EDWARD III. A.D. 1327--1377.
For about three years, the cruel Queen Isabel and her friends managed
all the country; but as soon as her son--Edward III., who had been
crowned instead of his father--understood how wicked she had been, and
was strong enough to deal with her party, he made them prisoners, put
the worst of them to death, and kept the queen shut up in a castle
as long as she lived. He had a very good queen of his own, named
Phillipa, who brought cloth-workers over from he own country Hainault
(now part of Belgium), to teach the English their trade, and thus
began to render England the chief country in the world for wool and
cloth.
Queen Isabel, Edward's mother, had, you remember, been daughter of
the King of France. All her three brothers died without leaving a
son, and their cousin, whose name was Philip, began to reign in their
stead. Edward, however, fancied that the crown of France properly
belonged to him, in right of his mother; but he did not stir about it
at once, and, perhaps, never would have done so at all, but for two
things. One was, that the King of France, Philip VI., had been so
foolish as to fancy that one of his lords, named Robert of Artois,
had been bewitching him--by sticking pins into a wax figure and
roasting it before the fire. So this Robert was driven out of France
and, coming to England, stirred Edward up to go and overthrow Philip.
The other was, that the English barons had grown so restless and
troublesome, that they would not stay peacefully at home and mind
their own estate;--but if they had not wars abroad, they always gave
the king trouble at home; and Edward liked better that they should
fight for him than against him. So he called himself King of France
and England, and began a war which lasted--with short space of quiet--
for full one hundred years, and only ended in the time of the great
grandchildren of the men who entered upon it. There was one great
sea-fight off Sluys, when the king sat in his ship, in a black velvet
dress, and gained a great victory; but it was a good while before
there was any great battle by land--so long, that the king's eldest
son, Edward Prince of Wales, was sixteen years old. He is generally
called the Black Prince--no one quite knows why, for his hair, like
that of all these old English kings, was quite light and his eyes were
blue. He was such a spirited young soldier, that when the French army
under King Philip came in sight of the English one, near the village
of Crecy, King Edward said he should have the honor of the day, and
stood under a windmill on a his watching the fight, while the prince
led the English army. He gained a very great victory, and in the
evening came and knelt before his father, saying the praise was not
his own but the king's, who had ordered all so wisely. Afterwards,
while Philip had fled away, Edward besieged Calais, the town just
opposite to Dover. The inhabitants were very brave, and held out for
a long time; and while Edward was absent, the Scots under David, the
son of Robert Bruce, came over the Border, and began to burn and
plunder in Northumberland. However, Phillipa could be brave in time
of need. She did not send for her husband, but called an army
together, and the Scots were so well beaten at Neville's Cross, that
their king, David himself, was obliged to give himself up to an
English squire. The man would not let the queen have his prisoner,
but rode day and night to Dover, and then crossed to Calais to tell
the king, who bade him put King David into Queen Philippa's keeping.
She came herself to the camp, just as the brave men of Calais had
been starved out; and Edward had said he would only consent not to
burn the town down, if six of the chief townsmen would bring him the
keys of the gates, kneeling, with sackcloth on, and halters round
their necks, ready to be hung. Queen Philippa wept when she saw them,
and begged that they might be spared; and when the king granted them
to her she had them led away, and gave each a good dinner and a fresh
suit of clothes. The king, however, turned all the French people out
of Calais, and filled it with English, and it remained quite an
English town for more than 200 years.
King Philip VI. of France died, and his son John became king, while
still the war went on. The Black Prince and John had a terrible
battle at a place called Poitiers, and the English gained another
victory. King John and one of his sons were made prisoners, but when
they were brought to the tent where the Black Prince was to sup, he
made them sit down at the table before him, and waited on them as if
they had been his guests instead of his prisoners. He did all he
could to prevent captivity being a pain to them; and when he brought
them to London, he gave John a tall white horse to ride, and only
rode a small pony himself by his side. There were two kings prisoners
in the Tower of London, and they were treated as if they were visitors
and friends. John was allowed to go home, provided he would pay a
ransom by degrees, as he could get the money together; and, in the
meantime, his two elder sons were to be kept at Calais in his stead.
But they would not stay at Calais, and King John could not obtain the
sum for his ransom; so, rather than cheat King Edward, he went back to
his prison in England again. He died soon after; and his son Charles
was a cleverer and wiser man, who knew it was better not to fight
battles with the English, but made a truce, or short peace.
Prince Edward governed that part of the south of France that belonged
to his father; but he went on a foolish expedition into Spain, to help
a very bad king whom his subjects had driven out, and there caught an
illness from which he never quite recovered. While he was ill King
Charles began the war again; and, though there was no battle, he
tormented the English, and took the castles and towns they held. The
Black Prince tried to fight, but he was too weak and ill to do much,
and was obliged to go home, and leave the government to his brother
John, Duke of Lancaster. He lived about six years after he came home,
and then died, to the great sorrow of everyone. His father, King
Edward, was now too old and feeble to attend to the affairs of the
country. Queen Philippa was dead too, and as no one took proper care
of the poor old king, he fell into the hands of bad servants, who made
themselves rich and neglected him. When, at length, he lay dying,
they stole the ring off his finger before he had breathed his last,
and left him all alone, with the doors open, till a priest came by,
and stayed and prayed by him till his last moment. He had reigned
exactly fifty years. You had better learn and remember the names of
his sons, as you will hear more about some of them. They were Edward,
Lionel, John, Edmund, and Thomas. Edward was Prince of Wales; Lionel,
Duke of Clarence; John, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund, Duke of York; and
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. Edward and Lionel both died before
their father. Edward had left a son named Richard; Lionel had left
a daughter named Philippa.