Wars of the Roses a "sudden narrowing in the direct line of descent" near the end of his reign. His eldest son, Edward, the Black Prince, had died the year before. Edward III was succeeded on the throne by the Black Prince's only surviving son Richard II, who was only 10 years old. Richard's claim to the throne was based on the principle that the son of an elder brother had priority in the succession over his uncles. Since Richard was a minor, had no siblings, and had three living uncles at the time of Edward III's death, there was considerable uncertainty about who
Edward the Black Prince black Prince". Raphael Holinshed uses it several times in his "Chronicles" (1577); and it is also used by William Shakespeare, in his plays "Richard II" (written "c".1595; Act 2, scene 3) and "Henry V" ("c".1599; Act 2, scene 4). In 1688 it appears prominently in the title of Joshua Barnes's "The History of that Most Victorious Monarch, Edward IIId, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, and First Founder of the Most Noble Order of the Garter: Being a Full and Exact Account Of the Life and Death of the said King: Together with That of his Most