His eldest son was the heroic Edward, usually denominated the Black Prince from the color of his armor.

This prince espoused his cousin Joan, commonly called the "fair maid of Kent," daughter and heir of his uncle, the earl of Kent, who was beheaded in the beginning of this reign.

She was first married to Sir Thomas Holland, by whom she had children.
By the prince of Wales she had a son, Richard, who alone survived his father.
The second son of King Edward (for we pass over such as died in their childhood) was Lionel, duke of Clarence, who was first married to Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter and heir of the earl of Ulster, by whom he left only one daughter, married to Edmund Mortimer, earl of Marche.
Lionel espoused in second marriage Violante, the daughter of the duke of Milan,[*] and died in Italy soon after the consummation of his nuptials, without leaving any posterity by that princess.

Of all the family, he resembled most his father and elder brother in his noble qualities.
Edward's third son was John of Gaunt, so called from the place of his birth: he was created duke of Lancaster; and from him sprang that branch which afterwards possessed the the crown.

The fourth son of this royal family was Edmund created earl of Cambridge by his father, and duke of York by his nephew.