Why the Black Prince?

Representation of the Black Prince

What I initially knew about Edward of Woodstock was that he was the eldest son of King Edward III and heir to the throne. At sixteen, he was knighted, led the army's vanguard in its devastating chevauchee across Normandy, and 'won his spurs' at Crécy where, outnumbered, the English emerged victorious.

But Edward never became king.  Why? Who was this guy and what happened?

Ten years after Crécy, Edward repeated his triumph, capturing the king of France, King John II, and his son, Philippe, at the Battle of Poitiers. Edward took them both back to England as hostages.

The more I learned, the more intrigued I became.

Edward lived in an age when royal marriages were made to secure political alliances and royals married young. And although a crown prince and the greatest matrimonial 'catch' in all Europe, Edward didn't marry until he was thirty-one.  Thirty-one? That's unheard of! 

Why wasn't he married and who did he eventually marry? Surprisingly, Edward didn't marry the daughter of a foreign ruler, he married an English widow with four children under the age of ten who also happened to be two years his senior!

Stone boss representing Joan of Kent
 Caaterbury Cathedral

He married his royal cousin, Joan of Kent, purported to be the most beautiful woman in England. Yet even more shocking ... Joan had not had just one previous husband, she had had two. And she had been married to both of them at the same time!

Wait ... did I read that right?

Yes, at the ripe old age of thirteen, Joan married her second husband and remained married to both men for over six years!

So, with that, I just had to get to the bottom of this medieval coil!