Edward III

Edward III
	Vianne - an English bastide in Gascony

Roger and Isabella

	At the age of fourteen, Edward III was crowned king in February 1327; Henry of Lancaster headed the Council of Regency appointed for his minority. However, it was Isabella and Roger who ruled the roost.
	Roger Mortimer became Earl of March in 1328 and set about enriching himself with just as much rapacity as the Despensers had displayed. Too greedy for personal gain to finance a war with Scotland, he and Isabella agreed to a "Shameful Peace" in the Treaty of Northampton (1328.)

This treaty also arranged the marriage of David (son of Robert the Bruce) with Joan (Edward III's younger sister.)

	Henry of Lancaster soon baulked at Mortimer's control, but prompt military action forced Henry to back down. Isabella and Roger also managed to entrap Edmund of Kent (son of Edward I by his second wife) into a foolish, seditious plot. They hurriedly executed him (March 1330.)
	Henry of Lancaster tried another approach - he allied with two members of the royal household (Richard Bury and William Montagu) to persuade Edward III that it was time he was master in his own house.

The restored gatehouse of Nottingham Castle

Mortimer and Isabella got wind of the machinations and locked themselves in Nottingham Castle, but Edward III (guided by Montagu) sneaked in through a secret passage, killed Mortimer's guards, and arrested him.

Mortimer was hanged, drawn and quartered (30 November 1330) and the vast wealth he had accumulated was seized by the crown. Isabella was confined (in considerable comfort) at Castle Rising, Norfolk.

Roger Mortimer "… a man who deposed Edward II and ruled in his stead for three years, who adulterously slept with the queen, who arranged the judicial murder of the king's uncle, the Earl of Kent, and who greedily gathered to himself vast estates throughout Britain and Ireland. …the extent to which he undermined the English monarchy is truly astounding. By the standards of his own time, which are the only ones by which a man can be judged, he was most certainly the greatest traitor of his age".

(Ian Mortimer, The Greatest Traitor)

Edward III

	Edward III was utterly unlike his father. An accomplished politician, resourceful soldier and tactician, and imaginative promoter of trade and commerce, he displayed all the qualities of leadership that his father had lacked.
	Edward III and his wife made their own personal contribution to England's overpopulation.

Edward III and the Hundred Years War

Scotland was not the only issue causing friction between England and France. England retained control of Gascony , which yielded large revenues, but the French crown was eager to assert its feudal overlordship in the duchy.

But in the early 1300s the French crown began to experience problems of its own. Matters came to a head when four kings died in rapid succession - none of them leaving male heirs.

The Valois and English claims to succession to the throne of France

When Louis X died in 1316, he left a daughter - Joan - but Philip V (his younger brother) succeeded in preference to her. The principle that a woman could not reign was reinforced in 1322 when, on his death, his younger brother Charles IV succeeded before Charles' daughters.

When Charles died the nearest heir was Edward III - son of Isabella - but the French asserted that "Salic Law" prohibited not only the succession of a woman to the crown but also the succession of a male heir whose claim was only through a female.

The nearest heir whose claim was based solely on male ancestors was Philip, Count of Valois. A council of barons agreed that he should become the next king and he was crowned 27 May 1328.

[The ruling dynasty of France was now known as the Valois dynasty and would last until the Bourbon dynasty began in 1589.]

Initially Edward III did not press his claims to the crown, and indeed did homage for Gascony. But when in May 1337 Philip VI declared his intention to seize Gascony, Edward retaliated by asserting his claim to the French throne (October 1337), and war began. Intermittent hostilities were to continue until 1453 in what became known as "The Hundred Years War."

France in the Hundred Years War

At first glance, it seemed that France must easily defeat England. France was perhaps two to four times as populous (its people numbered about 12,000,000 in 1330), and England's northern border was vulnerable to continued Scottish attacks.

But England did have tactical advantages. Its soldiers were trained and experienced in the Scottish wars, and English longbowmen displayed an expertise unrivalled in Europe.

The initial land campaigns launched by Edward III in 1339 and 1340 achieved little success - especially as his German allies soon deserted him.

Edward III did win an important naval victory at the Battle of Sluys (24 June 1340.)The English fleet of about 150 ships, led by Richard Fille on the Cog Thomas, attacked the French fleet while still at anchor. Both wind and tide were in the English ships' favor, and the French (abandoned by their Genoese allies) were unable to maneuver. The English - whose decks bristled with rapidly-firing bowmen - took or destroyed about 180 French ships.
The virtual destruction of the French fleet opened the Channel to English invasion.
[The picture on the English gold noble coin may be in commemoration of this victory.]

The French and English agreed to a temporary truce in the Treaty of Espléchin (September 1340.) Nevertheless, French attacks on Gascony continued and Edward III supported an anti-French candidate in a succession dispute in Brittany. Another truce was agreed (at Malestroit in January 1343,) but only to give both sides time to prepare for more war.

In July 1346, Edward III landed with an army of 15,000 men at St Vaast-de-la-Hogue (Houge) in Normandy.
(Just a few miles north of what would later be named Utah Beach - one of the D-Day invasion landing beaches.)

	Edward III plundered his way through Normandy, bridged the Seine and moved east settling at a strong defensive position on a low hill before the wood of Crécy-en-Ponthieu. There was no need for Philip VI to attack Edward's army, which was growing short of supplies.
	Philip wanted to defer battle at least until the next morning, when his forces would be rested and fully assembled, but his undisciplined and overconfident knights insisted on attack immediately; (it was about 4 pm.)

The Battle of Crecy 26 August 1346 Edward III divided his men into three groups - each group was made up of dismounted cavalry and archers. His eldest son, Prince Edward commanded the force on the right flank, the king himself the center and reserve, and William de Bohun, the 1st Earl of Northampton, the left flank.
Philip sent his Genoese crossbowmen to open the assault, but their range was shorter and rate of fire slower than that of the English longbowmen, who fired five to six arrows for every crossbow bolt. When the Genoese retreated the French knights rode them down as a "cowardly rabble" who "but blocked the advance."
With no co-ordination or concentration of forces, the French knights repeatedly charged the dismounted English cavalry. Decimated by longbow fire, the cavalry made no impact on the solid English line. Nightfall ended the slaughter - about 4,000 French soldiers, including about 1,500 French knights, died. Edward's army lost only a few score, and although outnumbered 3 to 1, Edward never needed to commit his reserve.

	Edward marched north and east and settled down to besiege Calais.
	Unable to act himself, Philip VI asked David II of Scotland for help, and in October 1346 David led a large Scottish army south against Durham. It was met by an English army under Lord Neville. The Scots army attacked over poor terrain (17 October 1346) and were cut down by English archers. The most disastrous outcome of this Battle of Neville's Cross (for Scotland) was the capture and lengthy imprisonment of David II. Scottish resistance continued, but was weakened.
	Calais finally surrendered to Edward III in August 1347. Edward filled it with English immigrants and it remained in English control until 1558.

Prince Edward and the Battle of Poitiers

The outbreak of the Black Death retarded military efforts for some years, but the English did not want peace. They could not conquer all France but they did launch punitive raids (called chevauchées) aimed at undermining enemy morale, seizing plunder for themselves, and destroying French infrastructure.

"In my youth the … English were taken to be the meekest of barbarians. Today they are a fiercely bellicose nation. They have overturned the ancient military glory of the French by their victories so numerous that they, who once were inferior to the wretched Scots, have reduced the entire kingdoms of France by fire and sword to such a state that I, who had traversed it lately on business, had to force myself to believe that it was the same country I had seen before. Outside the walls of the towns there was not one building left standing".

(Petrarch 1304 -1374)

It was while conducting such a raid in September 1356 that Edward III's son , Prince Edward (many years later named the Black Prince for his black armor) encountered a French army of about 16,000 men led by King John the Good.

Prince Edward had only about one third that number of troops, but unable or unwilling to retreat, he established a defensive position in the hedges of the slightly hilly countryside. Edward had only a few archers, but the French failed to use their superiority in crossbowmen and launched a precipitate cavalry attack.
The cavalry were thrown back by the English archers and English dismounted cavalry. Prince Edward then launched a surprise flank attack with a small force of cavalry and archers. Thrown into disorder, the French scattered. King John was captured and joined David II as a prisoner in London.

Edward could have regarded the capture of King John as an opportunity to seize the French crown; instead he used it as a means of extorting vast sums of money. In the Treaty of Brétigny (1360,) France agreed to English control of Gascony and other land in Aquitaine, and to Calais. They also promised to pay three million gold crowns in ransom (c. ₤500,000). In exchange, Edward II released King John and stopped calling himself King of France.

Warfare was resumed in Edward III's declining years but the successes were all French. By Edward's death only the area immediately around Calais and a small strip of Gascony's coast remained securely in English hands.