(1312-1377)
Edward III., King of England, the eldest son of Edward II. and of
Isabella, was born at Windsor, November 13, 1312. He was appointed
guardian of the kingdom, October 26, 1326, and received the crown
February 1, 1327. On January 24, 1328, he was married to Philippa,
daughter of the Count of Hainault. During his minority the government
of the kingdom was intrusted to a body of guardians with Henry of
Lancaster at their head, but was virtually usurped by Roger Mortimer,
until the king, irritated by his arrogance, caused him to be seized at
Nottingham on October 15, 1330, and conveyed to the Tower. He was
executed at Tyburn on November 29.
[Illustration: Edward III. of England. [TN]]
The overthrow of Mortimer made Edward, at the age of eighteen, a king
in fact as well as in name. In person he was graceful; and his face
was 'as the face of a god.' His manners were courtly and his voice
winning. He was strong and active, and loved hunting, hawking, the
practice of knightly exercises, and, above all, war itself.
Considerable care must have been spent on his education, for he
certainly spoke English as well as French, and evidently understood
German. He was fearless in battle, and, though over-fond of pleasure
was, until his later years, energetic in all his undertakings.
Although according to modern notions his ambition is to be reckoned a
grave defect in his character, it seemed in his day a kingly quality.
Nor were his wars undertaken without cause, or indeed, according to
the ideas of the time, without ample justification. His attempts to
bring Scotland under his power were at first merely a continuation of
an inherited policy that it would have been held shameful to
repudiate, and later were forced upon him by the alliance between that
country and France. And the French War was in the first instance
provoked by the aggressions of Philip, though Edward's assumption of
the title of King of France, a measure of political expediency,
rendered peace impossible. He was liberal in his gifts, magnificent in
his doings, profuse in his expenditure, and, though not boastful,
inordinately ostentatious. No sense of duty beyond what was then held
to become a knight influenced his conduct. Although the early glories
of his reign were greeted with applause, he never won the love of his
people; they groaned under the effects of his extravagance, and fled
at his coming lest his officers should seize their goods. His
commercial policy was enlightened, and has won him the title of the
"father of English commerce" but it was mainly inspired by selfish
motives, and he never scrupled to sacrifice the interests of the
English merchants, to obtain a supply of money or secure an ally. In
foreign politics he showed genius; his alliances were well devised and
skilfully obtained, but he seems to have expected more from his allies
than they were likely to do for him, for England still stood so far
apart from continental affairs, that her alliance was not of much
practical importance, except commercially. As a leader in war Edward
could order a battle and inspire his army with his own confidence, but
he could not plan a campaign; he was rash, and left too much to
chance. During the first part of his reign he paid much attention to
naval administration; he successfully asserted the maritime supremacy
of the country, and was entitled by parliament the "king of the sea;"
he neglected the navy in his later years. Little as the nation owed
him in other respects, his achievements by sea and land made the
English name respected.
It is said to have been chiefly through Mortimer's influence that, on
April 24, 1328, a peace was concluded between England and Scotland,
the chief provisions of which were that the Scots agreed to pay the
sum of L20,000, and that Edward agreed to recognize the independence
of the Scotch crown.
The treaty was very unpopular in England, and it is not surprising,
therefore, that, when Edward Baliol in 1332 made his attempt to mount
the Scotch throne, Edward III. gave him indirect assistance, and that
after Baliol's dethronement in 1333 an invasion of Scotland was
resolved on. On July 19 Edward defeated the Scots at the battle of
Halidon Hill. His army was in great danger, and was hemmed in by the
sea, the Tweed, the garrison of Berwick, and the Scottish host, which
far outnumbered the English. On the 20th he drew up his men in four
battles, placing his archers on the wings of each; all fought on foot,
and he himself in the van. The English archers began the fight; the
Scots fell in great numbers, and others fled, the rest charged up the
hill and engaged the enemy hand to hand. They were defeated with
tremendous loss; many nobles were slain, and it was commonly said in
England that the war was over, for that there was not a Scot left to
raise a force or lead it to battle. Edward ordered a general
thanksgiving for this victory. Receiving as the result of his victory
the submission of the principal Scotch nobles, he annexed the whole of
Scotland south of the Forth to his own crown, and allowed Baliol to
reign over the remainder as titular king. Soon after, Baliol was again
a fugitive, but was again aided by Edward to mount a nominal throne.
After a short period of peace Edward, in July, 1336, ravaged and
burned Scotland as far as Aberdeen, but growing complications with
France compelled him in the same year to return to England. Though he
professed to have a claim, through his mother, on the French throne
against Philip of Valois, that claim was left in abeyance until
several acts of aggression on the part of Philip brought about a
rupture between the two kings. The Count of Flanders, at Philip's
instigation, had broken off commercial relations with England; French
privateers were daily committing ravages on English commerce;
Aquitaine was continually threatened by desultory attacks; and Philip,
though he hesitated to accept the responsibility of being the first to
declare war, scarcely attempted to conceal his endeavors to throw that
responsibility on Edward. Edward sailed for Flanders July 16, 1338,
and at Coblentz held a conference with the Emperor Louis V., at which
the latter appointed him his vicar-general, and gave orders for all
the princes of the Low Countries to follow him in war for the space of
seven years. In 1339 Edward laid siege to Cambrai, but soon afterward
raised the siege and invaded France. Philip advanced to meet him, but
declined battle, and Edward concluded his first campaign without
achieving anything to compensate him for its cost.
In 1340 he defeated the French fleet before Sluys. The French fleet of
one hundred and ninety galleys and great barges was superior to his
in strength, for many of his ships were small. Nineteen of their ships
were the biggest that had ever been seen, and grandest of all was the
Christopher that had been taken from the English. Edward's fleet seems
to have been "to the leeward and westward" of the enemy, and about
noon he ordered his ships to sail on the starboard tack, so as to get
the wind which presumably was north-east, and avoid having the sun in
the faces of the archers. Then, having made their tack and got the
wind, his ships entered the port and engaged just inside it. The
French ships seem to have hugged the shore, and could not manoeuvre,
for they were lashed together in four lines. All in three of the lines
were taken or sunk, the Christopher and other English ships being
retaken; the fourth line escaped in the darkness, for the battle
lasted into the night. The king's victory was complete, and the naval
power of France was destroyed.
Shortly after his return to England a great tournament was held by him
at Windsor in memory of King Arthur. In 1346 he set sail on the
expedition which resulted in the great victory of Crecy[15] and the
capture of Calais. It was a strong place, and the inhabitants had done
much harm to the English and Flemings by their piracies. He built a
regular town before the walls, sent for a fleet to blockade the
harbor, and laid siege to the town with about thirty thousand men.
Meanwhile the Scots, who at Philip's instance had invaded England,
were routed at Neville's Cross, Durham, on October 17, and King David
was taken prisoner and confined in the Tower. In April some stores
were brought into Calais by sea, and after this Edward ordered a
stricter blockade; his fleet dispersed a convoy of forty-four ships
laden with provisions on June 25, and the next day a letter was
intercepted from the governor to the French king informing him of the
starving condition of the garrison, and asking for relief. Edward sent
the letter on to Philip, bidding him come to the relief of the town.
In July Philip led an army toward Calais. A portion of it sent to
dislodge the Flemings, who were acting with Edward at Quesnoy was
defeated. He appeared at Sangatte on the 27th. He was unable to get at
the English who were securely posted behind the marshes, and
challenged Edward to come out to battle. It is said that Edward
declared that he accepted the challenge; but it is probable that he
answered more wisely. Anyway, two days later, on August 2, the French
decamped. The next day the town surrendered at discretion. The
garrison came forth with swords reversed, and a deputation of the
townsmen with bare heads and ropes about their necks, prostrated
themselves before Edward, offering him the keys of the city. He at
first intended, or made as though he intended, to put the inhabitants
to the sword as a punishment for their piracies, but spared them at
the intercession of his queen. During the summer his army suffered
much sickness, arising from lack of good water. With some few
exceptions he banished the people of Calais; and sent over to England
offering grants and privileges to those who would colonize the town.
After agreeing to a truce for nine months, he returned home with his
wife and son, and after a stormy passage, landed at Sandwich on
October 12. All England was filled with the spoils of Edward's
expedition, so that there was not a woman who did not wear some
ornament, or have in her house fine linen or some goblet, part of the
booty the king sent home from Caen or brought back from Calais.
[Footnote 15: See Edward the Black Prince for this battle, as
also for the great sea-fight with the Spaniards.]
One more great sea-fight there was in 1349, when the Spanish fleet was
defeated, and now, indeed, the English were masters of the sea. From
this time Edward, as a warrior, retires somewhat into the background,
his place being taken by the Prince of Wales, who in 1356 won the
battle of Poitiers, and took King John prisoner. In 1359 Edward again
invaded France, and in 1360 he signed the peace of Bretigny, according
to which the French agreed to pay for King John a ransom of three
million crowns, and Edward renounced his title to the throne of
France, but retained his full sovereignty over the whole of the
ancient duchy of Aquitaine, the counties of Ponthieu and Guignes, and
the town of Calais. Peace was again broken in 1369 by Charles of
France, and when he concluded a truce with England in 1375 all of
France that remained in Edward's hands was Bayonne and Bordeaux in the
south, and Calais in the north. The last years of Edward's reign form
a sad and gloomy close to a career which had had a vigorous and
energetic commencement, and had afterward been rendered illustrious by
great achievements. His empire in France was virtually overthrown; the
vast expenditure which had had such a fruitless result was sorely
burdening his subjects, and awakening increasing discontent; and he
himself, through the gradual decay of his mental faculties, had become
a mere tool in the hands of Anne Travers, and of ministers whose only
aim was their own aggrandizement. In 1367 the "Good Parliament"
virtually seized the helm of the state from the hands of the king and
his ministers. The Black Prince was the chief agent in urging these
reforms, but his death, in the midst of the Parliament's
deliberations, for a time rendered almost abortive the good work he
had begun. Edward died June 21, 1377. Both in his home and foreign
relations he showed considerable prudence and sagacity, and he may be
allowed the merit of having endeavored as much as possible to keep on
good terms with his subjects. His expeditions were planned on a scale
of great magnificence, but he entered on his campaigns without any
definite aim, and his splendid victories were mere isolated
achievements, won partly by good fortune, but chiefly by the valor of
Welsh and Irish yeomen and the skill of English archers.
It has been observed, in regard to Edward III., by Sir James
Mackintosh, that "though his victories left few lasting acquisitions,
yet they surrounded the name of his country with a lustre which
produced strength and safety; which perhaps also gave a loftier tone
to the feelings of England, and a more vigorous activity to her
faculties."
[Illustration: Edward III. and the burghers of Calais.]
"During a reign of fifty years," it is added, "Edward III. issued
writs of summons, which are extant to this day, to assemble seventy
parliaments or great councils: he thus engaged the pride and passions
of the parliament and the people so deeply in support of his projects
of aggrandizement, that they became his zealous and enthusiastic
followers. His ambition was caught by the nation, and men of the
humblest station became proud of his brilliant victories. To form and
keep up this state of public temper was the mainspring of his domestic
administration, and satisfactorily explains the internal tranquillity
of England during the forty years of his effective reign. It was the
natural consequence of so long and watchful a pursuit of popularity
that most grievances were redressed as soon as felt, that
parliamentary authority was yearly strengthened by exercise, and that
the minds of the turbulent barons were exclusively turned toward a
share in their sovereign's glory. Quiet at home was partly the fruit
of fame abroad."