Edouard III of England

Edouard III of England (November 13rd 1312, Castle of Windsor - June 21st 1377, palate of Sheen, Surrey), Count de Chester (1312), then King d' Angleterre starting from 1327, duke of Aquitaine, count de Ponthieu, was one of the largest monarchs of the British history.

Edouard was the son of the king Edouard II of England, weak king assassinated on order of his wife, Isabelle de France, and by the lover of this one, Lord Roger Mortimer de Wygmore. When the Edouard young person is eighteen years old, it takes its place with the head of the government and punishes the murderers of its father.

Its reign

The January 25th 1327, it is proclaimed king d' Angleterre after the deposition of his/her father by the Parlement. The February 2nd 1327, it is crowned in the Abbaye of Westminster to London by Walter Reynolds, archbishop of Canterbury. Remained under the supervision of his/her mother and the lover of this one, Roger Mortimer who became count of the Marche Wales and " guard of Angleterre" , it rebels in October 1330. It then makes stop its two tutors with the castle of Nottingham, imprisons his mother with the castle of Rising (Norfolk) and makes condemn by the Parliament, Roger Mortimer who is carried out by hanging on November 29th, 1330.

In 1336, it prohibits the export of English wools towards the Flanders (possession of the crown of France). This economic provocation of challenge of England to the France will be one of the major leading causes of the release of the Guerre One hundred Year old.

Taking for pretext which he does not want to deliver to him Robert d' Artois, declared enemy of the crown of France, the king of France, Philippe VI of Valois, confiscates the to him Duché of Aquitaine the May 24th 1337. In reaction, the October 7th 1337, Edouard III then takes solemnly the title of king de France and question the legitimacy of Philippe VI. He declares moreover, that as grandson of Philippe IV Beautiful the by his/her mother Isabelle, he will make very to recover the throne of the France which had been left without direct heir and had passed in 1328 to the branch of the Valois. To take advantage of its rights, it enters in armed conflict with France, it is the beginning of the Guerre One hundred Year old.

English victories

At the beginning of the Franco-English conflict, in 1339, his/her mother-in-law Jeanne de Valois receives it with the abbey of Fontenelle and tries to alleviate the spirits.

The June 24th 1340, it gains its first battles naval in the port of the Lock close to Bruges against the French fleet (twenty thousand French perish there). The August 26th 1346, it gains the Bataille of Crécy during which the organization of its army takes the top on the loads of the French knighthood, which crumbles under a rain of arrows stripped by the Welsh archers sheltered by a forest of piles.

Resistant French of the port of Calais goes to the English troops the August 4th 1347 after 11 months of seat.

It founds in 1348 it Very Noble Order of the Garter .

Edouard is a tactical genius, and its battles against the French, of which most known are the Bataille of Crécy and the battles of Poitiers, are worth a reputation of large soldier to him. On the other hand, it appears much less good strategist than Charles V. Indeed, Edouard proceeds by Chevauchée S, but does not concretize its conquests by the control of fortified towns (except notable for Calais). On the contrary, this war of plundering turns over the people against him. Whereas it holds the king of France since the battle of Poitiers and that France is devastated by the civil war (Jacqueries, Etienne Marcel, Charles the Bad) it imposes the treated of London with Jean the engrossing Good half of the French territory and a ransom of 4 million books.

Reverse and French tactic of the deserted ground

Skilfully, the young regent Charles (the future Charles V) convenes the General states which refuse to endorse the treaty, thus putting his captive father safe from représailles.
The treated of London would have definitively discredited Valois and would have probably started again the civil war and with the profit of Edouard. But, by convening the general states against this unacceptable treaty, the regent gathers the country against the English.

Edouard III then launches in 1359 a ride which must lead it to Rheims, the city of the sacring. But the regent opposes the strategy of the deserted Ground to him. He makes fold up the inhabitants of the campaigns in the cities with all their harvests and refuses any combat in ground discovered. The English army, badgered, famished, deprived with mountings (the horses died for lack of fodder), is finally decimated by a terrible storm of hail. At the same time, the port of Winchelsea is plundered by Norman sailors (March 1360) and this plundering sows panic in England. Edouard III re-embarks piteously, after having negotiated the release of Jean II against the equivalent of the old duchy of Aquitaine (Guyenne, Saintonge, the Limousin, Angoumois…) but while renonçant with the crown of France. This will be ratified by the Traité of Brétigny the May 8th 1360, then by the peace of Calais the October 24th, France agrees to pay the ransom of release of the king in England, that is to say three million ecus of gold.

Edouard III does not believe any more in the possibility of going up on the throne of France and, in 1361, it issues that the English language will be the official language to replace the French language of use since 1066, to consolidate its conquests. This too early decision, increases in Aquitaine the perception of the English like occupants of the conquered territories.

The Charles dolphin makes trail the payment of the ransom (suspended with died of Jean the Good in 1364) in order to oblige Edouard III to respect the truce. Charles V, now King de France, prepares the reconquest methodically, while being combined in particular with Owen, claiming with the principality of Wales, Knud IV of Denmark and while joining again with the Auld Alliance Scottish, it puts on its side of allied having all good reasons of in découdre with England. Charles uses the forces of the son of Edouard, the Prince Noir, in Castille where a fratricidal war makes rage between the two applicants, one anglophile and the other francophile one, with the throne of this country. By helping Henri de Trastamare to go up on the throne of Castille, Charles profits from a allied solid which has what France does not have yet: a frightening fleet. Two preceding kings de France, Philippe VI of Valois and Jean the Good being illustrated by their incompetence, Edouard III, who knows of Charles only the rumors on his fragile health and his physical weakness, mistakes the crippled sovereign openly:
- It is only one lawyer!
He will bite the fingers to have at this point underestimated new king de France.

In 1369, taken again hostilities: the Traité of Brétigny is called into question by Charles V, the pretext is the convocation of Prince Noir. Edouard III takes again the title of king de France on June 3rd, but sees his armies losing ground in front of the constable of France Bertrand of Guesclin. This one, trusty servant of Charles V who cannot (and does not want) not carry out the armies in person, refuses any confrontation in ground discovered and besieges the English fortresses which fall to one. The Castilian , combined of Charles V, inflict with the English fleet a severe defeat with La Rochelle, demolished which makes lose in Edouard III the control of the seas in 1372. The English, private of logistical support, are terribly weakened. Between 1369 and the year of its death, it loses little by little all the French territories acquired with the treaty of Brétigny; its rear-guard is beaten with Pontvallain by the troops of Bertrand of Guesclin, the town of Limoges is joined the king Charles V, it loses between 1371 and 1373 Poitou and Saintonge…

Edouard III, growing old and too sure of him, lost all his conquests in France vis-a-vis wise Charles V, and leaves England to his ten years old grandson, Richard II.
He is buried in the vault of Saint-Edouard in the Abbaye of Westminster to London.

Descent of Edouard III

In the cathedral of York on January 24th, 1328, he marries Philippa de Hainaut (1314-1369) girl of Guillaume de Hainaut, count of Holland and Zealand. They have 12 children:

Edouard de Woodstock, the Prince Noir (1330-1376), prince de Galles, who marries in 1361 Jeanne de Kent (1328-1385). They are the parents of Richard II, successor of Edouard III,
Isabelle (1332-1382),
Jeanne (1335-1348),
Guillaume (1337-1337),
Lionel of Antwerp (1338-1368) duke of Clarence, which marries in 1352 Elisabeth de Burgh (1332-1363), then remarie with Violating Visconti (? - 1389) in 1363,
Jean of Ghent (1340-1399) duke of Lancaster. In 1359 he marries Blanche of Lancaster (1345-1369). In 1371 it remarie with Constancy of Castille (? - 1394) girl of Pierre 1st king de Castille. In 1396 it remarie with Catherine Rœlt (1350-1403). Jean of Ghent will be the father of Henri IV king d' Angleterre,
Edmund de Langley (1341-1402) duke of York. In 1372 he marries Isabelle de Castille (1355-1393) girl of Pierre Ier king de Castille. In 1393, it remarie with Jeanne de Homland (? - 1434). Is Edmond de Langley at the origin of the House of York,
Blanche (1342-1342),
Marie (1344-1362),
Marguerite (1346-1361),
Guillaume (1348-1348),
Thomas de Woodstock (1355-1397) duke of Gloucester, which, in 1374, wife Eléonore de Bohun (? - 1399),

Edouard, prince de Galles, dies before his father. The heir to the kingdom is thus a child, Richard II, which is a difficult situation.

The Guerre of the Two-Pinks results from a fight between the heirs to two wire juniors by king Edouard: Jean of Ghent and Edmund de Langley duke of York.

Alice Perrers was the mistress of Edouard III of England.

See too

Edouard III of England, ascent on three degrees
Battle of the Spaniards on Sea

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