The Black Prince, the Trinity, and the Art of Commemoration

Abstract

The Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III and heir to the English throne until his death in 1376, was known to have been particularly devoted to the Trinity. As well as commissioning Trinitarian images in his lifetime, the art and material objects made to memorialise the Black Prince after his death, notably the tester above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral and an illumination in a manuscript copy of a poem celebrating his life and military victories, continued to emphasise his connection to the Trinity. Drawing on evidence for the prince’s personal devotional practices in life, as well as the commemorative projects commissioned after his death, this article argues that Trinitarian imagery was employed to construct a distinctive memory of the Black Prince, one that served to bolster the claims of his son Richard II. A reconsideration of the dating of the tester and other Trinitarian images associated with the prince’s memorialisation repositions Richard’s agency over the shaping of his father’s material legacy, suggesting these grand commissions formed part of a wider strategy to emphasise Plantagenet sanctity and authority at a time of increasing instability in the Ricardian court. The article concludes by considering the impact of the Black Prince’s memorialisation on funerary culture more broadly, arguing that it played a key role in introducing the Trinity as a devotional subject on the brasses and monuments of the English nobility.