General Notes

"Edward III, of Windsor"

Reign 1327-77

Edward III (1327-1377 AD)

Born: 13th November 1312 at Windsor Castle, Berkshire

Died: 21st June 1377 at Sheen Palace, Richmond, Surrey

Buried: Westminster Abbey, Middlesex

Parents: Edward II and Isabella of France

Siblings: John, Eleanor & Joan

Crowned: 1st February 1327 at Westminster Abbey, Middlesex

Married: 24th January 1328 at York Minster, Yorkshire

Spouse: Philippa daughter of William V, Count of Hainault & Holland

Offspring: Edward, the Black Prince; Isabella; Joan; William of Hatfield;Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster;Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; Blanche; Mary; Margaret; William ofWindsor; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; (Illegitimate) atleast three by Alice Perrers

Contemporaries: Edward Balliol, David II (King of Scotland, 1339-1371);Roger Mortimer; Alice Perrers; John Wycliff
The fifty-year reign of Edward III was a dichotomy in Englishdevelopment. Governmental reforms affirmed the power of the emergingmiddle class in Parliament while placing the power of the nobility intothe hands a few. Chivalric code reached an apex in English society butonly masked the greed and ambition of Edward and his barons. Socialconditions were equally ambiguous: the export of raw wool (and later, thewool cloth industry) prospered and spread wealth across the nation butwas offset by the devastation wrought by the Black Death. Early successin war ultimately failed to produce lasting results. Edward proved a mostcapable king in a time of great evolution in England.

Edward's youth was spent in his mother's court and he was crowned at agefourteen after his father was deposed. After three years of domination byhis mother and her lover, Roger Mortimer, Edward instigated a palacerevolt in 1330 and assumed control of the government. Mortimer wasexecuted and Isabella was exiled from court. Edward was married toPhilippa of Hainault in 1328 and the union produced many children; the75% survival rate of their children - nine out of twelve lived throughadulthood - was incredible considering conditions of the day.

War occupied the largest part of Edward's reign. He and Edward Balioldefeated David II of Scotland and drove David into exile in 1333. Frenchcooperation with the Scots, French aggression in Gascony, and Edward'sclaim to the disputed throne of France (through his mother, Isabella) ledto the first phase of the Hundred Years' war. The naval battle of Sluys(1340) gave England control of the Channel, and battles at Crecy (1346)and Calais (1347) established English supremacy on land. Hostilitiesceased in the aftermath of the Black Death but war flared up again withan English invasion of France in 1355. Edward, the Black Prince andeldest son of Edward III, trounced the French cavalry at Poitiers (1356)and captured the French King John. In 1359, the Black Prince encircledParis with his army and the defeated French negotiated for peace. TheTreaty of Bretigny in 1360 ceded huge areas of northern and westernFrance to English sovereignty. Hostilities arose again in 1369 as Englisharmies under the king's third son, John of Gaunt, invaded France. Englishmilitary strength, weakened considerably after the plague, gradually lostso much ground that by 1375, Edward agreed to the Treaty of Bruges,leaving only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne inEnglish hands.

The nature of English society transformed greatly during Edward's reign.Edward learned from the mistakes of his father and affected more cordialrelations with the nobility than any previous monarch. Feudalismdissipated as mercantilism emerged: the nobility changed from a largebody with relatively small holdings to a small body that held great landsand wealth. Mercenary troops replaced feudal obligations as the means ofgathering armies. Taxation of exports and commerce overtook land-basedtaxes as the primary form of financing government (and war). Wealth wasaccrued by merchants as they and other middle class subjects appearedregularly for parliamentary sessions. Parliament formally divided intotwo houses - the upper representing the nobility and high clergy with thelower representing the middle classes - and met regularly to financeEdward's wars and pass statutes. Treason was defined by statute for thefirst time (1352), the office of Justice of the Peace was created to aidsheriffs (1361), and English replaced French as the national language(1362).

Despite the king's early successes and England's general prosperity, muchremained amiss in the realm. Edward and his nobles touted romanticchivalry as their credo while plundering a devastated France; chivalryemphasized the glory of war while reality stressed its costs. Theinfluence of the Church decreased but John Wycliff spearheaded anecclesiastical reform movement that challenged church exploitation byboth the king and the pope. During 1348-1350, bubonic plague (the BlackDeath) ravaged the populations of Europe by as much as a fifty per cent.The flowering English economy was struck hard by the ensuing rise inprices and wages. The failed military excursions of John of Gaunt intoFrance caused excessive taxation and eroded Edward's popular support.

The last years of Edward's reign mirrored the first, in that a womanagain dominated him. Philippa died in 1369 and Edward took theunscrupulous Alice Perrers as his mistress. With Edward in his dotage andthe Black Prince ill, Perrers and William Latimer (the chamberlain of thehousehold) dominated the court with the support of John of Gaunt. Edward,the Black Prince, died in 1376 and the old king spent the last year ofhis life grieving. Rafael Holinshed, in Chronicles of England, suggestedthat Edward believed the death of his son was a punishment for usurpinghis father's crown: "But finally the thing that most grieved him, was theloss of that most noble gentleman, his dear son Prince Edward . . . Butthis and other mishaps that chanced to him now in his old years mightseem to come to pass for a revenge of his disobedience showed to his inusurping against him. . ."