Chapter Bishop Middleham to Black Thursday of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Black lord Clifford, John ninth lord Clifford, son of Thomas lord Clifford. Also called “The Butcher” (died 1461).

Black Prince, Edward prince of Wales, son of Edward III. Froissart says he was styled black “by terror of his arms” (c. 169). Similarly, lord Clifford was called “The Black Lord Clifford” for his cruelties (died 1461). George Petrowitsch was called by the Turks “Black George” from the terror of his name. The countess of March was called “Black Agnes” from the terror of her deeds, and not (as sir W. Scott says) from her dark complexion. Similarly, “The Black Sea” (q.v.), or Axinus, as the Greeks once called it, received its name from the inhospitable character of the Scythians. The “Black Wind,” or Sherki, is an easterly wind, so called by the Kurds, from its being such a terrible scourge.

N.B.—Fulc was called Black, or Nerra, for his ill deeds. He burnt his wife at the stake; waged the bitterest war against his son; despatched twelve assassins to murder the minister of the French king; and revolted even the rude barbarians of the times in which he lived by his treason, rapine, and bloodshed.

Shirley falls into the general error—

Our great third Edward… and his brave son…
In his black armour.
   —Edward the Block Prince, iv. 1 (1640).

He wore gilt or “gold” armour.)

Black River or Atba’ra, of Africa, so called from the quantity of black earth brought down by it during the rains. This earth is deposited on the surface of the country in the overflow of the Nile, and hence the Atbara is regarded as the “dark mother of Egypt.”

Black Sea (The), once called by the Greeks Axinus (“inhospitable”), either because the Scythians on its coast were inhospitable, or because its waters were dangerous to navigation. It was afterwards called Euxinus (“hospitable”) when the Greeks themselves became masters of it. The Turks called it The Black Sea, either a return to its former name, or from its black rock.

Black Thursday, the name given in the colony of Victoria, Australia, to Thursday, February 6, 1851, when the most terrible bush fire known in the annals of the colony occurred. It raged over an immense area. One writer in the newspapers of the time said that he rode at headlong speed for fifty miles, with fire raging on either side of his route. The heat was felt far out at sea, and many birds fell dead on the decks of coasting vessels. The destruction of animal life and farming stock in this conflagration was enormous.