Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/98

Edward modernised text in 'Chron. of the White Rose,' pp. 101 sq.) The manuscript has Warkworth's autograph, 'monitum,' but on examination is found not to contain the words 'Black Prince.' Other early writers who give Edward his well-known title are: Grafton (1563), who writes (Chronicle,p. 324, printed 1569), 'Edward, prince of Wales, who was called the blacke prince;' Holinshed (iii. 348, b. 20); Shakespeare, 'Henry V,' II. iv. 56; and in Speed. Barnes, 'History of Edward III' (1688), p. 363, says: 'From this time the French began to call him Le Neoir or the Black Prince,' and gives a reference which implies that the appellation is found in a record of 2 Richard II, but his reference does not appear sufficiently clear to admit of verification. The name does not occur in the 'Eulogium,' the 'Chronicle' of Geoffrey le Baker, the 'Chronicon Angliæ,' the 'Polychronicon' of Higden or of Trevisa, or in Caxton's 'Chronile' (1482), nor is it used by Jehan le Bel or Froissart. Jehan de Wavrin (d.1474?), who expounds a prophecy of Merlin as applying to the prince, says that he was called 'Pie-de-Plomb' (Croniques d'Engleterre t. i. l. ii. c. 56, Rolls ed. i. 236). Louandre (''Hist. d'Abbeville, p. 230) asserts that before the battle Edward arrayed his son in black armour, and it seems that the prince used black in his heraldic devices (, Royal Wills'', p. 66). It is evident from the notices of the sixteenth-century historians that when they wrote the name was traditional (the subject is discussed in Dr. Murray's 'New English Dictionary,' art. 'Black Prince,' pt. iii. col. ii. p. 895; compare the 'Antiquary,' vol. xvii. No. 100, p. 183). As regards the story that the prince took the crest of three ostrich feathers and the motto 'Ich dien' from the king of Bohemia, who was slain in the battle of Crécy, it may be noted, first, as to the ostrich feathers, that in the manuscript of [q. v.] 'Medica,' written by William Seton (Sloane MS. 56, f. 74, 14th cent.), is an ostrich feather used as a mark of reference to a previous page, on which the same device occurs, 'ubi depingitur penna principis Walliæ,' with the remark: 'Et nota quod talem pennam albam portabat Edwardus, primogenitus E. regis Angliæ, super cristam suam, et illam pennam conquisivit de Rege Boemiæ, quem interfecit apud Cresy in francia' (see also, 'Miscellanea medica et chirurgica,' in Sloane MS. 335, f. 68, 14th cent.; but not, as asserted in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 293, in Arderne's 'Practice,' Sloane MS. 76, f. 61, written in English 15th cent.) Although the reference and remark in Sloane MS. 56 may be by Seton and not by Arderne, the prince's physician, it is evident that probably before the prince's death the ostrich feather was recognised as his peculiar badge, assumed after the battle of Crécy. While the crest of John of Bohemia was the entire wings of a vulture 'besprinkled with linden leaves of gold' (poem in Baron Reiffenburg's, Ducs de Bourgogne; , Généalogie des Comtes de Flandre, pp. 65-7), the ostrich seems to have been the badge of his house; it was borne by Queen Anne of Bohemia, as well as by her brother Wenzel, and is on her effigy on her tomb (Archæologia, xxix, 32-59). The feather badge occurs as two feathers on four seals of the prince (ib. xxxi. 361), and as three feathers on the alternate escutcheons placed on his tomb in accordance with the directions of his will The prince in his will says that the feathers were 'for peace,' i.e. for jousts and tournaments, and calls them his badge, not his crest. Although the ostrich feather was his special badge, it was placed on some plate belonging to his mother, was used in the form of one or more feathers by various members of the royal house, and, by grant of Richard II, by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk (ib. 354-79). The story of the prince's winning the feathers was printed, probably for the first time, by Camden in his 'Remaines.' In his first edition (1605) he states that it was 'at the battle of Poictiers,' p. 161, but corrects this in his next edition (1614), p. 214. Secondly, as to the motto, it appears that the prince used two mottoes, 'Houmout' and 'Ich dien,' which are both appended as signature to a letter under his privy seal (Archæologia, xxxi. 381). In his will he directed that 'Houmout' should be written on each of the escutcheons round his tomb. But it actually occurs only over the escutcheons bearing his arms, while over the alternate escutcheons with his badge, and also on the escroll upon the quill of each feather, are the words 'ich diene' (sic). 'Houmout' is interpreted as meaning high mood or courage (ib. xxxii. 69). No early tradition connects 'Ich dien' with John of Bohemia. Like 'Houmout,' it is probably old Flemish or Low German. Camden in his 'Remaines' (in the passage cited above) says that it is old English, 'Ic dien,' that is 'I serve,' and that the prince 'adjoyned' the motto to the feathers, and he connects it, no doubt rightly, with the prince's position as heir, referring to Ep. to Galatians, iv. 1.

The prince was present at the siege of Calais, and after the surrender of the town harried and burned the country for thirty miles round, and brought much booty back with him (, c. 2595). He returned to England with his father on 12 Oct. 1347, 