Lord Audley

Audley in History

Little is known about the life of James Audley before his participation in the Battle of Crecy in 1346, but he is portrayed in a very positive light throughout the chronicle of the Frenchman Jean Froissart, as a man who is the epitome of chivalry. There is hardly anything to be said about Audley, and it seems as if his life was dominated by the Hundred Years War in France. In addition to his participation at Crecy, Audley was also a major player at the even more significant Battle of Poitiers (1356) in which the French King John II was captured. Audley was a loyal friend and subject to Edward the Black Prince, eldest son and heir to King Edward III, and served him in France until the day he died, in 1369. It can safely be said that, in the end, Lord Audley had spent more time in his later life within France than he did in his own country.

Audley in Shakespeare

Appears in: Edward III

Lord Audley is a loyal servant to Edward III and the Black Prince and appears throughout the entirety of Edward III, participating in the major battles of Crecy and Poitiers. Within the play, Audley is (incorrectly) portrayed as an old man. In reality, though he was roughly twelve years older than the Black Prince, he was only around twenty-eight at the time of Crecy and thirty-eight at the time of Poitiers.

References

Jones, Michael. ‘Audley, Sir James (c.1318–1369)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/895, accessed 7 May 2010]