5 Facts About King Edward III: The Life of a Monarch

Written by Simon Williams

King Edward III ruled England for 50 years, winning stunning victories at Crécy and Poitiers, founding the Order of the Garter, and laying the groundwork for the Hundred Years War. His long reign transformed English military culture and left a dynasty that would tear itself apart in the Wars of the Roses.

Key Facts

• Reign: 1327 to 1377
• Born: 13 November 1312, Windsor Castle
• Parents: Edward II and Isabella of France
• Key achievements: Founded the Order of the Garter, claimed the French throne, won Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), presided over the Black Death
• Died: 21 June 1377, Sheen Palace, aged 64

Edward III is one of those monarchs who deserves more attention than he usually gets. He ruled for fifty years, which is long enough to shape the culture of a nation. He won two of the most celebrated military victories of the medieval era, at Crécy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356, the latter fought by his son while he was still alive to see it. He founded the Order of the Garter, one of the oldest and most prestigious chivalric orders in the world. He presided over the Black Death. He started a war that would last a hundred years.

Here are five things that define his reign.

1. Edward III Began His Reign by Overthrowing His Mother's Regime

Edward III came to the throne at fourteen, after his mother Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer had deposed and almost certainly arranged the murder of his father Edward II. The early years of his reign were effectively ruled by Isabella and Mortimer, who accumulated power and wealth at a rate that reminded the English baronage uncomfortably of the hated Despensers.

In October 1330, Edward acted. He was eighteen years old. He led a small group of loyal men through a secret passage into Nottingham Castle, where Mortimer was staying, and had him arrested. Mortimer was taken to London, tried in Parliament, and executed at Tyburn in November 1330. Isabella was treated with relative leniency: she was removed from political life and her estates were reduced, but she was not prosecuted. She lived for another twenty-eight years.

The coup was swift, decisive, and clean. It announced the kind of king Edward intended to be: one who acted when the moment was right and did not hesitate when action was required. The contrast with his father could not have been more complete.

2. Edward III Claimed the French Throne and Started the Hundred Years War

In 1337, Edward III formally claimed the throne of France. His claim ran through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France. When the last Capetian king died without male heirs in 1328, Edward had a better hereditary claim to the French throne than the Valois king Philip VI who actually took it.

The claim was legally complex and practically contested: French succession law had traditionally excluded female lines, though this rule had not been formally codified. Philip VI was already king and had no intention of giving up his crown.

What followed was the beginning of the Hundred Years War, a conflict that would outlast Edward III, his son the Black Prince, and his grandson Richard II, and continue through the reigns of Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI before finally ending in 1453 with the English expelled from France entirely.

Edward himself had considerable military success. His victory at Crécy in 1346 demonstrated the devastating effectiveness of the English longbow against mounted cavalry. His subsequent capture of Calais gave England a foothold on the French coast that would be held until 1558. His son Edward, the Black Prince, won a spectacular victory at Poitiers in 1356 and captured the French king John II, who was brought to London and held for ransom.

3. The Black Death Struck During Edward's Reign

In 1348, the plague arrived in England. The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis carried by fleas on rats, killed somewhere between a third and half of England's population in its first wave, and returned in further outbreaks throughout the rest of the century.

Edward's response was limited by the fact that no one understood what was causing the epidemic or how to stop it. He attempted to maintain government, to keep courts functioning and administration running. His daughter Joan died of plague in Bordeaux in 1348 while travelling to marry a Castilian prince.

The long-term consequences of the Black Death were transformative in ways that no one in Edward's reign could have predicted. The labour shortage that followed the initial epidemic gradually undermined the feudal system: serfs who survived found themselves in a stronger bargaining position and began demanding wages rather than accepting the traditional obligations of villein tenure. The social upheaval that Edward III managed to contain during his reign would explode into the Peasants' Revolt under his grandson Richard II in 1381, four years after Edward's death.

4. Edward III Founded the Order of the Garter

In 1348, the same year the plague arrived, Edward III founded the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in England and one of the oldest in Europe. The order consisted of the king, the Prince of Wales, and twenty-four knights, chosen for their military prowess and courtly qualities. Its motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, shame on him who thinks evil of this, is still used today.

The founding legend holds that at a court ball, either the Countess of Salisbury or another noble lady dropped her garter. Edward picked it up and tied it around his own leg, silencing those who laughed with the words that became the motto. Whether the story is true is uncertain. What is certain is that the order was a deliberate piece of image management, evoking the Arthurian tradition of the Round Table and associating Edward's court with the ideals of chivalric brotherhood.

The order has survived in continuous existence to the present day. Its members, limited to twenty-four knights plus royals, include the monarch and the Prince of Wales by right, and other members appointed by the sovereign personally. It remains the most prestigious honour the British crown can bestow.

5. Edward III's Legacy Contained the Seeds of the Wars of the Roses

Edward III reigned for fifty years and had numerous children. The dynastic consequences were immense and ultimately catastrophic for English stability.

His son Edward, the Black Prince, died before his father, leaving a young son who became Richard II in 1377. Richard II was deposed in 1399 by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, Edward III's third surviving son, who became Henry IV and founded the Lancastrian line.

The Yorkist claim that would challenge the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses ran through Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, via the female line. Both sides of the conflict that tore England apart from 1455 to 1485 derived their competing claims from Edward III's prolific family.

Edward III himself could not have anticipated this. He had produced heirs, which was what a medieval king was supposed to do. The problem was that he had produced too many of them, creating a royal family so large and so well-descended that its members had credible claims to the throne for generations after his death.

Deepen Your Understanding

→ King Edward III and His Impact on England: the full account of Edward III's reign and its long-term consequences

→ King Edward II: A Controversial Monarch's Reign: the father Edward III overthrew to establish his own kingship

→ Queen Isabella of France: England's Most Dangerous Queen: the mother who deposed Edward II and whose regency Edward III ended in 1330

→ King Henry VII: The First Tudor Monarch: the king who ended the Wars of the Roses that Edward III's prolific family made inevitable

People Also Ask

Why is Edward III considered a great king?

Edward III is considered a great king primarily because of his military achievements and his restoration of royal authority after the disastrous reign of Edward II. His victories at Crécy (1346) and his son's at Poitiers (1356) made England a major military power in Europe and demonstrated the devastating effectiveness of the English longbow in set-piece battles. He founded the Order of the Garter, creating a new framework for noble loyalty centred on the crown. He maintained stable government through the catastrophe of the Black Death. By the standards of medieval kingship, military success, maintenance of order, and the respect of the nobility, his fifty-year reign was exceptionally successful.

What caused the Hundred Years War under Edward III?

The immediate cause was Edward III's claim to the French throne in 1337. When the last Capetian king of France died without male heirs in 1328, Edward had a plausible hereditary claim through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France. Philip VI of the Valois line took the throne instead, citing French succession customs that excluded inheritance through female lines. The deeper causes included ongoing disputes over English-held territories in France, particularly Gascony, which was held as a fief of the French crown and subject to constant friction. The war proved far longer than any of its originators imagined, lasting in various phases until 1453.

What was the Order of the Garter?

The Order of the Garter was a chivalric order founded by Edward III in 1348, consisting of the king, the Prince of Wales, and twenty-four knights chosen for military excellence and personal virtue. Its motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, shame on him who thinks evil of this, is associated with a founding legend about a dropped garter at a court ball. The order was modelled partly on the Arthurian Round Table tradition and was intended to bind the most distinguished knights of the realm to the king through personal loyalty and shared honour. It survives to the present day as the highest order of chivalry in England, with membership still limited to twenty-four knights plus royals, appointed by the sovereign personally.

What impact did the Black Death have on Edward III's reign?

The Black Death arrived in England in 1348 and killed between a third and a half of the population in its first wave, returning in further outbreaks throughout the rest of the century. Edward III lost his daughter Joan to plague in 1348. The immediate impact on government was disruptive but manageable: Edward worked to maintain the functioning of royal administration throughout the crisis. The longer-term social consequences, particularly the labour shortage and the changing bargaining position of surviving peasants, created the tensions that would produce the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, four years after Edward's death. Edward himself did not live to see this consequence of the epidemic his reign had survived.

Primary Sources and Further Reading

• Ormrod, W. M. (2011): Edward III, Yale University Press. The definitive modern scholarly biography of Edward III, drawing on the administrative records of his long reign. Available via university libraries and WorldCat.
• Sumption, Jonathan (1990 to 2015): The Hundred Years War, 4 volumes, Faber and Faber. The most detailed account of the conflict Edward III began, covering the military, diplomatic, and political dimensions of the war from 1337 to the mid-fifteenth century. Available via major booksellers.
• Froissart, Jean (c. 1337 to 1410): Chronicles, trans. Geoffrey Brereton, Penguin Classics. The great chivalric chronicle of Edward III's reign and the Hundred Years War, written by a man who visited the English court. Available via Penguin Classics.
• Ziegler, Philip (1969): The Black Death, Collins. The standard accessible account of the plague's impact on medieval England and Europe, covering the 1348 epidemic and its social consequences. Available via major booksellers.
• The National Archives: Patent Rolls and Close Rolls of Edward III's reign, providing the primary administrative evidence of his government. Available via nationalarchives.gov.uk.

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