Notes
Note N2019
Index
Battle of Courtrai
A.K.A. Battle of the Golden Spurs,
(Kortrijk, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium - Modern day Belgium)
Notes
Note N2020
Index
Herleve Harlette Arlette de Falaise
Notes
Note N2021
Index
Edward, the Black Prince
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [2014-04-06]
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG (15 June 1330 - 8 June 1376) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainaut as well as father to King Richard II of England.
He was called Edward of Woodstock in his early life, after his birthplace, and since the 16th century has been popularly known as the Black Prince. He was an exceptional military leader, and his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348 he became the first Knight of the Garter, of whose Order he was one of the founders.
Edward died one year before his father, becoming the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England. The throne passed instead to his son Richard II, a minor, upon the death of Edward III.
Richard Barber comments that Edward "has attracted relatively little attention from serious historians, but figures largely in popular history."[1]
Edward, the Black Prince
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [2014-04-06]
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG (15 June 1330 - 8 June 1376) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England.
He was called Edward of Woodstock in his early life, after his birthplace, and since the 16th century has been popularly known as the Black Prince. He was an exceptional military leader, and his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348 he became the first Knight of the Garter, of whose Order he was one of the founders.
Edward died one year before his father, becoming the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England. The throne passed instead to his son Richard II, a minor, upon the death of Edward III.
Richard Barber comments that Edward "has attracted relatively little attention from serious historians, but figures largely in popular history."[1]
Notes
Note N2022
Index
Edward III of England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward III (13 November 1312 - 21 June 1377) was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislation and government - in particular the evolution of the English parliament - as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He remains one of only five monarchs to have ruled England or its successor kingdoms for more than fifty years.
Edward was crowned at the age of fourteen, following the deposition of his father. When he was only seventeen years old, he led a coup against the de facto ruler of the country, his mother's consort Roger Mortimer, and began his personal reign. After a successful campaign in Scotland in 1333, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1337,[1] starting what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. Following some initial setbacks, the war went exceptionally well for England; the victories of Crécy and Poitiers led to the highly favourable Treaty of Brétigny. Edward's later years, however, were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and bad health.
Edward III was a temperamental man, but also capable of unusual clemency. He was in many ways a conventional king, whose main interest was warfare. Admired in his own time and for centuries after, Edward was denounced as an irresponsible adventurer by later Whig historians such as William Stubbs. This view has been challenged recently, and modern historiography credits him with some significant achievements.[2]
Biography
[edit] Early life
Edward was born at Windsor Castle on 13 November 1312, and was often referred to as Edward of Windsor in his early years.[3] The reign of his father, Edward II, was a particularly problematic period of English history.[4] One source of contention was the king's inactivity, and repeated failure, in the ongoing war with Scotland.[5] Another controversial issue was the king's exclusive patronage of a small group of royal favourites.[6] The birth of a male heir in 1312 temporarily improved Edward II's position in relation to the baronial opposition.[7] To further bolster the independent prestige of the young prince, the king had him created Earl of Chester at only twelve days of age.[8]
In 1325, Edward II was faced with a demand from the French king, Charles IV, to perform homage for the English Duchy of Aquitaine.[9] Edward was reluctant to leave the country, as discontent was once again brewing domestically, particularly over his relationship with the favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger.[10] Instead, he had his son Edward created Earl of Aquitaine in his place and sent him to France to perform the homage.[11] The young Edward was accompanied by his mother Isabella, who was the sister of King Charles, and was meant to negotiate a peace treaty with the French.[12] While in France, however, Isabella conspired with the exiled Roger Mortimer to have the king deposed.[13] To build up diplomatic and military support for the venture, Isabella had Prince Edward engaged to the twelve-year-old Philippa of Hainaut.[14] An invasion of England was launched and Edward II's forces deserted him completely. The king was forced to relinquish the throne to his son, who was crowned as Edward III on 1 February 1327.[15]
It was not long before the new reign also met with other problems caused by the central position at court of Roger Mortimer, who was now the de facto ruler of England. Mortimer used his power to acquire noble estates and titles, and his unpopularity grew with the humiliation at Stanhope Park and the ensuing Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, signed with the Scots in 1328.[16] Also the young king came into conflict with his guardian. Mortimer knew his position in relation to the king was precarious and subjected Edward to disrespect and humiliation. The tension increased after Edward and Philippa, who had married on 24 January 1328, had a son on 15 June 1330.[17] Eventually, Edward decided to take direct action against Mortimer. Aided by his close companion William Montagu and a small number of other trusted men, Edward took Mortimer by surprise at Nottingham Castle on 19 October 1330. Mortimer was executed and Edward III’s personal reign began.[18]
[edit] Early reign
Edward III was not content with the peace agreement made in his name, but the renewal of the war with Scotland originated in private, rather than royal initiative. A group of English magnates known as The Disinherited, who had lost land in Scotland by the peace accord, staged an invasion of Scotland and won a great victory at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332.[19] They attempted to install Edward Balliol as king of Scotland in David II's place, but Balliol was soon expelled and was forced to seek the help of Edward III. The English king responded by laying siege to the important border town of Berwick and defeated a large relieving army at the Battle of Halidon Hill.[20] Edward reinstated Balliol on the throne and received a substantial amount of land in southern Scotland.[21] These victories proved hard to sustain, however, as forces loyal to David II gradually regained control of the country. In 1338, Edward was forced to agree to a truce with the Scots.[22]
One reason for the change of strategy towards Scotland was a growing concern for the relationship between England and France. As long as Scotland and France were in an alliance, the English were faced with the prospect of fighting a war on two fronts.[23] The French carried out raids on English coastal towns, leading to rumours in England of a full-scale French invasion.[22] In 1337, Philip VI confiscated the English king's duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Ponthieu. Instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict by paying homage to the French king, the way his father had done, Edward responded by laying claim to the French crown as the only living male heir of his maternal grandfather, Philip IV.[24] The French, however, invoked the Salic law of succession and rejected the claim. Instead, they pronounced Philip IV's nephew, Philip VI, the true heir, thereby setting the stage for the Hundred Years' War (see family tree below).[25] In the early stages of the war, Edward's strategy was to build alliances with other Continental princes. In 1338, Louis IV named Edward vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire and promised his support.[26] These measures, however, produced few results; the only major military victory in this phase of the war was the English naval victory at Sluys on 24 June 1340, which secured English control of the Channel.[27]
Meanwhile, the fiscal pressure on the kingdom caused by Edward's expensive alliances led to discontent at home. The regency council at home was frustrated by the mounting national debt, while the king and his commanders on the Continent were angered by the government in England's failure to provide sufficient funds.[28] To deal with the situation, Edward himself returned to England, arriving in London unannounced on 30 November 1340.[29] Finding the affairs of the realm in disorder, he purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges.[30] These measures did not bring domestic stability, however, and a stand-off ensued between the king and John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stratford claimed that Edward had violated the laws of the land by arresting royal officers.[31] A certain level of conciliation was reached at the parliament of April 1341. Here Edward was forced to accept severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation.[32] Yet in October the same year, the king repudiated this statute and Archbishop Stratford was politically ostracised. The extraordinary circumstances of the April parliament had forced the king into submission, but under normal circumstances the powers of the king in medieval England were virtually unlimited, a fact that Edward was able to exploit.[33]
[edit] Fortunes of war
By the early 1340s, it was clear that Edward's policy of alliances was too costly, and yielded too few results, to be continued. The following years saw more direct involvement by English armies, including in the Breton War of Succession, but these interventions also proved fruitless at first.[34] A major change came in July 1346, when Edward staged a major offensive, sailing for Normandy with a force of 15,000 men.[35] His army sacked the city of Caen, and marched across northern France, to meet up with English forces in Flanders. It was not Edward's initial intention to engage the French army, but at Crécy, just north of the Somme, he found favourable terrain and decided to fight an army led by Philip VI.[36] On 26 August, the English army defeated a far larger French army in the Battle of Crécy.[37] Shortly after this, on 17 October, an English army defeated and captured King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville's Cross.[38] With his northern borders secured, Edward felt free to continue his major offensive against France, laying siege to the town of Calais. The operation was the greatest English venture of the Hundred Years' War, involving an army of 35,000 men.[39] The siege started on 4 September 1346, and lasted until the town surrendered on 3 August 1347.[40]One reason for the change of strategy towards Scotland was a growing concern for the relationship between England and France. As long as Scotland and France were in an alliance, the English were faced with the prospect of fighting a war on two fronts.[23] The French carried out raids on English coastal towns, leading to rumours in England of a full-scale French invasion.[22] In 1337, Philip VI confiscated the English king's duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Ponthieu. Instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict by paying homage to the French king, the way his father had done, Edward responded by laying claim to the French crown as the only living male heir of his maternal grandfather, Philip IV.[24] The French, however, invoked the Salic law of succession and rejected the claim. Instead, they pronounced Philip IV's nephew, Philip VI, the true heir, thereby setting the stage for the Hundred Years' War (see family tree below).[25] In the early stages of the war, Edward's strategy was to build alliances with other Continental princes. In 1338, Louis IV named Edward vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire and promised his support.[26] These measures, however, produced few results; the only major military victory in this phase of the war was the English naval victory at Sluys on 24 June 1340, which secured English control of the Channel.[27]
Meanwhile, the fiscal pressure on the kingdom caused by Edward's expensive alliances led to discontent at home. The regency council at home was frustrated by the mounting national debt, while the king and his commanders on the Continent were angered by the government in England's failure to provide sufficient funds.[28] To deal with the situation, Edward himself returned to England, arriving in London unannounced on 30 November 1340.[29] Finding the affairs of the realm in disorder, he purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges.[30] These measures did not bring domestic stability, however, and a stand-off ensued between the king and John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stratford claimed that Edward had violated the laws of the land by arresting royal officers.[31] A certain level of conciliation was reached at the parliament of April 1341. Here Edward was forced to accept severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation.[32] Yet in October the same year, the king repudiated this statute and Archbishop Stratford was politically ostracised. The extraordinary circumstances of the April parliament had forced the king into submission, but under normal circumstances the powers of the king in medieval England were virtually unlimited, a fact that Edward was able to exploit.[33]
[edit] Fortunes of war
By the early 1340s, it was clear that Edward's policy of alliances was too costly, and yielded too few results, to be continued. The following years saw more direct involvement by English armies, including in the Breton War of Succession, but these interventions also proved fruitless at first.[34] A major change came in July 1346, when Edward staged a major offensive, sailing for Normandy with a force of 15,000 men.[35] His army sacked the city of Caen, and marched across northern France, to meet up with English forces in Flanders. It was not Edward's initial intention to engage the French army, but at Crécy, just north of the Somme, he found favourable terrain and decided to fight an army led by Philip VI.[36] On 26 August, the English army defeated a far larger French army in the Battle of Crécy.[37] Shortly after this, on 17 October, an English army defeated and captured King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville's Cross.[38] With his northern borders secured, Edward felt free to continue his major offensive against France, laying siege to the town of Calais. The operation was the greatest English venture of the Hundred Years' War, involving an army of 35,000 men.[39] The siege started on 4 September 1346, and lasted until the town surrendered on 3 August 1347.[40]
After the fall of Calais, factors outside of Edward's control forced him to wind down the war effort. In 1348, the Black Death struck England with full force, killing a third or more of the country's population.[41] This loss of manpower led to a shortage of farm labour, and a corresponding rise in wages. The great landowners struggled with the shortage of manpower and the resulting inflation in labour cost.[42] To curb the rise in wages, the king and parliament responded with the Ordinance of Labourers in 1349, followed by the Statute of Labourers in 1351. These attempts to regulate wages could not succeed in the long run, but in the short term they were enforced with great vigour.[43] All in all, the plague did not lead to a full-scale breakdown of government and society, and recovery was remarkably swift.[44] This was to a large extent thanks to the competent leadership of royal administrators such as Treasurer William de Shareshull and Chief Justice William Edington.[45]
It was not until the mid-1350s that military operations on the Continent were resumed on a large scale.[46] In 1356, Edward's oldest son, Edward, the Black Prince, won an important victory in the Battle of Poitiers. The greatly outnumbered English forces not only routed the French, but captured the French king, John II.[47] After a succession of victories, the English held great possessions in France, the French king was in English custody, and the French central government had almost totally collapsed.[48] There has been a historical debate as to whether Edward's claim to the French crown originally was genuine, or if it was simply a political ploy meant to put pressure on the French government.[49] Regardless of the original intent, the stated claim now seemed to be within reach. Yet a campaign in 1359, meant to complete the undertaking, was inconclusive.[50] In 1360, therefore, Edward accepted the Treaty of Brétigny, whereby he renounced his claims to the French throne, but secured his extended French possessions in full sovereignty.[51]
[edit] Later reign
While Edward's early reign had been energetic and successful, his later years were marked by inertia, military failure and political strife. The day-to-day affairs of the state had less appeal to Edward than military campaigning, so during the 1360s Edward increasingly relied on the help of his subordinates, in particular William Wykeham.[52] A relative upstart, Wykeham was made Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1363 and Chancellor in 1367, though due to political difficulties connected with his inexperience, the Parliament forced him to resign the chancellorship in 1371.[53] Compounding Edward's difficulties were the deaths of his most trusted men, some from the 1361-62 recurrence of the plague. William Montague, Earl of Salisbury, Edward's companion in the 1330 coup, died as early as 1344. William de Clinton, who had also been with the king at Nottingham, died in 1354. One of the earls created in 1337, William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, died in 1360, and the next year Henry of Grosmont, perhaps the greatest of Edward's captains, succumbed to what was probably plague.[54] Their deaths left the majority of the magnates younger and more naturally aligned to the princes than to the king himself.[55]
Increasingly, Edward began to rely on his sons for the leadership of military operations. The king's second son, Lionel of Antwerp, attempted to subdue by force the largely autonomous Anglo-Irish lords in Ireland. The venture failed, and the only lasting mark he left were the suppressive Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366.[56] In France, meanwhile, the decade following the Treaty of Brétigny was one of relative tranquillity, but on 8 April 1364 John II died in captivity in England, after unsuccessfully trying to raise his own ransom at home.[57] He was followed by the vigorous Charles V, who enlisted the help of the capable Constable Bertrand du Guesclin.[58] In 1369, the French war started anew, and Edward's younger son John of Gaunt was given the responsibility of a military campaign. The effort failed, and with the Treaty of Bruges in 1375, the great English possessions in France were reduced to only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne.[59]
Military failure abroad, and the associated fiscal pressure of constant campaigns, led to political discontent at home. The problems came to a head in the parliament of 1376, the so-called Good Parliament. The parliament was called to grant taxation, but the House of Commons took the opportunity to address specific grievances. In particular, criticism was directed at some of the king's closest advisors. Chamberlain William Latimer and Steward of the Household John Neville were dismissed from their positions.[60] Edward's mistress, Alice Perrers, who was seen to hold far too much power over the aging king, was banished from court.[61][62] Yet the real adversary of the Commons, supported by powerful men such as Wykeham and Edmund de Mortimer, Earl of March, was John of Gaunt. Both the king and the Black Prince were by this time incapacitated by illness, leaving Gaunt in virtual control of government.[63] Gaunt was forced to give in to the demands of parliament, but at its next convocation, in 1377, most of the achievements of the Good Parliament were reversed.[64]
Edward himself, however, did not have much to do with any of this; after around 1375 he played a limited role in the government of the realm. Around 29 September 1376 he fell ill with a large abscess. After a brief period of recovery in February 1377, the king died of a stroke at Sheen on 21 June.[65] He was succeeded by his ten-year-old grandson, King Richard II, son of the Black Prince, since the Black Prince himself had died on 8 June 1376.[66
Edward III of England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward III (13 November 1312 - 21 June 1377) was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislation and government - in particular the evolution of the English parliament - as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He remains one of only five monarchs to have ruled England or its successor kingdoms for more than fifty years.
Edward was crowned at the age of fourteen, following the deposition of his father. When he was only seventeen years old, he led a coup against the de facto ruler of the country, his mother's consort Roger Mortimer, and began his personal reign. After a successful campaign in Scotland in 1333, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1337,[1] starting what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. Following some initial setbacks, the war went exceptionally well for England; the victories of Crécy and Poitiers led to the highly favourable Treaty of Brétigny. Edward's later years, however, were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and bad health.
Edward III was a temperamental man, but also capable of unusual clemency. He was in many ways a conventional king, whose main interest was warfare. Admired in his own time and for centuries after, Edward was denounced as an irresponsible adventurer by later Whig historians such as William Stubbs. This view has been challenged recently, and modern historiography credits him with some significant achievements.[2]
Biography
[edit] Early life
Edward was born at Windsor Castle on 13 November 1312, and was often referred to as Edward of Windsor in his early years.[3] The reign of his father, Edward II, was a particularly problematic period of English history.[4] One source of contention was the king's inactivity, and repeated failure, in the ongoing war with Scotland.[5] Another controversial issue was the king's exclusive patronage of a small group of royal favourites.[6] The birth of a male heir in 1312 temporarily improved Edward II's position in relation to the baronial opposition.[7] To further bolster the independent prestige of the young prince, the king had him created Earl of Chester at only twelve days of age.[8]
In 1325, Edward II was faced with a demand from the French king, Charles IV, to perform homage for the English Duchy of Aquitaine.[9] Edward was reluctant to leave the country, as discontent was once again brewing domestically, particularly over his relationship with the favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger.[10] Instead, he had his son Edward created Earl of Aquitaine in his place and sent him to France to perform the homage.[11] The young Edward was accompanied by his mother Isabella, who was the sister of King Charles, and was meant to negotiate a peace treaty with the French.[12] While in France, however, Isabella conspired with the exiled Roger Mortimer to have the king deposed.[13] To build up diplomatic and military support for the venture, Isabella had Prince Edward engaged to the twelve-year-old Philippa of Hainault.[14] An invasion of England was launched and Edward II's forces deserted him completely. The king was forced to relinquish the throne to his son, who was crowned as Edward III on 1 February 1327.[15]
It was not long before the new reign also met with other problems caused by the central position at court of Roger Mortimer, who was now the de facto ruler of England. Mortimer used his power to acquire noble estates and titles, and his unpopularity grew with the humiliation at Stanhope Park and the ensuing Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, signed with the Scots in 1328.[16] Also the young king came into conflict with his guardian. Mortimer knew his position in relation to the king was precarious and subjected Edward to disrespect and humiliation. The tension increased after Edward and Philippa, who had married on 24 January 1328, had a son on 15 June 1330.[17] Eventually, Edward decided to take direct action against Mortimer. Aided by his close companion William Montagu and a small number of other trusted men, Edward took Mortimer by surprise at Nottingham Castle on 19 October 1330. Mortimer was executed and Edward III’s personal reign began.[18]
[edit] Early reign
Edward III was not content with the peace agreement made in his name, but the renewal of the war with Scotland originated in private, rather than royal initiative. A group of English magnates known as The Disinherited, who had lost land in Scotland by the peace accord, staged an invasion of Scotland and won a great victory at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332.[19] They attempted to install Edward Balliol as king of Scotland in David II's place, but Balliol was soon expelled and was forced to seek the help of Edward III. The English king responded by laying siege to the important border town of Berwick and defeated a large relieving army at the Battle of Halidon Hill.[20] Edward reinstated Balliol on the throne and received a substantial amount of land in southern Scotland.[21] These victories proved hard to sustain, however, as forces loyal to David II gradually regained control of the country. In 1338, Edward was forced to agree to a truce with the Scots.[22]
One reason for the change of strategy towards Scotland was a growing concern for the relationship between England and France. As long as Scotland and France were in an alliance, the English were faced with the prospect of fighting a war on two fronts.[23] The French carried out raids on English coastal towns, leading to rumours in England of a full-scale French invasion.[22] In 1337, Philip VI confiscated the English king's duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Ponthieu. Instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict by paying homage to the French king, the way his father had done, Edward responded by laying claim to the French crown as the only living male heir of his maternal grandfather, Philip IV.[24] The French, however, invoked the Salic law of succession and rejected the claim. Instead, they pronounced Philip IV's nephew, Philip VI, the true heir, thereby setting the stage for the Hundred Years' War (see family tree below).[25] In the early stages of the war, Edward's strategy was to build alliances with other Continental princes. In 1338, Louis IV named Edward vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire and promised his support.[26] These measures, however, produced few results; the only major military victory in this phase of the war was the English naval victory at Sluys on 24 June 1340, which secured English control of the Channel.[27]
Meanwhile, the fiscal pressure on the kingdom caused by Edward's expensive alliances led to discontent at home. The regency council at home was frustrated by the mounting national debt, while the king and his commanders on the Continent were angered by the government in England's failure to provide sufficient funds.[28] To deal with the situation, Edward himself returned to England, arriving in London unannounced on 30 November 1340.[29] Finding the affairs of the realm in disorder, he purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges.[30] These measures did not bring domestic stability, however, and a stand-off ensued between the king and John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stratford claimed that Edward had violated the laws of the land by arresting royal officers.[31] A certain level of conciliation was reached at the parliament of April 1341. Here Edward was forced to accept severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation.[32] Yet in October the same year, the king repudiated this statute and Archbishop Stratford was politically ostracised. The extraordinary circumstances of the April parliament had forced the king into submission, but under normal circumstances the powers of the king in medieval England were virtually unlimited, a fact that Edward was able to exploit.[33]
[edit] Fortunes of war
By the early 1340s, it was clear that Edward's policy of alliances was too costly, and yielded too few results, to be continued. The following years saw more direct involvement by English armies, including in the Breton War of Succession, but these interventions also proved fruitless at first.[34] A major change came in July 1346, when Edward staged a major offensive, sailing for Normandy with a force of 15,000 men.[35] His army sacked the city of Caen, and marched across northern France, to meet up with English forces in Flanders. It was not Edward's initial intention to engage the French army, but at Crécy, just north of the Somme, he found favourable terrain and decided to fight an army led by Philip VI.[36] On 26 August, the English army defeated a far larger French army in the Battle of Crécy.[37] Shortly after this, on 17 October, an English army defeated and captured King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville's Cross.[38] With his northern borders secured, Edward felt free to continue his major offensive against France, laying siege to the town of Calais. The operation was the greatest English venture of the Hundred Years' War, involving an army of 35,000 men.[39] The siege started on 4 September 1346, and lasted until the town surrendered on 3 August 1347.[40]One reason for the change of strategy towards Scotland was a growing concern for the relationship between England and France. As long as Scotland and France were in an alliance, the English were faced with the prospect of fighting a war on two fronts.[23] The French carried out raids on English coastal towns, leading to rumours in England of a full-scale French invasion.[22] In 1337, Philip VI confiscated the English king's duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Ponthieu. Instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict by paying homage to the French king, the way his father had done, Edward responded by laying claim to the French crown as the only living male heir of his maternal grandfather, Philip IV.[24] The French, however, invoked the Salic law of succession and rejected the claim. Instead, they pronounced Philip IV's nephew, Philip VI, the true heir, thereby setting the stage for the Hundred Years' War (see family tree below).[25] In the early stages of the war, Edward's strategy was to build alliances with other Continental princes. In 1338, Louis IV named Edward vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire and promised his support.[26] These measures, however, produced few results; the only major military victory in this phase of the war was the English naval victory at Sluys on 24 June 1340, which secured English control of the Channel.[27]
Meanwhile, the fiscal pressure on the kingdom caused by Edward's expensive alliances led to discontent at home. The regency council at home was frustrated by the mounting national debt, while the king and his commanders on the Continent were angered by the government in England's failure to provide sufficient funds.[28] To deal with the situation, Edward himself returned to England, arriving in London unannounced on 30 November 1340.[29] Finding the affairs of the realm in disorder, he purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges.[30] These measures did not bring domestic stability, however, and a stand-off ensued between the king and John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stratford claimed that Edward had violated the laws of the land by arresting royal officers.[31] A certain level of conciliation was reached at the parliament of April 1341. Here Edward was forced to accept severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation.[32] Yet in October the same year, the king repudiated this statute and Archbishop Stratford was politically ostracised. The extraordinary circumstances of the April parliament had forced the king into submission, but under normal circumstances the powers of the king in medieval England were virtually unlimited, a fact that Edward was able to exploit.[33]
[edit] Fortunes of war
By the early 1340s, it was clear that Edward's policy of alliances was too costly, and yielded too few results, to be continued. The following years saw more direct involvement by English armies, including in the Breton War of Succession, but these interventions also proved fruitless at first.[34] A major change came in July 1346, when Edward staged a major offensive, sailing for Normandy with a force of 15,000 men.[35] His army sacked the city of Caen, and marched across northern France, to meet up with English forces in Flanders. It was not Edward's initial intention to engage the French army, but at Crécy, just north of the Somme, he found favourable terrain and decided to fight an army led by Philip VI.[36] On 26 August, the English army defeated a far larger French army in the Battle of Crécy.[37] Shortly after this, on 17 October, an English army defeated and captured King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Neville's Cross.[38] With his northern borders secured, Edward felt free to continue his major offensive against France, laying siege to the town of Calais. The operation was the greatest English venture of the Hundred Years' War, involving an army of 35,000 men.[39] The siege started on 4 September 1346, and lasted until the town surrendered on 3 August 1347.[40]
After the fall of Calais, factors outside of Edward's control forced him to wind down the war effort. In 1348, the Black Death struck England with full force, killing a third or more of the country's population.[41] This loss of manpower led to a shortage of farm labour, and a corresponding rise in wages. The great landowners struggled with the shortage of manpower and the resulting inflation in labour cost.[42] To curb the rise in wages, the king and parliament responded with the Ordinance of Labourers in 1349, followed by the Statute of Labourers in 1351. These attempts to regulate wages could not succeed in the long run, but in the short term they were enforced with great vigour.[43] All in all, the plague did not lead to a full-scale breakdown of government and society, and recovery was remarkably swift.[44] This was to a large extent thanks to the competent leadership of royal administrators such as Treasurer William de Shareshull and Chief Justice William Edington.[45]
It was not until the mid-1350s that military operations on the Continent were resumed on a large scale.[46] In 1356, Edward's oldest son, Edward, the Black Prince, won an important victory in the Battle of Poitiers. The greatly outnumbered English forces not only routed the French, but captured the French king, John II.[47] After a succession of victories, the English held great possessions in France, the French king was in English custody, and the French central government had almost totally collapsed.[48] There has been a historical debate as to whether Edward's claim to the French crown originally was genuine, or if it was simply a political ploy meant to put pressure on the French government.[49] Regardless of the original intent, the stated claim now seemed to be within reach. Yet a campaign in 1359, meant to complete the undertaking, was inconclusive.[50] In 1360, therefore, Edward accepted the Treaty of Brétigny, whereby he renounced his claims to the French throne, but secured his extended French possessions in full sovereignty.[51]
[edit] Later reign
While Edward's early reign had been energetic and successful, his later years were marked by inertia, military failure and political strife. The day-to-day affairs of the state had less appeal to Edward than military campaigning, so during the 1360s Edward increasingly relied on the help of his subordinates, in particular William Wykeham.[52] A relative upstart, Wykeham was made Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1363 and Chancellor in 1367, though due to political difficulties connected with his inexperience, the Parliament forced him to resign the chancellorship in 1371.[53] Compounding Edward's difficulties were the deaths of his most trusted men, some from the 1361-62 recurrence of the plague. William Montague, Earl of Salisbury, Edward's companion in the 1330 coup, died as early as 1344. William de Clinton, who had also been with the king at Nottingham, died in 1354. One of the earls created in 1337, William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, died in 1360, and the next year Henry of Grosmont, perhaps the greatest of Edward's captains, succumbed to what was probably plague.[54] Their deaths left the majority of the magnates younger and more naturally aligned to the princes than to the king himself.[55]
Increasingly, Edward began to rely on his sons for the leadership of military operations. The king's second son, Lionel of Antwerp, attempted to subdue by force the largely autonomous Anglo-Irish lords in Ireland. The venture failed, and the only lasting mark he left were the suppressive Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366.[56] In France, meanwhile, the decade following the Treaty of Brétigny was one of relative tranquillity, but on 8 April 1364 John II died in captivity in England, after unsuccessfully trying to raise his own ransom at home.[57] He was followed by the vigorous Charles V, who enlisted the help of the capable Constable Bertrand du Guesclin.[58] In 1369, the French war started anew, and Edward's younger son John of Gaunt was given the responsibility of a military campaign. The effort failed, and with the Treaty of Bruges in 1375, the great English possessions in France were reduced to only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne.[59]
Military failure abroad, and the associated fiscal pressure of constant campaigns, led to political discontent at home. The problems came to a head in the parliament of 1376, the so-called Good Parliament. The parliament was called to grant taxation, but the House of Commons took the opportunity to address specific grievances. In particular, criticism was directed at some of the king's closest advisors. Chamberlain William Latimer and Steward of the Household John Neville were dismissed from their positions.[60] Edward's mistress, Alice Perrers, who was seen to hold far too much power over the aging king, was banished from court.[61][62] Yet the real adversary of the Commons, supported by powerful men such as Wykeham and Edmund de Mortimer, Earl of March, was John of Gaunt. Both the king and the Black Prince were by this time incapacitated by illness, leaving Gaunt in virtual control of government.[63] Gaunt was forced to give in to the demands of parliament, but at its next convocation, in 1377, most of the achievements of the Good Parliament were reversed.[64]
Edward himself, however, did not have much to do with any of this; after around 1375 he played a limited role in the government of the realm. Around 29 September 1376 he fell ill with a large abscess. After a brief period of recovery in February 1377, the king died of a stroke at Sheen on 21 June.[65] He was succeeded by his ten-year-old grandson, King Richard II, son of the Black Prince, since the Black Prince himself had died on 8 June 1376.[66