Darksword The Black Prince Sword – Black with Integrated Sword Belt

The Darksword Black Prince Sword is a longsword with a blade of 5160 high carbon steel. The blade was given a differential hardening heat tempering; this gave the edge a hardness of 60 HRC and the body of the blade has been tempered to 48-50 HRC. This treatment has given the blade a body that is just soft enough so that the blade is not brittle and will flex with impact and the edge is harder so to prevent the blade from dulling too easily.

The crossguard and pommel are of steel and the grip is cord-wrapped wood overlaid with tightly-fitted black leather. The sword is accompanied by a scabbard with a core of wood and a form-fitted skin of black leather. It has a steel chape to protect the tip from damage. The scabbard is fitted with an integrated sword belt of black leather.

This longsword is a good example of a late medieval longsword – Its relatively low point of balance close to the guard makes it feel light and agile in the hand. The balance is well enough that an individual of good strength could technically use it single-handedly, though the very long grip makes this use somewhat clumsy. With two hands this sword strikes fast and moves with the swiftness that made the late medieval longsword a true professionals weapon.

It is not known for certain why the English prince Edward of Woodstock became known as the Black Prince. Some purport that he wore blackened armor whilst others hypothesize that it was a moniker given to him by the serfs of France who suffered under his chevauchee raids of the Hundred Years War that torched large swathes of the French countryside in acts of total war. Even his own hold of Aquitaine chafed under crippling taxation.

History seems to remember The Black Prince in a chequered manner, for he is also remembered as a Chivalric warrior who treated the French nobility with exceptional Chivalric courtesy after he defeated them at the major battles in his victories at Crecy and Poitiers. He founded the Arthurian-inspired Order of the Garter due to a personal belief that chivalry was in decline and that it needed to be revitalized; the Order was also intended to bring Knights into a brotherhood united in national patriotism and to take away the focus of knighthood on the service of the goals of the church.

The Black Prince – a Chivalric leader and a founder of a cornerstone of Chivalry? Or a butcher of the peasantry and the boot heel upon the backs? Or a pragmatic, calculating leader and conqueror who well understood the need to create good PR for the digestion of the nobility?