the next generation a circumstantial story was repeated that Edward had escaped from Berkeley, and after long wanderings in Ireland, England, the Low Countries, and France, ended his life in a hermit's cell in Lombardy (letter of Manuel Fieschi to Edward III from Cartulary of Maguelone in No. 37 of the Publications de la Société Archéologique de Montpellier (1878); cf. article of Mr. Bent in Macmillan's Magazine, xli. 393-4, Notes and Queries, 6th series, ii. 381, 401, 489, and STUBBS, Chron. Edw. I and II, ii. ciii-cviii).

Edward's family by his wife consisted of (1) Edward of Windsor, born at Windsor on 13 Nov. 1312, who succeeded him [see EDWARD III]; (2) John of Eltham, born at Eltham; (3) Eleanor, also called Isabella (Ann. Paul. p. 283), born at Woodstock on 8 June 1318, and married in 1332 to Reginald, count of Guelderland; (4) Joan of the Tower, born in that fortress in July 1321, married in 1328 to David, son of Robert Bruce, and afterwards king of Scots; she was dead in 1357 (SANDFORD, Genealogical History, pp. 145-56).

[Some of the best authorities for Edward II's life and reign are collected by Dr. Stubbs in his Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II in the Rolls Series, with very valuable prefaces. They include the short and incomplete biography by Sir T. de la Moor, and also the Annales Paulini, Annales Londinienses, and the Lives by the Monk of Malmesbury and canon of Bridlington. Other chroniclers are A. Murimuth and W. of Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.), the continuator of Trivet (ed. Hall), 1722, the Annals of Lanercost and Scalachronica (Bannatyne Club), Henry of Knighton in Twysden's Decem Scriptores, Higden's Polychronicon, Trokelowe (Rolls Ser.), Blaneford (Rolls Ser.), Walsingham (Rolls Ser.) The chief published original documents are those collected in Rymer's Fœdera, vol. ii. Record edition, Parliamentary Writs, vol. ii. and the Rolls of Parliament, vol. i. The Rev. C. H. Hartshorne has published an itinerary of Edward II in Collectanea Archæologica, i. 113-44, British Arch. Association. The best modern accounts of the reign are in Stubbs's Const. Hist. vol. ii. and Pauli's Geschichte von England, vol. iv.]

T. F. T.

EDWARD III (1312–1377), king, eldest son of Edward II and Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France, was born at Windsor Castle on 13 Nov. 1312, and was baptised on the 16th. His uncle, Prince Lewis of France, and other Frenchmen at the court wished that he should be named Lewis, but the English lords would not allow it. The king, who is said to have been consoled by his birth for the loss of Gaveston (TROKELOWE, p. 79), gave him the counties of Chester and Flint,

and he was summoned to parliament as Eart of Chester in 1320. He never bore the title of Prince of Wales. His tutor was Richard de Bury [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Durham. In order to avoid doing homage to Charles IV of France the king transferred the county of Ponthieu to him on 2 Sept. 1325, and the duchy of Aquitaine on the 10th (Fœdera, ii. 607, 608). He sailed from Dover on the 12th, joined his mother in France, and did homage to his uncle for his French fiefs (Cont. WILL. OF NANGIS, ii. 60). He accompanied his mother to Hainault, and visited the court of Count William at Valenciennes in the summer of 1326 (FROISSART, i. 23, 233). Isabella entered into an agreement on 27 Aug. to forward the marriage of her son to Philippa, the count's daughter (FROISSART, ed. Luce, Pref. cl). Edward landed with his mother and the force of Hainaulters and others that she had engaged to help her on 27 Sept. at Colvasse, near Harwich, and accompanied her on her march towards London by Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, and Dunstable. Then, hearing that the king had left London, the queen turned westwards, and at Oxford Edward heard Bishop Orlton preach his treasonable sermon [see under ADAM OF ORLTON]. From Oxford he was taken to Wallingford and Gloucester, where the queen's army wasjoined by many lords. Thence the queen marched to Berkeley, and on 26 Oct. to Bristol. The town was surrendered to her, and the next day Hugh Despenser the elder [q. v.] was put to death, and Edward was proclaimed guardian of the kingdom in the name of his father and during his absence (Fœdera, ii. 646). On the 28th he issued writs for a parliament in the king's name. When the parliament met at Westminster on 7 Jan. 1327 the king was a prisoner, and an oath was taken by the prelates and lords to uphold the cause of the queen and her son. On the 13th Orlton demanded whether they would have the king or his son to reign over them. The next day Edward was chosen, and was presented to the people in Westminster Hall (W. DENE, Anglia Sacra, i. 367; for fuller accounts of this revolution see STUBBS, Chron. of Edwards I and II, vol. ii. Introd., and Const. Hist. ii. 358 sq.) As Edward declared that he would not accept the crown without his father's consent, the king was forced to agree to his own deposition.

The new king's peace was proclaimed on 24 Jan.; he was knighted by his cousin Henry, earl of Lancaster, and was crowned on Sunday, the 29th (Fœdera, ii. 684). He met his parliament on 3 Feb.; a council was appointed for him, and the chief member of it was Lancaster, who was the young king's nominal

guardian. All real power, however, was in the hands of the queen and Mortimer, and for the next four years Edward was entirely governed by them (AVESBURY, p. 7). Isabella obtained so enormous a settlement that the king was left with only a third of the revenues of the crown (MURIMUTH, p. 53). Peace was made with France on 31 March; both kings were to restore whatever had been seized during time of peace, and Edward bound himself to pay fifty thousand marks to the French king (Fœdera, ii. 700). Although negotiations were on foot for a permanent peace with Scotland, both countries prepared for war, and on 5 April the king ordered all who owed him service to meet at Newcastle on 29 May (ib. 702). He marched with his mother to York, where he was joined by Sir John of Hainault and a body of Flemish. While he was holding a feast on Trinity Sunday a fierce quarrel broke out between the Hainaulters and the English archers, in which many were slain on both sides (JEHAN LE BEL, i. 39; FROISSART, i. 45). The truce was actually broken by the Scots, who invaded the northern counties under Randolph, earl of Moray, and Douglas. Edward marched from York to Durham without gaining any tidings of the enemy, though he everywhere beheld signs of the devastation they had wrought. He crossed the Tyne, hoping to intercept the Scots on their return. After remaining a week on the left bank of the river without finding the enemy, he ordered his troops, who had suffered much from constant rain, to recross the river. At last an esquire named Thomas Rokesby brought him news of the enemy and led the army to the place where they were encamped, a service for which the king knighted him and gave him 1007. a year (Fœdera, ii. 717). The Scots, twenty-four thousand in number, occupied so strong a position on the right bank of the Wear that Edward, though at the head of sixty-two thousand men, did not dare to cross the river and attack them. It was therefore decided, as they seemed to be cut off from returning to their country, to starve them into leaving their position and giving battle. Early in the morning of the fourth day it was discovered that they had decamped. Edward followed them and found them even more strongly posted than before at Stanhope Park. Again the English encamped in front of them, and the first night after Edward's arrival Douglas, at the head of a small party, surprised the camp, penetrated to the king's tent, cut some of the cords, and led his men back with little loss (BRIDLINGTON, p. 96; JEHAN LE BEL, i. 67; FROISSART, i. 68, 279). After the two armies had faced each other

VOL. XVII.

for fifteen days or more the Scots again decamped by night, and Edward gave up all hope of cutting off their retreat or forcing them to fight. His army was unable to move with the same rapidity as the Scots, who were unencumbered with baggage; he was altogether outmanoeuvred, and led his troops back to York, much chagrined with the ill success of his first military enterprise. He had to pay 14,000l. to Sir John of Hainault for his help (Fœdera, ii. 708); he raised money from the Bardi, Florentine bankers (ib. 712), received a twentieth from the parliament that met at Lincoln on 15 Sept., and a tenth from the clergy of Canterbury (KNIGHTON, C. 2552). The king's father was put to death on 21 Sept. On 15 Aug. Edward wrote from York to John XXII for a dispensation for his marriage with Philippa of Hainault, for his mother and the Countess of Hainault were both grandchildren of Philip III of France (Fœdera, ii. 712). The dispensation was granted; Philippa arrived in London on 24 Dec., and the marriage was performed at York on 24 Jan. 1328 by William Melton, archbishop of York, the king being then little more than fifteen, and his bride still younger. At the parliament held at York on 1 March peace was made with Scotland, and the treaty was confirmed in the parliament which met at Northampton on 24 April. By this treaty Edward gave up all claims over the Scottish kingdom; a marriage was arranged between his sister Joan and David, the heir of King Robert; a perpetual alliance was made between the two kingdoms, saving the alliance between Scotland and France, and the Scottish king bound himself to pay Edward 20,000l. (4 May, ib. pp. 734,740). The treaty was held to be the work of Isabella and Mortimer, and was generally condemned in England as shameful (AVESBURY, p. 7; WALSINGHAM, i. 192). Isabella seems to have got hold of a large part of the money paid by the Scottish king (Fœdera, ii. 770, 785). Edward now sent two representatives to Paris to state his claim to the French throne, vacant by the death of Charles IV. He claimed as the heir of Philip IV, through his mother, Isabella. By the so-called Salic law Isabella and her heirs were barred from the succession, and even supposing that, though females were barred, they had nevertheless been held capable of transmitting a right to the throne, Charles of Evreux, the son of Jeanne of Navarre, daughter of Philip IV, would have had at least as good a claim as Edward. The throne was adjudged to Philip of Valois, son of a younger brother of Philip IV. The insolence and rapacity of the queen-mother and Mortimer gave deep offence to the nobles, and the

E

nation generally was scandalised at the connection that was said to exist between them and enraged at the dishonourable peace with Scotland. Lancaster, the head of the party which held to the policy of the ordainers' of the last reign, and the chief lord of the council, was denied access to the king, and found himself virtually powerless. He determined to make a stand against the tyranny of the favourite, and, hearing that Mortimer had come up to the parliament at Salisbury on 24 Oct. with an armed retinue, declared that he would not attend, and remained at Winchester under arms with some of his party. His action was upheld by the king's uncles, the Earls of Kent and Norfolk, by Stratford, bishop of Winchester, and others. Edward was forced to adjourn the parliament till the following February, and Mortimer wished him to march at once to Winchester against the earl. Shortly afterwards the king rode with Mortimer and the queen to ravage the earl's lands (W. DENE, Anglia Sacra, i. 369; KNIGHTON, c. 2557). Lancaster made a confederation against the favourite at London on 2 Jan. 1329 (BARNES, p. 31), and marched with a considerable force to Bedford in the hope of meeting him. Meanwhile his town of Leicester was surrendered to Mortimer and the queen, and before long Kent and Norfolk withdrew from him. Peace was made between the two parties by Mepeham, archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Beaumont and some other followers of the earl were forced to take shelter in France.

Early in February messengers came from Philip VI of France to Edward at Windsor, bidding him come and do homage for his French fiefs. He had received a like summons the year before, and now he laid the matter before the magnates assembled in parliament at Westminster. When they decided that he should obey the summons he appointed a proctor to declare that his homage did not prejudice his claim to the French crown. On 26 May he sailed from Dover, leaving his brother John, earl of Cornwall, as guardian of the kingdom (Fœdera, ii. 763, 764). He landed at Whitsand, and thence went to Boulogne, and so to Montreuil, where Philip's messengers met him and conducted him to Amiens. There Philip awaited him with the kings of Bohemia, Navarre, and Majorca, and many princes and lords whom he had invited to witness the ceremony. The homage was done in the choir of Amiens Cathedral on 6 June, but the ceremony could scarcely have pleased Philip, for Edward appeared in a robe of crimson velvet worked with leopards in gold and wearing his crown, sword, and spurs. Philip demanded liege homage, which

was done bareheaded and with ungirt sword. Edward refused this, and he was forced to accept general homage on Edward's promise that on his return he would search the records of his kingdom, and if liege homage was due would send over an acknowledgment by letters patent. Then Edward demanded restitution of certain lands that had been taken from his father. To this Philip answered that they had been taken in war (meaning that they did not come under the terms of the treaty of 1327), and that if Edward had any cause of complaint he should bring it before the parliament of Paris (ib. p. 765; Cont. WILL. OF NANGIS, ii. 107). Edward returned to England on the 11th, well pleased with his visit and the honour that had been done him, and at once proposed marriages between his sister Eleanor and Philip's eldest son, and between his brother John and a daughter of Philip (ib. pp. 766,777); but these proposals came to naught. Meanwhile Mortimer and Isabella had not forgiven the attempt that had been made against them, and Mortimer is said to have contrived a scheme which enabled him to accuse the Earl of Kent of treason [for particulars see under EDMUND OF WOODSTOCK]. The earl was tried by his peers, unjustly condemned, and put to death on 19 March 1330, Isabella and Mortimer hastening on his execution for fear that the king might interfere to prevent it, and, as it seems, giving the order for it without the king's knowledge (KNIGHTON, c. 2557; BARNES, p. 41). On 4 March Queen Philippa was crowned, and on 15 June she bore Edward his first-born child, Edward, afterwards called the Black Prince [q. v.] The birth of his son seems to have determined Edward to free himself from the thraldom in which he was kept by his mother and her favourite. When parliament met at Nottingham in October, Isabella and Mortimer took up their abode in the castle, which was closely kept. The king consulted with some of his friends, and especially with William Montacute, how they might seize Mortimer. They, and the king with them, entered the castle by night through an underground passage and seized Mortimer and some of his party. He was taken to London, condemned without trial by his peers as notoriously guilty of several treasonable acts, and particularly of the death of the late king, and hanged on 29 Nov. By the king's command the lords passed sentence on Sir Simon Bereford, one of Mortimer's abettors, though they were not his peers, and he also was hanged. A pension was allotted to the queen-mother, and she was kept until her death in a kind of honourable confinement at Castle Rising

in Norfolk, where the king visited her every year.

The overthrow of Mortimer made Edward at the age of eighteen a king in fact as well as in name. In person he was graceful, and his face was 'as the face of a god' (Cont. MURIMUTH, p. 226). His manners were courtly and his voice winning. He was strong and active, and loved hunting, hawking, the practice of knightly exercises, and, above all, war itself. Considerable care must have been spent on his education, for he certainly spoke English as well as French (FROISSART, i. 266 sq., 306, 324, 360, iv. 290, 326), and evidently understood German. He was fearless in battle, and, though over-fond of pleasure, was until his later years energetic in all his undertakings. Although according to modern notions his ambition is to be reckoned a grave defect in his character, it seemed in his day a kingly quality. Nor were his wars undertaken without cause, or indeed, according to the ideas of the time, without ample justification. His attempts to bring Scotland under his power were at first merely a continuation of an inherited policy that it would have been held shameful to repudiate, and later were forced upon him by the alliance between that country and France. And the French war was in the first instance provoked by the aggressions of Philip, though Edward's assumption of the title of king of France, a measure of political expediency, rendered peace impossible. He was liberal in his gifts, magnificent in his doings, profuse in his expenditure, and, though not boastful, inordinately ostentatious. No sense of duty beyond what was then held to become a knight influenced his conduct. While he was not wantonly cruel he was hard-hearted; his private life was immoral, and his old age was dishonoured by indulgence in a shameful passion. As a king he had no settled principles of constitutional policy. Regarding his kingship mainly as the means of raising the money he needed for his wars and his pleasures, he neither strove to preserve prerogatives as the just rights of the crown, nor yielded anything out of consideration for the rights or welfare of his subjects. Although the early glories of his reign were greeted with applause, he never won the love of his people; they groaned under the effects of his extravagance, and fled at his coming lest his officers should seize their goods, His commercial policy was enlightened, and has won him the title of the father of English commerce' (HALLAM, Const. Hist. iii. 321), but it was mainly inspired by selfish motives, and he never scrupled to sacrifice the interests of

the English merchants to obtain a supply of money or secure an ally. In foreign politics he showed genius; his alliances were well devised and skilfully obtained, but he seems to have expected more from his allies than they were likely to do for him, for England still stood so far apart from continental affairs that her alliance was not of much practical importance, except commercially. As a leader in war Edward could order a battle and inspire his army with his own confidence, but he could not plan a campaign; he was rash, and left too much to chance. During the first part of his reign he paid much attention to naval administration; he successfully asserted the maritime supremacy of the country, and was entitled by parliament the king of the sea' (Rot. Parl. ii. 311); he neglected the navy in his later years. Little as the nation owed him in other respects, his achievements by sea and land made the English name respected. Apart from the story of these acts the chief interest of the reign is foreign to the purpose of a biographical sketch; it consists in the transition that it witnessed from mediæval to modern systems and ideas (STUBBS, Const. Hist. ii. 375, which should be consulted for an estimate of Edward's character). Parliament adopted its present division into two houses, and in various points gradually gained on the prerogative. In church matters, papal usurpations were met by direct and decisive legislation, an anti-clerical party appeared, the wealth of the church was attacked, and a protest was made against clerical administration. As regards jurisdiction, the reign saw a separation between the judicial work of the council and of the chancellor, who now began to act as an independent judge of equity. Chivalry, already decaying, and feudalism, already long decayed, received a deathblow from the use of gunpowder. Other and wider social changes followed the 'great pestilence-an increase in the importance of capital in trade and the rise of journeymen as a distinct class, the rapid overthrow of villenage, and the appearance of tenant-farmers and paid farm labourers as distinct classes. These and many more changes, which cannot be discussed in a narrative of the king's life, mark the reign as a period in which old things were passing away and the England of our own day began to be formed.

In spite of the treaty of 1327 matters remained unsettled between the kings of England and France; Philip delayed the promised restitutions and disturbed Edward's possessions in Aquitaine. Saintes was taken by the Duke of Alençon in 1329, and Edward in consequence applied to parliament for a