Edward III

b. 1312; d. 1377

King of England, son of Edward II, crowned in 1327. In 1328 he married Philippa of Hainault. During the early years of his reign his mother, Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer retained the real power, until in 1330 he had Mortimer executed and his mother withdrew into retirement. He then made peace with France in order to turn his attention to Scotland, where in the early years of his reign (1330-36) he fought three campaigns, in which he defeated the Scots (notably at Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333) and forced Edward de Baliol to do homage to him. After each campaign, however, the Scots rallied, and Edward's attacks on Scotland were stopped by the outbreak of war with France.

His formal claim to the throne of France in right of his mother was largely an excuse to start a war which Edward and the nobility both wanted. It was in part a commercial war, fought by Edward because he desired to retain the Flemish woollen trade, but probably his basic desires were to increase his territorial power and national and international prestige, and to gain personal glory. It was the zenith of the 'age of chivalry' with all it elaborate ceremonial and formal courtesies, and after the ineffectuality of Edward II's reign both the King and nobles fretted to display their personal powers in the field and reap large spoils from the traditional enemy, France, whose weakness was an invitation for invasion.

The war opened with the battle of Sluys (1340), a naval victory for England. In 1346 the battle of Crécy resulted in the overthrow of the French army, and the vindication of the tactics of the English archers. In the following year Calais fell into the hands of the English, and in the previous year the battle of Neville's Cross had delivered David, King of Scotland, a prisoner to the English Queen.

The Black Death in England in 1349 put an end to the war for some time, and resulted also in the changing of the labour market in England. The relationship between the lords of the manor and the inhabitants altered, and although the Statute of Labourers purported to fix wages, its provisions were found to be unworkable. In 1355 war was renewed, and Edward the Black Prince won a great victory at Poitiers. The French king, John, became a prisoner and was taken to England. In 1360 the Treaty of Bretigny was signed, and Edward gave up his pretensions to the French throne and received Aquitaine, Poitou, and the town of Calais as a sovereign prince. The Scottish king had been released in 1357 on the payment of ransom, and the French king in 1360. The latter, however, finding it impossible to raise the ransom, returned to England, and died there a prisoner in 1364. War again broke out in 1369, and dragged on unsuccessfully until 1377, when Edward died. His son, the Black Prince, had predeceased him.

The latter years of Edward's reign had been years of decadence, and most of the troubles of Richard II had their origins in his grandfather's actions - or inaction. Edward had fallen under the influence of Alice Perrers, his mistress, and power had passed largely into the hands of John, Duke of Gloucester, and his brothers. But the earlier years of his reign had been distinguished by great commercial expansion; while the Statute of Praemunire (1353) marked a further step forward in the efforts of the sovereign to establish the supreme jurisdiction of his courts (directed, on this occasion, against papal interference). Edward's reign is important also in the history of constitutional progress. Although the enthusiasm aroused by the French war sometimes enabled the King to levy illegal taxes, his parliament succeeded in placing important restrictions on the royal power, as, for example, when the King declared in 1352 that the levy of tallage should cease, and again when the prerogative of purveyance was abolished in 1362 except for the personal needs of the King and Queen. Parliament also exerted its control over customs such as tunnage and poundage by the statutes of 1362 and 1371, which enacted that neither merchants nor any other body should impose subsidy or charge on wool without parliamentary consent. In judicial matters, two important privileges were successfully obtained: the Commons asserted their right to impeach the ministers of the Crown (1376), and the Lords confirmed their right to trial by peers alone.

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