Edward III king, but it served as one of his first tastes of a While the young Edward was now king, he was parliament willing to stand up to the absolute rule of really nothing more than a political pawn for his its monarch mother and Mortimer In order to gain French Edward was steadfast in his desire to expand military backing for an invasion, Isabella organised England’s hold over French territories Victories over an engagement to the 12 year-old Philippa of King Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy (as Hainault and soon Mortimer arrived on well as putting down a campaign by English soil with an army behind King David II of Scotland) rocked him Edward II stood down as king, Edward III is France, and it wasn’t until the with Mortimer ruling as the de one of only five Treaty of Brétigny that Edward facto leader while the young monarchs to have finally renounced his claim on Edward came of age Mortimer the French throne So dominant was monarch in all but name reigned for over 50 was England at this time that and his unpopularity grew as years – also including Edward claimed full sovereignty he gathered titles and lands for his great-grandfather over the lands he’d conquered himself The situation reached in France (which amounted to a head on 19 October 1330 when Henry III almost a third of the country) the young king and a group of his The decade of the 1350s saw most trusted allies entered Nottingham something of a boom in legislative activity Castle through an underground passage Edward’s frustration with the murkiness of England’s and arrested Mortimer Finally, the time for Edward’s judicial system was just the impetus he needed personal reign had begun to streamline the political landscape This was Edward’s rule started the way it would continue especially important in light of the Black Death, a for 50 years: at war His father had continued to bubonic plague which killed more than a third of the pay homage to the French king for most of his country’s population He initially attempted to deal reign, but all that was about to change As a man, with the shortages of labour with legislation that Edward was headstrong and direct; as a monarch, made work more palatable, but it wasn’t enough to this made him very dangerous indeed Edward settle the problem However, his removal of papal decided to make a claim for the French throne, benefices, his reformation of laws surrounding citing his blood connection to Philip IV The French treason and the increased power provided to the responded by rejecting the claim under Salic Law roaming justices of the peace had a profound effect (a manuscript from the Middle Ages that defined that echoed long after his death the foundations of French legislation, including the While the majority of Edward’s reign rules of succession) This butting of political was energetic and filled with military heads would form the origins of the conquests, the latter part of his rule Hundred Years’ War, a conflict that Upon his strayed into the opposite Bored would draw most of Europe into its death on 21 June by the machinations of domestic numerous battles kingship, the aging Edward relied While the conflict would 1377, Edward was more and more on his most ultimately go England’s way, succeeded not by prominently active children, funding a rebuilt navy and his son, but his tenEdward the Black Prince, Lionel constant military campaigns Duke of Clarence and John Duke placed considerable strain on year-old grandson of Lancaster In the hands of his England’s economy Edward Richard II sons, England lost a significant needed cash to keep pressing the amount of its lands in France, a fact French, but he found the coffers had that made them very unpopular with the almost run dry Edward would eventually English public Ironically, while he lived through gain the funding he needed, but it came at a price: most of these disasters until his death in 1377, in April 1341, Parliament drafted a new grant of Edward’s descent into obscurity only served to taxation, but in return Edward had to accept certain preserve the legacy of his earlier reign limitations on his spending Such rules irked the The Hundred Years’ War Despite its title, the Hundred Years’ War lasted far longer than a century – in fact, it lasted for another 76 years after Edward’s death in 1377 The conflict began with the breaking of a centuries-old agreement that began with William the Conqueror’s accession to the English throne As ruler, Edward held the Duchy of Normandy and the lands of Aquitaine, but these lands came with the stipulation that homage be paid to the French king When Edward refused to respect this deal, Philip VI of France declared war and the Houses of Plantagenet and Valois became embroiled in a brutal military struggle comprising a series of conflicts vk.com/englishlibrary Such was Edward’s impact and legacy on the kingdom that his tomb – and this bronze effigy – remains in Westminster Abbey Life in the time of the 50-year king Death, triumphant While Edward III did many things to put England back on the political map, nothing could have prepared the nation for the Black Death It ravaged Europe from 1346 to 1353, killing between 75 and 200 million people across the continent In England, the disease wiped out over a third of the population A new form of government During Edward’s reign, the English Parliament began to take a very familiar shape The institution became bicameral in nature, which meant that Parliament divided into two separate assemblies, the House of Lords and the House of Commons Such features as the role of speaker and Parliament’s ability to impeach were also introduced in this period Order of the Garter Edward had planned to introduce a setup similar to Arthur’s symbolic Round Table, but the idea soon fell through In its place, the English king established the Order of the Garter, an honorary cabal reserved only for the most chivalrous gentleman (and ladies) in the land New appointments are always announced on St George’s Day Laws of the land The substantial loss of population caused by the infamous Black Death caused a crisis within England’s economy, with a dramatic decrease in the supply of labour This resulted in the Statute Of Labourers 1351 being passed in order to suppress the workforce The new law prohibited increases in wages and the movement of workers from their home areas in search of better conditions Keeping the peace Justice of the peace – a role created during the time of Henry II – saw its most formative years under Edward III Justices were the eyes, ears and word of the king and these men travelled to the kingdom’s far corners to enact the law in his name Under Edward’s influence, justices could not only make arrests but also try suspects for felonies vk.com/bastau 47