210 ENGLAND. 



by the valour of the prince of Wales, who was but sixteen years of 

 age, (his father being no more than thirty-four) though the English 

 did not exceed 30,000. The loss of the French far exceeded the 

 number of the English army, whose loss consisted of no more than 

 three knights and one esquire, and about fifty private men. The bat- 

 tle of Poictiers was fought in 1356, between the prince of Wales and 

 the French king John, but with very superior advantage of numbers 

 on the part of the French, who were totally defeated, and their king 

 and his favourite son Philip taken prisoners. It is thought that the 

 number of French killed in this battle was double that of all the 

 English army ; but the modesty and politeness with which the prince 

 treated his royal prisoners formed the brightest wreath in his gar- 

 land. 



Edward's glories were not confined to France. Having left his 

 queen Philippa, daughter to the earl of Hainault, regent of England, 

 she had the good fortune to take prisoner David king of Scotland, 

 who had ventured to invade England, about six weeks after the battle 

 of Cressy was fought, and remained a prisoner eleven years. Thus 

 Edward had the glory to see two crowned heads his captives at Lon- 

 don. Both kings were afterwards ransomed; David for 100,000 

 marks, and John for three millions of gold crowns : but John return- 

 ed to England, and died at the palace of the Savoy. After the treaty 

 of Bretigni, into which Edward III, is said to have been terrified by 

 a dreadful storm, his fortunes declined. He had resigned his French 

 dominions entirely to the prince of Wales ; and he sunk in the esteem, 

 of his subjects at home, on account of his attachment to his mistress, 

 Alice Pierce. The prince of Wales, commonly called the Black 

 Prince,* from his wearing black armour while he was making a glo- 

 rious campaign in Spain, where he reinstated Peter the Cruel on the 

 throne, was seized with a consumptive disorder, which carried him 

 off in the year 1572. His father did not long survive him; for he 

 died, dispirited and obscure, at Shene in Surry, in the year 1377, the 

 sixty-fifth of his age, and fifty-first of his reign. 



Richard II, son of the Black Prince, was only eleven years of age 

 when he mounted the throne. The English arms were then unsuc- 

 cessful both in France and Scotland. John of Gaunt's foreign con- 

 nexions with the crowns of Portugal and Spain were of prejudice to 

 England ; and so many men were employed in unsuccessful wars, that 

 the commons of England, like powder receiving a spark of fire, all 

 at once flamed out into rebellion, under the conduct of Ball, a priest, 

 Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and others, the lowest of the people. The 

 conduct of these insurgents was very violent; but it cannot be denied 

 that the common people of England then laboured under many op- 

 pressions. 



Richard was not then above sixteen ; but he acted with great spirit 

 and wisdom. He faced the storm of the insurgents, at the head of 

 the Londoners, while Walworth the mayor, and Philpot an alderman, 

 had the courage to put Tyler, the leader of the malcontents, to death, 

 in the midst of his adherents. Richard then associated to himself 

 a new set of favourites. His people and great lords again took up 

 ai ras ; and, being headed by the duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, 



'■• He was also the first in England that had the title of Duke, being- created by 

 his father duke of Corn wall ; and, ever since, the eldest son of the king of Eng- 

 land is by birth duke of Cornwall. 



