In the Dictionary of National Biography article for his father, Edward's birth year is given as 1363, 1364 or 1365, based on three contemporary chronicles, including that of Jean Froissart.

[5][note 2] News of his birth was "so acceptable to his royal grandfather, that the king conferred upon the messenger, John Delves, an annuity of forty pounds per annum for life.

[12] After prolonged suffering,[13] Edward died of the bubonic plague;[14] although the exact time of his death is not known, the date of January 1371 is commonly used.

[15][16][17] The Wigmore Chronicle of 1370 states that Edward died "around the feast of Saint Michael [29 September]";[18] this is probably the correct date.

[22] Edward had "already won a reputation for a Christ-like character,"[23] and in his infancy, "historians have been willing to see the seeds of those high qualities which distinguished his father and his grandfather, which were denied to his brother Richard II.

"[24] The Black Prince returned to England with Joan and Richard in 1371,[25] and died there in 1376 of a wasting disease that had been ravaging his body for many years.

[27] Edward's body was exhumed in 1388/9 and transported back to England by Robert Waldby, Bishop of Aire, who was acting under Richard II's orders.

Even during Edward's lifetime, fears that John of Gaunt would claim the throne existed; Parliament passed the Act of 1368, which permitted children born in the English domains in France to inherit the Kingdom of England, perhaps fearing that the Act of 1351, which established Edward and Richard's citizenship as English, would not be enough to ensure their succession.

Richard made efforts to end the war, but was unsuccessful due to opposition from his magnates and the French refusing to formally acknowledge their territorial losses by transferring land to the English.