‘The sickness has dealt our people a terrible blow! Its horrible effects have caused nothing but sorrow and woe! Is it a punishment from God for our sins? Well, the Bible states that you will reap what you sow!’ Was divine intervention the reason for the Black Death? Whatever the cause, the effects of the …
Edward arrived back in England in October 1347 to national acclaim at his triumph in France. The medieval media which took the form of the priest in his pulpit and the town crier standing at the market cross regaled the people with tales of the king’s staggering military victories over the French. Even those who …
As he surveyed the battlefield at Crecy with its thousands of French corpses, Edward would have said: ‘How sweet it is! Oh how so very sweet! To watch Philip’s army beat such a hasty retreat!’ An English commander realising that the king was not in his tent asked a servant: ‘Perchance, where art his majesty? …
‘On his arrival back home! Edward falls out with the man who sits under Canterbury Cathedral’s great dome!’ However delicious Edward’s victory at Sluys may have tasted, trouble lay ahead. The war with Philip had left him heavily in debt. In a furious frame of mind, the king blamed his chief advisers, especially the Archbishop …
‘So tis to war we must now both go! You know King Phil, I’d much rather have you as a friend than a foe!’ The war that would last for so long was actually rather slow in coming about. In January 1340, Edward had infuriated Philip by rather cheekily adopting for himself the title, King …
‘A victorious military monarch, his age but twenty! Is there more to come? Yes, much more! Oh yes, plenty!’ King Edward III. After his victory at Halidon Hill in that glorious summer of 1333, King Edward left Balliol in Scotland to quell any further Scottish resistance and travelled south in triumph. The king now turned …
‘I believe myself cast in the mould of my grandfather, the illustrious Edward I! For military glory of his like, I have an unquenchable thirst!’ Edward III was committed to finishing the work that his grandfather, Edward I had begun in Scotland. Edward was resolved to ‘putting things right.’ Edward III makes a statement of …
With Mortimer now dead and his mother in comfortable but confined seclusion at Windsor, Edward, aged eighteen, was able to begin his reign. Edward was tall and possessed a strong physique, he had fine facial features and a head of long fair hair. He looked every inch the successful king that he aspired to be. …
The fourteen year old Prince Edward, Edward of Windsor as he was known, had been crowned king in February 1327 at Westminster. Of course, the real power lay with his mother Queen Isabella’s paramour, Roger Mortimer. However, he used his power to ill-effect. Mortimer’s first major gaffe was a poorly executed invasion of Scotland, ending …
King Edward was expecting an invasion and sent his ships out to sea in order to intercept Isabella’s convoy. But Isabella and Mortimer managed to avoid any of Edward’s ships, and landed in Suffolk on September 24th 1326. On the face of it, Isabella’s chances of unseating an incumbent king with her small force appeared …