EDWARD III. 



EDWAUD IV. 



TJO 



him by the treaty of Bretigny, Edwitrd was gUd to conclude a truce 

 for three yean. 



Thus ended the French wan of thin king, which had cost England 

 so much blood and treasure. Thorn which he waged against Scotland 

 equally failed of their object David II. had died in February 1371, 

 and the Stewart of Scotland immediately ascended the throne without 

 opposition under the title of Robert II. No serious attempt wai ever 

 made by Edward to disturb this settlement, though he at one time 

 waned inclined to threaten another Scottish war, and he never would 

 give Robert the title of king ; he contented himself with styling him 

 * the most njble and potent prince, our dear cousin of Scotland." 



The latter yean of Edward's long reign presented in all respects a 

 melancholy contrast to its brilliant commencement. The harmony 

 which had hitherto prevailed between the king and his parliament 

 gave way under the public misfortunes, and the opposition to the 

 king's government was headed by his eldest son. Tlie Black Prince 

 however died in his forty-sixth year, on the 8th of June 1376. He 

 was in the popular estimation the first hero of the age, and to this 

 reputation his military skill, hia valour, and other brilliant and noble 

 qualities, may be admitted to have entitled him ; but, with all hia 

 menu, he was not superior to his age, nor without his share of some 

 of the worst of its fault*. He left by his wife Joanna one son, Richard, 

 a child in his tenth year ; and he appears also to have had a daughter, 

 who became the wife of Walrran de Luxemburg, count de Liguy : his 

 illegitimate sons were Sir John Sounder and Sir Roger de Clarendon. 

 King Edward, in the weakness of old age, had now for some time given 

 up the entire management of affairs to his second son, the unpopular 

 Duke of Lancaster, and fears were entertained that he intended the 

 duke to inherit the crown ; but these apprebennions were removed by 

 his creating Richard of Bordeaux Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, 

 and Earl of Chester, and declaring him in parliament hia heir and 

 successor. Since the death of his queen also he had attached himself 

 with doting fondness to Alice Perers, one of the ladies of her bed- 

 chamber, and had excited great public disgust by the excesses to which 

 this folly can-it d him. The last fortnight of hU life he spent at his 

 manor of Shene, now Richmond, attended only by this lady. But 

 even she deserted him on the morning of his death ; and no one, it is 

 asserted, save a single priest, was by his bed-side, or even in the house, 

 when ho breathed his last. Thia event happened on the 21st of June 

 1377, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the fifty-first of his reign. 



K'lward III. had by his queen, Pbilippa of Hainault, seven sons : 

 1, Edward prince of Wales; 2, William of Hatfield, born 1336, who 

 Hied young; 3, Lionel, duke of Clarence, born at Antwerp 29th of 

 November 1338 ; 4, John, duke of Lancaster, called of Gaunt, or Ghent, 

 where he was born in 1840 ; 5, Kdmund, duke of York, born at Lang- 

 ley, near St Alban's, in 1341 ; 6, William, born at Windsor, who died 

 young; 7, Thomas, duke of Gloucester, born at Woodstock 7th of 

 January 1355; and five daughters: 1, Isabella, married to Ingelram 

 de Courcy, earl of Soissons and Bedford ; 2, Joanna, born in August 

 1834, who was contracted, in 1345, to Pedro the Cruel, afterwards king 

 of Cutile, but died of the plague at Bordeaux, in 1349, before being 

 married ; 3, Blanche, called De la Tour, from having been born in the 

 Tower of London, who died in infancy ; 4, Mary, married to John de 

 Montford, duke of Bretagne ; and 5, Margaret, married to John de 

 Halting*, earl of Pembroke. 



It has been observed, in regard to Edward III., by Sir James Mack 

 intosh, that " though his victories left few lasting acquisitions, yet 

 they surrounded the name of his country with a lustre which pro- 

 duced strength and safety ; which perhaps also gave a loftier tone to 

 the ferlings of England, and a more vigorous activity to her faculties." 

 " During a reiirn of fifty years," it is added, " Edward III. issued writs 

 of summons, which are extant to this day, to assemble seventy parlia- 

 ments or great councils : he thus engaged the pride and passions of 

 the parliament and the people so deeply in support of his projects of 

 aggrandisement, that they became his zealous and enthusiastic followers. 

 His ambition was Aught by the nation, and men of the humblest 

 station became proud of his brilliant victories. To form and keep up 

 this state of public temper was the mainspring of his domestic adminis- 

 tration, and satisfactorily Explains the internal tranquillity of England 

 during the forty yean of his effective reign. It was the natural con- 

 sequence of so long and watchful a pursuit of popularity that most 

 grievance* were redressed as soon as felt, that parliamentary authority 

 was yearly strengthened by exercise, and that the minds of the 

 turbulent barons were exclusively turned towards a share in their 

 sovereign's glory. * Quiet at homo was paitly the fruit of fame 

 broad." 



The two groat charters were repeatedly confirmed in this reign, and 

 a greater number of important new laws were passed than in all the 

 preceding reigns since the Conquest. Among them may be parti- 

 cularly noticed the celebrate*! statute (25 Ed. III., t. 5, o. 2) defining 

 and limiting the offence of high treason ; the numerous provision* 

 nude to regulate tbe royal prerogative of purveyance, and diminish 

 the grievance* ocoaiiioned by it ; tbe law (1 Ed. III., c. 12) permitting 

 tenant* in chief to alienate their lands on payment of a reasonable 

 fine; the several prohibitions against the payment of Peter's 1'nnce 

 and the nt statute (the 27th Ed. III., st. 1, c. 1) giving a writ ol 

 prmnunirc against such as should presume to cite any of the king's 

 subjects to the court of Rome. ID this reign, also began the Icgisla 



ion respecting the poor, by the enactment of the statute of Labourers 

 23 Ed. III., c. 1), which was followed by several othe acts of the 

 ame kind, setting a price upon labour as well as upon provisions. 

 Trial by Jury also now began to acquire a decided ascendancy over 

 the old modes of trial, and various regulations were made for improving 

 he procedure of tbe courts and the administration of justice. Justices 

 at first called keepers) of the peace were established by the statute 

 34 Ed. III., c. 1. In 1362 was passed the important act (36 Ed. III., 

 st. 6, c. 15) declaring that henceforth " all pleas should be pleaded, 

 showed, defended, amended, debated, and judged in the English 

 tongue," and no longer in the French, which is described as " much 

 unknown in the realm." They were ordered still however to be 

 entered and enrolled in Latin. The acts of parliament continued to 

 >o written sometimes in Latin, but most generally in French, long 

 after this time. The science of legal pleading is considered by Coke 

 to have been brought to perfection in this reign. The only law treatises 

 chich belong to this reign are those entitled the ' Old Tenures,' the 

 Old Nature Brevium,' the ' Nova; Narrationes,' and the book on the 

 Diversity of Courts.' They are all in Norman French. 



The commerce and manufactures of the country made some advances 

 with tbe general progress of the age in the course of this reign ; but 

 they certainly were not considerable for so long a space of time. The 

 woollen manufacture was introduced from the Netherlands, and firmly 

 rooted in England before the close of the reign. Some augmentation 

 also seems to have taken place in the shipping and exports of the 

 country. On the other hand, the king's incessant wars operated in 

 various ways to the discouragement of commerce. Sometimes foreign 

 merchants were afraid to send their vessels to sea lest they should 

 je captured by some of the belligerents. On one occasion at L-ast 

 in 1338), Edward made a general seizure of the property belonging 

 ,o foreign merchants within his dominions, to supply his necessities. 

 At other times he resorted to the ruinous expedient of debasing tbe 

 coin. Many acts were passed by the parliament on the subject of 

 trade, but they involved for tbe most part the falsest principles ; some 

 prohibiting the exportation of money, of wool, and of other articles ; 

 >thers imposing penalties for forestalling ; others attempting to regulate 

 wages, prices, and expenditure. Of course such laws could not be 

 executed ; they only tormented the people, and aggravated the mis- 

 chiefs they were intended to cure; but in consequence of being thus 

 inefficient, they were constantly renewed. The most memorable inven- 

 tion of this age is that of gunpowder, or rather its application in 

 war. It has been asserted that cannons were used at the battle of 

 Crecy in 1346; and thero is reason to believe that they were in use 

 about twenty years earlier. They were certainly familiarly known 

 before the close of the reign. 



Among tbe more elegant arts, architecture was that which was 

 carried to the greatest height Edward III. nearly rebuilt the castle 

 of Windsor, which however has undergone great improvements and 

 alterations since his time ; the chapel of St. George, built by this 

 king, was reconstructed by Edward IV. Splendour and luxury 

 generally made undoubtedly great advances among the wealthier 

 classes, although it may be questioned if wealth was more generally 

 diffused throughout the community, or if the poverty and wretch- 

 edness of the great body of the people were not rather increased 

 than diminished. The increase of licentiousness of manners among 

 the higher ranks appears to have kept pace with that of magnificence 

 in their mode of living. This was the age of tournaments, and of 

 the most complete ascendancy of the system of chivalry. The Order 

 of the Garter was instituted by Edward III., it is generally supposed 

 in the year 1349. 



In literature, this was the age of Chaucer, the Morning Star of 

 our poetry, and of his friend Gower, and also of Wicliffe, who first 

 translated the Scriptures into English, and who has been called the 

 Morning Star of the Reformation. The principal chroniclers of the 

 time of Edward III. are Thomas Stubbs, William Thorn, Ralph Higden, 

 Adorn Mcrimuth, Henry de Knighton, and Robert de Avesbury. 



The convulsion in the church, excited by Wicliffe, began in the last 

 years of Edward III., but the history of it more properly belongs to 

 the next reign, that of his grandson Richard IL 



EDWARD IV., King of England. During the reign of Richard II. 

 the heir presumptive to the crown was Roger Mortimer, earl of March, 

 the son of Philippa Plautagenet, who was the only child of Lionel, 

 duke of Clarence, the second of the sons of Edward III. that left any 

 descendants. Roger, earl of March, died in Ireland, where ho was 

 lord-lieutenant, or governor, in 1398. His son, Edmund Mortimer, 

 earl of March, was a child of only ten years of age at the deposition 

 of Richard IL in 1399 ; but in his person revided the right to the 

 crown by lineal descent so long as he lived. Although however hia 

 name was mentioned on several occasions in connection with his 

 dangerous pretensions, and he more than once ran the risk of being 

 made a tool of in the bands of persons more ambitious than himself, 

 he never made any attempt against the house of Lancaster. We may 

 here remark that much confusion has been introduced into the 

 common accounts of Edmund Mortimer by hia being confound* d with 

 his uncle Sir Edmund Mortimer. It was tho latter personage, for 

 instance, who, having married the daughter of Owen Glendower, 

 engaged with the Percies in their insurrection in 1403, and performed 

 the rest of the part assigned to the Lord Mortimer in Shaksperc's 



