KING EDWARD III OF ENGAND AND QUEEN PHILIPPA OF HAINUALT
"The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped, her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…all her limbs are well set and un maimed, and naught is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father, and in all things, she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us."
Four years later Prince Edward went to visit his bride-to-be and her family and fell in love with her. She was betrothed to him and in 1327, when she was only 14, she arrived in England. The next year, when she was 15, they married and were crowned King and Queen in 1330 when she was heavily pregnant with her first child and only 17.
This first child was called Edward, like his father, but is better known as the Black Prince. Many say that he was called this because of the color of his armor, but there are records that show that he was called 'black' when he was exceedingly small. The French called him 'Le Noir'. With this knowledge, we can begin “OUR STORY” WITH THE STORY OF Milly Ann (Mamie) Williams and the thousand families from Colonial America, Europe and beyond. We’ll begin with the HAINULT FAMILIES. QUEEN PHILLIPPA DE HAINAULT
Daughter of William III, count of Holland and Jeanne de Valois, Countess of Hainault
Wife of Edward III, king of England
Mother of Edward, the Black Prince; Isabella, Countess of Bedford; Joan of England; William of Hatfield; Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, 1st Earl of Richmond; Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York; Mary Plantagenet, Duchess of Brittany; Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Pembroke; Thomas of Windsor; William of Windsor; Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester and Blanche de la Tour. THIS DESCRITION WAS WRITTEN DURING THE TIME IN HISTORY IN THE LIFE OF THE YOUNG PRINCE AND HIS FAMILY. IT WAS CHANGED DURING THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE AFTER THE 14OO'S .
