Which city did the Black Prince sack in 1370?

The Black Prince sacked Limoges in 1370 during the Hundred Years’ War.

Limoges had been under English control, but in August 1370 it surrendered to the French-backed forces of John, Duke of Berry. Edward, the Black Prince, responded by leading an Anglo-Gascon army against the city. The assault began in September, and Limoges fell by storm on 19 September.

Contemporary and later accounts agree that the city suffered extensive destruction, but they disagree sharply about the number of civilians killed. The chronicler Jean Froissart claimed that about 3,000 inhabitants died. Other evidence suggests a lower figure, perhaps several hundred casualties among civilians and the garrison. Historians therefore accept the sack while treating the largest massacre figures cautiously.

The attack was both punitive and strategic: Edward regarded the city’s surrender as a betrayal and wanted to restore English authority in the region. The destruction also badly damaged Limoges’s renowned enamel industry, which took roughly a century to recover.