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As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields
An uncertain sixteen year-old in black armor steels himself to lead the vanguard of his father’s army on a muddy battlefield. It is a stormy day in August, 1346. He is Edward Plantagenet, called “the Black Prince.” The place is “The Valley of the Clerks,” near the town of Crecy, France. This is the story of his youth and adulthood as he tells it, from a childhood among lions in the Tower of London to his love for a woman whose life is as wild and exceptional as his own. She is Joan, called “the Fair Maid of Kent,” renowned for her beauty. At 26, after years of vast social and economic change and the desolation of the Black Death, Edward returns to France in another desperate gambit to save his father’s kingdom and discover who he truly is. Before Henry V and Agincourt there was Edward and Crecy and Poitiers. And Joan. As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields is an imagined personal memoir written from primary historical sources. It won the Utah Arts Council First Prize for Novel (under the title “Edward and Joan”).
458 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2014
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76 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 8, 2015
(disclaimer: I'm good friends with the author.) Before the stunning British victory at Agincourt came the battles of Crécy and Poitiers, equally unlikely but devastating victories for the British in the Hundred Years War. The architect of these victories was Edward, known as the Black Prince.
Ever wonder how a sensitive, inquisitive young boy turns into one of the greatest warriors and military leaders of the medieval era? As a Black Prince tells the story of Edward from when he was a young boy, growing into a young man and winning the battle of Crécy at the tender age of 16. He would go on to win the battle of Poitiers, capturing the French King, at the age of 26.
As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields captures all the terror and glory of medieval battles. The book is quite historically accurate, but never becomes pedantic in the way of many historical novels. The battle scenes and tactics are rendered accurately and accessibly. What I found distinguishes this book from others of its genre is the way it truly humanizes the people in the story. I really loved Fitzalan, something of a minor character but one of Edward's trainers - cantankerous but honorable, hard as nails but occasionally soft on the inside....all the other characters are equally enjoyable. Most historical fiction characters are cardboard cutouts, but every single character in the book is memorable and unique. The portrayal of the budding teen age romance between Edward and Joan the Fair Maid of Kent is pitch-perfect in it's capture of the insecurities, confusion and emotional swings of young love.
Edward's early training with hawks and tournaments as a boy in the book reminds me favorably of Arthur's training in The Once and Future King. There's too many great scenes to recount here, but if you love Bernard Cornwell or Mary Renault, you will really enjoy this book, it compares very favorably to their books.
Ever wonder how a sensitive, inquisitive young boy turns into one of the greatest warriors and military leaders of the medieval era? As a Black Prince tells the story of Edward from when he was a young boy, growing into a young man and winning the battle of Crécy at the tender age of 16. He would go on to win the battle of Poitiers, capturing the French King, at the age of 26.
As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields captures all the terror and glory of medieval battles. The book is quite historically accurate, but never becomes pedantic in the way of many historical novels. The battle scenes and tactics are rendered accurately and accessibly. What I found distinguishes this book from others of its genre is the way it truly humanizes the people in the story. I really loved Fitzalan, something of a minor character but one of Edward's trainers - cantankerous but honorable, hard as nails but occasionally soft on the inside....all the other characters are equally enjoyable. Most historical fiction characters are cardboard cutouts, but every single character in the book is memorable and unique. The portrayal of the budding teen age romance between Edward and Joan the Fair Maid of Kent is pitch-perfect in it's capture of the insecurities, confusion and emotional swings of young love.
Edward's early training with hawks and tournaments as a boy in the book reminds me favorably of Arthur's training in The Once and Future King. There's too many great scenes to recount here, but if you love Bernard Cornwell or Mary Renault, you will really enjoy this book, it compares very favorably to their books.
November 23, 2018
I’ve been curious about Edward of Woodstock, the firstborn son and heir of Edward III and father of Richard II, since I was struggling through The Hollow Crown (I require subtitles and a SparkNotes guide to appreciate Shakespeare it seems) and three little words jumped out at me – “the Black Prince”. Who was that, I wondered, he sounds like a total badass. After reading Michael Jones’s biography, The Black Prince, I liked him even more (and, if you’re wondering, yes, he was a total badass and more).
So I was thrilled to find As A Black Prince On Bloody Fields which appears to be the only novel that places Edward front and centre of the narrative. Alas, the next words to follow are “I just wished I’d enjoyed it more”.
I actually quite liked the initial characterisation of Edward as a scared little boy. Although this is at odds with his rather mythological status as the great hero of the early years of the Hundred Years War, it’s an intriguing place to start. How do we see him develop and change into that military legend? But throughout the book, he remains insecure, hesitant, depressive, shy and self-doubting. The scenes where he becomes angry, assertive or challenging felt quite jarring, as if they were out of character. There’s also little sense of why he was a great military commander, why he earned a reputation for brutality or even that he was hopelessly broke for most of his life.
I didn’t quite know what to make of Edward III and have the feeling Thomas W. Jensen didn’t either. He’s a rather terrible father to his son in this. His first memorable moment is telling his 10 year old son that if he’s a bad king, he’ll be sodomised to death with a hot iron just like his grandfather. Later, he threatens to throw the same son (now 16) overboard if he speaks against his father again and, at Crecy, Prince Edward (still 16) thinks that his father deliberately gave him a dangerous position in the battle so that Edward will die (later, he revises this to thinking his father just wanted him to be changed by the battle, but if your son thinks you’d deliberately get him killed – yikes). Admittedly, I don’t know too much about Edward III (I have a biography on the top of my TBR), but I find myself doubting Jensen’s interpretation.
There is little sense of time passing in the novel, with events often bleeding into each other. While I was forgiving of the simplicity of Edward’s voice in the first chapter because he was ten years old, I was less so when it stayed the same and I had to wait for Edward to mention his age or how many years had passed to work out whether he was 10 or 16 or 26. I also felt confused at times as to what was going on. I didn’t understand why, for example, in the first chapter Edward and his sisters were suddenly abandoned in the care of a lowly cook.
The relationships in this book were unclear. There’s a suggestion of complexity in Edward’s relationship with his father, but it’s muted. His relationships with his friends and family are similarly unclear, largely because we rarely see them. Edward’s sisters pretty much disappear after the first chapter (no mention of the sister who died during the Black Death!) and I personally really love the idea that John of Gaunt hero-worshipped his big brother Edward, but we see very little of Gaunt in this. Edward has an affair with a woman which produces a child (no mention of the Black Prince’s other illegitimate children) but he has no reaction when he receives news she and the child died. The only relationship Edward is devoted to is the one he has with Joan of Kent, but she is held at a distance and while we get that he loves her like no one else on the planet, it seems more than he loves the idea of her that who she actually is.
The novel ends with Joan agreeing to marry Edward after the Battle of Poitiers, which means we get little insight into the events of Edward’s later life. Events such as his rulership of Aquitaine, the Spanish campaign in support of Pedro the Cruel, the rekindling of hostilities with France, the sack of Limoges, and Edward’s chronic ill-health, return to England and eventual death are unexplored, as is the actual meat of his marriage with Joan and their two children together. Sure, it’s depressing and presents Edward in a more morally dubious light, but they’re also important aspects of his life. I’m not saying that As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields should cover them – it’s quite a lengthy novel as is – but without them, the picture of Edward feels… incomplete.
There are issues with the actual prose writing of the book. I caught several typos and grammatical mistakes. The dialogue needed to be tightened up – I got a sense that some dialogue existed just to get dialogue on the page, rather than being needed. I’ve already noted the sameness of the voice, changing little between Edward as a scared ten year old and Edward as a seasoned military hero, and how time passing had to be explicitly stated. One chapter, dealing with the Black Death, came across as highly repetitious – we get the royal court passing time by telling stories about how they fell in love for the first time, which largely consists of Edward’s parents both recounting their first meeting in great detail and Joan of Kent sharing in detail her POV of her first two meetings with Edward that we already read about in the first two chapters. I think it’s a great idea for a chapter about the Black Death, but its execution made for such a dull read.
On the flip side, I found the battle scenes were quite well-written. They were engaging, rarely confusing, exciting and they kept the focus on Edward’s own reactions to the chaos surrounding him. I also enjoyed the scenes of Edward fighting in melees and jousts.
Although other reviewers have acclaimed this for its historical accuracy, I did find some mistakes. I never quite understood how Edward, the heir to the throne of England, could just disappear, going off for a walk or climbing scaffolding on his own, and no one would notice or care. I also raised my eyebrows at Edward practicing archery (it was considered an activity for commoners, not nobles), Edward asking someone for a map (maps as we understand them did not exist then), people calling the king ‘your majesty’ (this title was first used in England during Richard II’s reign) and Edward shaking hands with everyone he met regardless of their status.
More notably, Joan of Kent’s mother did not die when she was six, as stated, but when she was twenty-one, Edward II did not die from red hot poker (and possibly wasn’t even dead when Edward III tells his son this story), and there is no evidence that Edward of Woodstock was known as ‘the Black Prince’ during his lifetime, the general consensus being that he gained that title well and truly posthumously. The latter I’m somewhat forgiving of because it’s such an awesome title (a well known one at that), and it can be handy to distinguish between Edward III of England and his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, without resorting to nicknames. But the rest? No.
I think this book had an amazing premise – the life of the Black Prince is so rich with drama, whether you want a war story, a love story or a tragedy. But it needed more development and more editing, and in the end all I feel is disappointed.
So I was thrilled to find As A Black Prince On Bloody Fields which appears to be the only novel that places Edward front and centre of the narrative. Alas, the next words to follow are “I just wished I’d enjoyed it more”.
I actually quite liked the initial characterisation of Edward as a scared little boy. Although this is at odds with his rather mythological status as the great hero of the early years of the Hundred Years War, it’s an intriguing place to start. How do we see him develop and change into that military legend? But throughout the book, he remains insecure, hesitant, depressive, shy and self-doubting. The scenes where he becomes angry, assertive or challenging felt quite jarring, as if they were out of character. There’s also little sense of why he was a great military commander, why he earned a reputation for brutality or even that he was hopelessly broke for most of his life.
I didn’t quite know what to make of Edward III and have the feeling Thomas W. Jensen didn’t either. He’s a rather terrible father to his son in this. His first memorable moment is telling his 10 year old son that if he’s a bad king, he’ll be sodomised to death with a hot iron just like his grandfather. Later, he threatens to throw the same son (now 16) overboard if he speaks against his father again and, at Crecy, Prince Edward (still 16) thinks that his father deliberately gave him a dangerous position in the battle so that Edward will die (later, he revises this to thinking his father just wanted him to be changed by the battle, but if your son thinks you’d deliberately get him killed – yikes). Admittedly, I don’t know too much about Edward III (I have a biography on the top of my TBR), but I find myself doubting Jensen’s interpretation.
There is little sense of time passing in the novel, with events often bleeding into each other. While I was forgiving of the simplicity of Edward’s voice in the first chapter because he was ten years old, I was less so when it stayed the same and I had to wait for Edward to mention his age or how many years had passed to work out whether he was 10 or 16 or 26. I also felt confused at times as to what was going on. I didn’t understand why, for example, in the first chapter Edward and his sisters were suddenly abandoned in the care of a lowly cook.
The relationships in this book were unclear. There’s a suggestion of complexity in Edward’s relationship with his father, but it’s muted. His relationships with his friends and family are similarly unclear, largely because we rarely see them. Edward’s sisters pretty much disappear after the first chapter (no mention of the sister who died during the Black Death!) and I personally really love the idea that John of Gaunt hero-worshipped his big brother Edward, but we see very little of Gaunt in this. Edward has an affair with a woman which produces a child (no mention of the Black Prince’s other illegitimate children) but he has no reaction when he receives news she and the child died. The only relationship Edward is devoted to is the one he has with Joan of Kent, but she is held at a distance and while we get that he loves her like no one else on the planet, it seems more than he loves the idea of her that who she actually is.
The novel ends with Joan agreeing to marry Edward after the Battle of Poitiers, which means we get little insight into the events of Edward’s later life. Events such as his rulership of Aquitaine, the Spanish campaign in support of Pedro the Cruel, the rekindling of hostilities with France, the sack of Limoges, and Edward’s chronic ill-health, return to England and eventual death are unexplored, as is the actual meat of his marriage with Joan and their two children together. Sure, it’s depressing and presents Edward in a more morally dubious light, but they’re also important aspects of his life. I’m not saying that As a Black Prince on Bloody Fields should cover them – it’s quite a lengthy novel as is – but without them, the picture of Edward feels… incomplete.
There are issues with the actual prose writing of the book. I caught several typos and grammatical mistakes. The dialogue needed to be tightened up – I got a sense that some dialogue existed just to get dialogue on the page, rather than being needed. I’ve already noted the sameness of the voice, changing little between Edward as a scared ten year old and Edward as a seasoned military hero, and how time passing had to be explicitly stated. One chapter, dealing with the Black Death, came across as highly repetitious – we get the royal court passing time by telling stories about how they fell in love for the first time, which largely consists of Edward’s parents both recounting their first meeting in great detail and Joan of Kent sharing in detail her POV of her first two meetings with Edward that we already read about in the first two chapters. I think it’s a great idea for a chapter about the Black Death, but its execution made for such a dull read.
On the flip side, I found the battle scenes were quite well-written. They were engaging, rarely confusing, exciting and they kept the focus on Edward’s own reactions to the chaos surrounding him. I also enjoyed the scenes of Edward fighting in melees and jousts.
Although other reviewers have acclaimed this for its historical accuracy, I did find some mistakes. I never quite understood how Edward, the heir to the throne of England, could just disappear, going off for a walk or climbing scaffolding on his own, and no one would notice or care. I also raised my eyebrows at Edward practicing archery (it was considered an activity for commoners, not nobles), Edward asking someone for a map (maps as we understand them did not exist then), people calling the king ‘your majesty’ (this title was first used in England during Richard II’s reign) and Edward shaking hands with everyone he met regardless of their status.
More notably, Joan of Kent’s mother did not die when she was six, as stated, but when she was twenty-one, Edward II did not die from red hot poker (and possibly wasn’t even dead when Edward III tells his son this story), and there is no evidence that Edward of Woodstock was known as ‘the Black Prince’ during his lifetime, the general consensus being that he gained that title well and truly posthumously. The latter I’m somewhat forgiving of because it’s such an awesome title (a well known one at that), and it can be handy to distinguish between Edward III of England and his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, without resorting to nicknames. But the rest? No.
I think this book had an amazing premise – the life of the Black Prince is so rich with drama, whether you want a war story, a love story or a tragedy. But it needed more development and more editing, and in the end all I feel is disappointed.
May 23, 2015
The Black Prince
Loved the beginning,
Loved the Middle
Loved the battles and history
Loved the chivalry, as it was
Loved the ending.
Loved the beginning,
Loved the Middle
Loved the battles and history
Loved the chivalry, as it was
Loved the ending.
February 21, 2019
For some reason only ebook or Kindle Edition is available and I would slit my wrists before I read an ebook so... there's that.
Fortunately the edition I read was in paperback lest you would be denied this stellar review of the work which, to be honest, will be somewhat less than stellar than the book itself, which I quite enjoyed.
It's fiction. But "historical" and therefore interesting. If you reject the paradigm that history is interesting then there is no hope for you, your search for good reading material must continue. But, if you like history, or Game of Thrones minus the dragons for the kids out there, then pick up a copy of this and get spirited away by a Black Prince, on Bloody Fields.
Fortunately the edition I read was in paperback lest you would be denied this stellar review of the work which, to be honest, will be somewhat less than stellar than the book itself, which I quite enjoyed.
It's fiction. But "historical" and therefore interesting. If you reject the paradigm that history is interesting then there is no hope for you, your search for good reading material must continue. But, if you like history, or Game of Thrones minus the dragons for the kids out there, then pick up a copy of this and get spirited away by a Black Prince, on Bloody Fields.
August 20, 2018
It would have probably been a five but I found that the book took too long to get to the most interesting (to me) parts of Edward's adulthood and then covered those too quickly.
April 3, 2023
In dire need of an editor for structure and grammar.
November 22, 2014
This book tells in compelling fashion the fascinating story of Edward the Black Prince of Wales one of the most intriguing characters in British medieval history. The book is a unique triumph of historical fiction. The historical aspects of the book are so meticulously researched that it could serve as a text for graduate studies at university. Yet the book is gripping in its narrative and character study weaving the details of every day medieval life into a gedanken-bilder that is so vivid the reader feels like a pilgrim immersed in the times. The interesting character study of Edward portrays a child of nobility raised in relative isolation from parental affection having his innocence excoriated layer by layer with increasing exposure to the brutality and savagery that marked the middle ages. The existential struggle of a very real Edward with very real feelings to find his place and values in a world of brutal chaos is captivating as he finds love that seems inaccessible and develops into a warrior of the times in every sense, yet he remains conflicted with fears and doubts. The book brilliantly avoids the pitfalls of presentism that so plagues lesser novels of historical fiction and the person of Edward reveals himself as an authentic character of his time and environment while remaining fully human. In short, it is a ripping good read.
September 7, 2016
The story of the life of the Black Prince, otherwise known as the Black Knight, the heir to the throne of England
This is a riveting good tale of the real emotions of a young Prince and his two younger sisters, left in the infamous Tower of London, for safety sake. It is the tale of how his father, the King, goes about teaching him the things he must know to be a good knight, a even better warrior, and one day a king. It is also the story of the one true love of his life and how he must live with the knowledge that she becomes his father's lover, and then the wife of a man he makes a knight of the garter. It is only after many bloody battles where it becomes evident that he is a true Prince and leader among men, and his love becomes a widow with five children that they are truly able to consummate their love in a lasting fashion. This book has riveting battle scenes, a great plague that decimated a third of the population, a and is complete with the raw emotions of a very frightened little boy, who grows into a good son ,courageous warrior, and morally really good man. If you love English history, you will love this book. A must read for all those interested in the monarchy of a great country.
This is a riveting good tale of the real emotions of a young Prince and his two younger sisters, left in the infamous Tower of London, for safety sake. It is the tale of how his father, the King, goes about teaching him the things he must know to be a good knight, a even better warrior, and one day a king. It is also the story of the one true love of his life and how he must live with the knowledge that she becomes his father's lover, and then the wife of a man he makes a knight of the garter. It is only after many bloody battles where it becomes evident that he is a true Prince and leader among men, and his love becomes a widow with five children that they are truly able to consummate their love in a lasting fashion. This book has riveting battle scenes, a great plague that decimated a third of the population, a and is complete with the raw emotions of a very frightened little boy, who grows into a good son ,courageous warrior, and morally really good man. If you love English history, you will love this book. A must read for all those interested in the monarchy of a great country.
March 15, 2015
Bored
Nothing attractive about the writing. Not interesting. Had no desire to finish the book. Not worth the time or effort.
Nothing attractive about the writing. Not interesting. Had no desire to finish the book. Not worth the time or effort.
June 3, 2015
No continuity
A confusing book. If there was a plot I missed it. It is more like a mosaic than a story. No tension, no character development, just piecemeal scenes.
A confusing book. If there was a plot I missed it. It is more like a mosaic than a story. No tension, no character development, just piecemeal scenes.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews