General Notes

REFN: 1245
The eldest son of Edward II and Isabella of France, Edwar
d III was summoned to Parliament as earl of Chester (1320
) and was made duke of Aquitaine (1325), but, contrary to t
radition, he never received the title of prince of Wales.
Edward III grew up amid struggles between his father an
d a number of barons who were attempting to limit the king'
s power and to strengthen their own role in governing Engla
nd. His mother, repelled by her husband's treatment of th
e nobles and disaffected by the confiscation of her Englis
h estates by his supporters, played an important role in th
is conflict. In 1325 she left England to return to France t
o intervene in the dispute between her brother, Charles I
V of France, and her husband over the latter's French posse
ssions, Guyenne, Gascony, and Ponthieu. She was successful
; the land was secured for England on condition that the En
glish king pay homage to Charles. This was performed on th
e King's behalf by his young son.
The heir apparent was secure at his mother's side. With Rog
er Mortimer, an influential baron who had escaped to Franc
e in 1323 and had become her lover, Isabella now began prep
arations to invade England to depose her husband. To rais
e funds for this enterprise, Edward III was betrothed to Ph
ilippa, daughter of William, count of Hainaut and Holland.
Within five months of their invasion of England, the Quee
n and the nobles, who had much popular support, overpowere
d the King's forces. Edward II, charged with incompetence a
nd breaking his coronation oath, was forced to resign, an
d on Jan. 29, 1327, Edward III, aged 15, was crowned king o
f England.
During the next four years Isabella and Mortimer governed i
n his name, though nominally his guardian was Henry, earl o
f Lancaster. In the summer of 1327 he took part in an abort
ive campaign against the Scots, which resulted in the Treat
y of Northampton (1328), making Scotland an independent rea
lm. Edward was deeply troubled by the settlement and signe
d it only after much persuasion by Isabella and Mortimer. H
e married Philippa at York on Jan. 24, 1328. Soon afterward
, Edward made a successful effort to throw off his degradin
g dependence on his mother and Mortimer. While a council wa
s being held at Nottingham, he entered the castle by night
, through a subterranean passage, took Mortimer prisoner, a
nd had him executed (November 1330). Edward had discreetl
y ignored his mother's liaison with Mortimer and treated he
r with every respect, but her political influence was at a
n end.
Edward III now began to rule as well as to reign. Young, ar
dent, and active, he sought to remake England into the powe
rful nation it had been under Edward I. He still resented t
he concession of independence made to Scotland by the Treat
y of Northampton; and the death of Robert I, the Bruce, kin
g of Scotland, in 1329 gave him a chance of retrieving hi
s position. The new king of Scots, his brother-in-law, Davi
d II, was a mere boy, and Edward took advantage of his weak
ness to aid the Scottish barons who had been exiled by Bruc
e to place their leader, Edward Balliol, on the Scottish th
rone. David II fled to France, but Balliol was despised a
s a puppet of the English king, and David returned in 1341.
During the 1330s England gradually drifted into a state o
f hostility with France, for which the most obvious reaso
n was the dispute over English rule in Gascony. Contributor
y causes were France's new king Philip VI's support of th
e Scots, Edward's alliance with the Flemish cities--then o
n bad terms with their French overlord--and the revival, i
n 1337, of Edward's claim, first made in 1328, to the Frenc
h crown. Edward twice attempted to invade France from the n
orth (1339, 1340), but the only result of his campaigns wa
s to reduce him to bankruptcy. In January 1340 he assumed t
he title of king of France. At first he may have done thi
s to gratify