Edward the Black Prince the party of Montfort, and Chandos won the Battle of Auray (29 September 1364) against the French. As the leaders of the free companies which desolated France were for the most part Englishmen or Gascons, they did not ravage Aquitaine, and the prince was suspected, probably not without cause, of encouraging, or at least of taking no pains to discourage, their proceedings. Accordingly on 14 November 1364 Edward III called upon him to restrain their ravages. In 1365 the free companies, under Sir Hugh Calveley and other leaders, took service with Bertrand du Guesclin, who employed them in 1366 in
Edward the Black Prince Thomas Holland: Edward had several natural sons before his marriage. With Edith de Willesford (died after 1385): With unknown mothers: Edward is often referred to as the "Black Prince". The first known source to use the sobriquet "Black Prince" was the antiquary John Leland in the 1530s or early 1540s (about 165 years after the death of the Black Prince). Leland mentions the sobriquet in two manuscript notes in the 1530s or early 1540s, with the implication that it was by that date in relatively widespread use. In one place, Leland refers in Latin to ""Edwardi Principis cog: Nigri"" (i.e.,