campaign, but he died en route at Burgh on Sands on 7 July 1307 aged 68.
According to chroniclers, Edward requested that his bones should be carried
on Scottish campaigns and that his heart be taken to the Holy Land.
However, Edward was buried at Westminster Abbey in a plain black marble
tomb, which in later years was painted with the words Scottorum malleus
(Hammer of the Scots) and Pactum serva (Keep troth). Throughout the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Exchequer paid to keep candles
burning 'round the body of the Lord Edward, formerly King of England, of
famous memory'.
EDWARD II (1307-1327)
Edward II had few of the qualities that made a successful medieval king.
Edward surrounded himself with favourites (the best known being a Gascon,
Piers Gaveston), and the barons, feeling excluded from power, rebelled.
Throughout his reign, different baronial groups struggled to gain power and
control the King. The nobles' ordinances of 1311, which attempted to limit
royal control of finance and appointments, were counteracted by Edward.
Large debts (many inherited) and the Scots' victory at Bannockburn by
Robert the Bruce in 1314 made Edward more unpopular. Edward's victory in a
civil war (1321-2) and such measures as the 1326 ordinance (a protectionist
measure which set up compulsory markets or staples in 14 English, Welsh and
Irish towns for the wool trade) did not lead to any compromise between the
King and the nobles. Finally, in 1326, Edward's wife, Isabella of France,
led an invasion against her husband. In 1327 Edward was made to renounce
the throne in favour of his son Edward (the first time that an anointed
king of England had been dethroned since Ethelred in 1013). Edward II was
later murdered at Berkeley Castle.
EDWARD III (1327-77)
Edward III was 14 when he was crowned King and assumed government in his
own right in 1330. In 1337, Edward created the Duchy of Cornwall to provide
the heir to the throne with an income independent of the sovereign or the
state. An able soldier, and an inspiring leader, Edward founded the Order
of the Garter in 1348. At the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337,
actual campaigning started when the King invaded France in 1339 and laid
claim to the throne of France. Following a sea victory at Sluys in 1340,
Edward overran Brittany in 1342 and in 1346 he landed in Normandy,
defeating the French King, Philip IV, at the Battle of Crйcy and his son
Edward (the Black Prince) repeated his success at Poitiers (1356). By 1360
Edward controlled over a quarter of France. His successes consolidated the
support of the nobles, lessened criticism of the taxes, and improved
relations with Parliament. However, under the 1375 Treaty of Bruges the
French King, Charles V, reversed most of the English conquests; Calais and
a coastal strip near Bordeaux were Edward's only lasting gain. Failure
abroad provoked criticism at home. The Black Death plague outbreaks of 1348-
9, 1361-2 and 1369 inflicted severe social dislocation (the King lost a
daughter to the plague) and caused deflation; severe laws were introduced
to attempt to fix wages and prices. In 1376, the 'Good Parliament' (which
saw the election of the first Speaker to represent the Commons) attacked
the high taxes and criticised the King's advisers. The ageing King withdrew
to Windsor for the rest of his reign, eventually dying at Sheen Palace,
Surrey.
RICHARD II (1377-99)
Edward III's son, the Black Prince, died in 1376. The King's grandson,
Richard II, succeeded to the throne aged 10, on Edward's death. In 1381 the
Peasants' Revolt broke out and Richard, aged 14, bravely rode out to meet
the rebels at Smithfield, London. Wat Tyler, the principal leader of the
peasants, was killed and the uprisings in the rest of the country were
crushed over the next few weeks (Richard was later forced by his Council's
advice to rescind the pardons he had given). Highly cultured, Richard was
one of the greatest royal patrons of the arts; patron of Chaucer, it was
Richard who ordered the technically innovative transformation of the Norman
Westminster Hall to what it is today. (Built between 1097 and 1099 by
William II, the Hall was the ceremonial and administrative centre of the
kingdom; it also housed the Courts of Justice until 1882.) Richard's
authoritarian approach upset vested interests, and his increasing
dependence on favourites provoked resentment. In 1388 the 'Merciless
Parliament' led by a group of lords hostile to Richard (headed by the
King's uncle, Gloucester) sentenced many of the King's favourites to death
and forced Richard to renew his coronation oath. The death of his first
queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394 further isolated Richard, and his
subsequent arbitrary behaviour alienated people further. Richard took his
revenge in 1397, arresting or banishing many of his opponents; his cousin,
Henry of Bolingbroke, was also subsequently banished. On the death of
Henry's father, John of Gaunt (a younger son of Edward III), Richard
confiscated the vast properties of his Duchy of Lancaster (which amounted
to a state within a state) and divided them among his supporters. Richard
pursued policies of peace with France (his second wife was Isabella of
Valois); Richard still called himself king of France and refused to give up
Calais, but his reign was concurrent with a 28 year truce in the Hundred
Years War. His expeditions to Ireland failed to reconcile the Anglo-Irish
lords with the Gaels. In 1399, whilst Richard was in Ireland, Henry of
Bolingbroke returned to claim his father's inheritance. Supported by some
of the leading baronial families (including Richard's former Archbishop of
Canterbury), Henry captured and deposed Richard. Bolingbroke was crowned
King as Henry IV. Risings in support of Richard led to his murder in
Pontefract Castle; Henry V subsequently had his body buried in Westminster
Abbey.
THE LANCASTRIANS
The accession of Henry IV sowed the seeds for a period of unrest which
ultimately broke out in civil war. Fraught by rebellion and instability
after his usurpation of Richard II, Henry IV found it difficult to enforce
his rule. His son, Henry V, fared better, defeating France in the famous
Battle of Agincourt (1415) and staking a powerful claim to the French
throne. Success was short-lived with his early death.
By the reign of the relatively weak Henry VI, civil war broke out between
rival claimants to the throne, dating back to the sons of Edward III. The
Lancastrian dynasty descended from John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III,
whose son Henry deposed the unpopular Richard II. Yorkist claimants such
as the Duke of York asserted their legitimate claim to the throne through
Edward III's second surviving son, but through a female line. The Wars of
the Roses therefore tested whether the succession should keep to the male
line or could pass through females.
Captured and briefly restored, Henry VI was captured and put to death,
and the Yorkist faction led by Edward IV gained the throne.
HENRY IV (1399-1413)
Henry IV was born at Bolingbroke in 1367 to John of Gaunt and Blanche of
Lancaster. He married Mary Bohun in 1380, who bore him seven children
before her death in 1394. In 1402, Henry remarried, taking as his bride
Joan of Navarre. Henry had an on-again, off-again relationship with his
cousin, Richard II. He was one of the Lords Appellant, who, in 1388,
persecuted many of Richard's advisor-favorites, but his excellence as a
soldier gained the king's favor - Henry was created Duke of Hereford in
1397. In 1398, however, the increasingly suspicious Richard banished him
for ten years. John of Gaunt's death in 1399 prompted Richard to confiscate
the vast Lancastrian estates; Henry invaded England while Richard was on
campaign in Ireland, usurping the throne from the king. The very nature of
Henry's usurpation dictated the circumstances of his reign - incessant
rebellion became the order of the day. Richard's supporters immediately
revolted upon his deposition in 1400. In Wales, Owen Glendower led a
national uprising that lasted until 1408; the Scots waged continual warfare
throughout the reign; the powerful families of Percy and Mortimer (the
latter possessing a stronger claim to the throne than Henry) revolted from
1403 to 1408; and Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, proclaimed his
opposition to the Lancastrian claim in 1405. Two political blunders in the
latter years of his reign diminished Henry's support. His marriage to Joan
of Navarre (of whom it was rumored practiced necromancy) was highly
unpopular - she was, in fact, convicted of witchcraft in 1419. Scrope and
Thomas Mawbray were executed in 1405 after conspiring against Henry; the
Archbishop's execution alarmed the English people, adding to his
unpopularity. He developed a nasty skin disorder and epilepsy, persuading
many that God was punishing the king for executing an archbishop. Crushing
the myriad of rebellions was costly, which involved calling Parliament to
fund such activities. The House of Commons used the opportunity to expand
its powers in 1401, securing recognition of freedom of debate and freedom
from arrest for dissenting opinions. Lollardy, the Protestant movement
founded by John Wycliffe during the reign of Edward III, gained momentum
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