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Edward III was king of England for 50 years, man and boy. 1327-1377
He’s the seventh of 14 Plantagenet Kings who ruled from the mid 1100s to the late 1400s.
He’s known as one of the great Kings of the medieval era.
He’s also responsible for starting the Hundred Years War - 116 year long - between England and France - during which he won stunning victories at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers.
His son and heir - Edward the Black Prince - would die before he could succeed his father.
Instead, in a story that would later inspire William Shakespeare, two of his grandchildren would be crowned, one of them overthrowing the other - an act which would ultimately lead to the Wars of the Roses.
He’s here in our timeline of Kings and Queens, reigning around 650 years ago.
At the time of his birth in November 1312, his father King Edward II had sat on the throne for about five years and things were very going badly for him.
You can find out more in our previous video, but in a nutshell, Edward II humiliated himself on the battlefield - being roundly thrashed by the Scots at Bannockburn.
He also made powerful enemies among the English barons thanks to his possibly homosexual relationships with two noblemen.
His humiliated wife Queen Isabella ran off into the arms of one of the King’s rivals Roger Mortimer. With Mortimer’s help, the Queen raised an army, invaded England, deposed her husband and placed her son on the throne.
Edward III was just 14 when the crown was place on his head and for the first couple of years, Roger Mortimer acted like it was he that was in charge - not the king.
In 1331 when he was 19, Edward had had enough of Mortimer, overthrew him and had him executed.
15 апр 2023
