The new king was a mere boy, ten years of age! Thus his kingly talents were somewhat hard to gauge! Richard II Richard had been born in 1367 at Bordeaux, which was his father’s base when ravaging south-western France. Richard’s coronation on July 16th 1377 was a splendid affair which took place a month after …
All of Edward’s gains in France were made at enormous cost! Now, one by one, they were all eventually lost!’ King Edward III’s dream of becoming king of France had proved to be a costly delusion. His third surviving son, the mediocre John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, launched a blistering chevauchee from Brittany, towards Paris …
‘Poor King Edward becomes a doddering old fool! Such a sad end for one who considered himself born to rule! His consort dead, King Edward fell weeping into the arms of one, Alice Perrers, a woman eminently skilled in the dark arts of whoredom. Alice was wed at the age of twelve, and widowed at …
‘1357, a year for Edward which began so fine, in fact, almost divine! Then came the unfortunate years, which for the king marked a decline, so sad a decline!’ It was certainly ‘Happy New Year’ in January 1356. Edward was in the highly unusual, and greatly fortunate position of having two of his royal enemies …
Prince Edward, the Black Prince. Edward, King Edward III’s eldest son, was everything that a monarch could have hoped for in an heir to the throne. He had been born at Woodstock palace in Oxfordshire in June 1339. Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, birth place of the Black Prince. At the tender age of sixteen, he …
‘An Englishman’s home is his castle and Windsor was King Edward’s favoured abode! And when Edward entered its newly refurbished portals, he positively glowed! King Edward III looking suitably regal. After the horrendous year of 1348, Edward concentrated his enormous energies into turning his birthplace, Windsor Castle into a sumptuous palace. No expense was spared …
‘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 …