TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS GEORGE PRINCE OF WALES. SIR, PERMIT ERMIT a faithful subject of your Royal Father to dedicate to your Royal Highness a work which seems peculiarly to claim your patronage. To whom can a detail of the virtues and heroic qualities of the great Prince of Wales with more propriety be addreffed, than to a descendent who bears his titles, and promises to inherit his virtues and accomplishments? Nor can I give a greater proof of my loyalty to your Parents, and refpect to your Royal Highnefs, than by presenting to you a model (though imperfect the fculpture) from which, if your Royal Highness copies your future life, you cannot fail of securing the love and duty of the people over whom you are born to reign. * May the genius of the place where yesterday you celebrated your natal day, infpire your Royal Highness with the elevated fentiments and true dignity of the great Founder and his god-like Son: and when, after a length of years, you fhall be called to fill the throne of your Ancestors, may your Royal Highness meet with the unfeigned esteem and extenfive renown they did. HISTORY O F EDWARD PRINCE OF WALES, COMMONLY TERMED THE BLACK PRINCE. INTRODUCTION. T HE Prince, whofe hiftory is the principal fubject of the annexed fheets, appears to have been graced with every quality natural or acquired which conftitute the real Hero to these were fuperadded the more important ones that form the virtuous man. Take him for all in all, estimate his worth from this union of characters, and we may fafely pronounce, that England, or indeed any other country, never gave birth to a perfon whofe actions more justly claimed the notice, or deferved the encomiums of Hiftorians. The pen of a Livy or a Tacitus could alone do juftice to the relation: mine is very unequal to the tafk; but as there is no detached history of this juftly celebrated Prince extant, that written by Mr. Collins fome years ago excepted, which is fo diffufed, fo filled with tedious extracts, and fo larded with genealogies of perfons little connected with the ftory, that though it contains many interefting particulars of the Prince's life, it affords not that entertainment which the Readers of this age expect to find, whilft they gratify their curiofity, and ftore their minds with knowledge, I have attempted to compile it in a more regular and pleafing manner, making, as I proceed, fuch reflections as naturally 6 |