Edward of Woodstock, the eldest child of King Edward III, was born in 1330. He "won his spurs" at the Battle of Crécy, fighting in the front line under heavy pressure through out the day, when just 16 years of age. In 1356, against a vastly superior French army, he won the battle of Poitiers, taking the French King (or usurper from the Plantagenet point of view) captive. He surprised the world, and probably his own father, by marrying his widowed and divorced cousin, Joan, the "Fair Maid of Kent." Named Prince of Aquitaine (he was already Prince of Wales) he assumed control of England's possessions on the Continent shortly thereafter.  Illness contracted while fighting in Spain, forced him to return to England in 1372. Despite his failing health he was the power behind the scenes which enabled "the Good Parliament" of 1376 to pass measures designed to strengthen the government against despotism. He died in the same year, leaving his young son, Richard, to inherit the English throne at his father's death a year later.