Edward III

Edward III (1312–77), king of England (1327–77), claimant to the French throne (1340–60 and 1369–77). Edward came to the throne in 1327 in unpropitious circumstances, with the government in the hands of his unscrupulous mother Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. His reign witnessed demographic disaster with the Black Death. It did not see major measures of legal reform, such as featured under Henry II or Edward I; concessions to Parliament on a range of issues weakened the theoretical position of the monarchy. Yet Edward must rank as one of the most successful English kings. His war with France saw the great victories of Crécy and Poitiers. The king of France and the king of Scots were both captured and held for huge ransoms. The Order of the Garter epitomized the glittering chivalric glamour of courtly and military circles. Political stability of a type unknown since the 1280s was achieved in the middle years of the reign.

Edward's first independent political action was in 1330, when he led the coup against his mother and Roger Mortimer at Nottingham. In 1333 he took a major gamble, supporting Edward Balliol's cause in Scotland, and reopening a war which had appeared concluded with the ‘shameful peace’ in 1328. No doubt Edward in part wished revenge after a disastrously unsuccessful campaign against the Scots in 1327. The battle of Halidon Hill in 1333 was a triumph, but succeeding campaigns achieved little, partly because of French support for the Scots. War with France began in 1337. In part this was similar to previous conflicts, with dispute over the English-held lands in Gascony and commercial rivalry in the Low Countries, but a new element was provided by Edward's claim, through his mother, to the French throne.

The French war dominated Edward's reign. It saw the great triumphs at Crécy in 1346 and Poitiers ten years later, but also the disappointment of the 1359 campaign, which Edward had hoped would culminate in his coronation at Rheims. Instead, it brought an unsatisfactory truce until 1369. The reopening of the war saw the advantage largely gained by the French. The gains may have been mixed with losses, but Edward showed himself to be a great commander. He took great care in the detailed planning of his campaigns, and clearly had the capacity of inspiring his men. He was also an opportunist; the war went through several phases of very different character as chance made new strategies possible. Realization that the initial policy of attacking from the north with the aid of a massive coalition of allies was expensive and ineffective led to intervention in the 1340s in Brittany, followed by the unexpected invasion of Normandy in 1346. How far Edward carefully planned the strategy which led to the great success at Crécy is a matter for debate, but it is clear that arrangements were made for additional supplies to be brought from England, and that a march northwards was always intended.

The war was extremely expensive. By 1339 the king was effectively bankrupt, as were his main creditors, Italian bankers and English merchants. Heavy taxation at home was extremely unpopular, particularly at a time of severe bullion shortage. Political crisis came in Parliament in 1340–1, with the king's former chief councillor and chancellor, John Stratford, leading opposition to the crown, opposition in which the Commons, unlike the lay nobility, were very active. Edward rolled with the punches; he accepted the new statutes imposed on him in Parliament, only to repeal them once Parliament had been dissolved. He showed himself throughout more ready to compromise with his critics than any of his predecessors on the throne. He was even ready to concede on the question of military service in 1352, readily abandoning innovative concepts of military obligation in the knowledge that he would have little difficulty in recruiting troops by means of contracts with the main commanders. Parliament's demands were also accepted in 1352 over the question of treason. In an attempt to impose order on a lawless society justices had used charges of treason for offences which, though serious, hardly merited such a sledgehammer. Edward willingly accepted a considerable narrowing of the definition of treason in the interests of political peace. His reign saw the triumph of the Commons in Parliament in a wide range of areas; their power to grant taxes meant that it was impossible to deny them a major voice in public affairs. The king had to abandon useful techniques of raising money by negotiating with merchants' assemblies as a result of the claim that the Commons alone should grant taxes and customs duties. By 1376 the power of the Commons was dramatically displayed in the Good Parliament, with the impeachment of Lord Latimer, the chamberlain, Richard Lyons, a rich London government financier, many royal officials, and even the king's own mistress, Alice Perrers. Yet, as in 1340–1, Edward knew that once Parliament was dissolved, it would be possible to regain the lost ground. He can be accused of making concessions on a scale that seriously weakened the crown in the long run; at the same time, his concessions achieved many years of political stability and domestic peace, a remarkable achievement following the disastrous reign of Edward II.

Edward was extremely successful in his dealings with his own family, and with the magnates. He was able to provide adequately for his sons, while the war enabled him to provide them with sufficient independent scope, so that he never faced the internal family problems that had beset Henry II. The eldest, Edward the Black Prince, received the duchy of Cornwall in 1337, and was later given command in Aquitaine; John of Gaunt received the major duchy of Lancaster in 1362; Ireland was intended to serve as Lionel of Clarence's sphere of activity. The two youngest sons, Edmund (York) and Thomas, were less well treated, but they were still young at the end of the reign, and did not present a political problem.

The creation of six new earldoms in 1337, four of them going to important members of the royal household, was a courageous move which could have aroused hostility from the established nobility. In practice, Edward's use of patronage was cleverly judged, and he was consistently able to rely on the support of the magnates in war and in politics. Edward skilfully manipulated the chivalrous feelings of his followers, patronizing tournaments and founding the Order of the Garter. He did not attempt to curb the authority of his nobles as Edward I had done, and though it can be argued that the crown's control over them was in theory diminished, in practice the results of royal policy prove the wisdom of the king's approach.

Michael Prestwich

Bibliography

Ormrod, W. M. , The Reign of Edward III (1990);
Waugh, S. L. , England in the Reign of Edward III (Cambridge, 1991).