King John’s Lodge and Gardens
Story of King John
One of the Lodge's many ornately furnished gates
Behind the Lodge’s beautifully restored features is a remarkable story. In September 1355, Edward, Prince of Wales ('the Black Prince') was sent to Gascony at the head of an English army. He marauded through France until finally meeting King John II of France’s army in the battle of Poitiers.
This was the hardest-fought and most important battle of the 'Hundred Years War' and Edward’s victory was built on his tactical disposition and the superior fighting capacity of his forces.
The capture of King John completed his triumph and he treated his prisoner with ostentatious magnanimity, taking him to Bordeaux from where they sailed to England in May 1357.
On the 24th of that month he led King John in triumph through the streets of London but then the fallen French king disappears from the records until his death in 1364.
It is said he was secretly held hostage by the Black Prince in the lodge for several years and so this beautiful place represents a great, unexplored pocket of English history….
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