Lorraine and the Counts of Alençon and Blois. The two front lines of their army were utterly broken before King Philip's division engaged. Then Edward appears to have advanced at the head of the reserve, and the rout soon became complete. When Edward met his son after the battle was over, he embraced him and declared that he had acquitted himself loyally, and the prince bowed low and did reverence to his father. The next day he joined the king in paying funeral honours to the king of Bohemia (Baron Seymour de Constant, Bataille de Crécy,ed, 1846; Louandre, Histoire d'Abbeville; Archæologia, xxviii. 171).
It is commonly said that the prince received the name of the Black Prince after the battle of Crécy, and that he was so called because he wore black armour at the battle. The first recorded notices of the appellation seem to be given by Leland (Collectanea, ed. Hearne, 1774, ii. 307) in a heading to the 'Itinerary' extracted from 'Eulogium.' The 'Black Prince,' however, is not in the 'Eulogium' of the Rolls Series, except in the editor's marginal notes. Leland (ib, pp. 471-99) repeats the appellation in quotations 'owte of a booke ot chroniques in Peter College Library.' This 'booke' is a transcript from a copy of Caxton's 'Chronile,' with the continuation by Br. John Warkworth, master of the college, 1473-98 (edited by Halliwell for the Camden Society, and also printed in
