Edward III, Richard II, and the Transformation of Late Medieval England

The Rise of Edward III and the Restoration of Royal Authority

• After the instability of Edward II's reign, the downfall of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella marked a definitive turning point. In $1330$, a court conspiracy led by the seventeen-year-old King Edward III seized Mortimer at Nottingham Castle. Mortimer was subsequently tried by a parliament and hanged.

• Isabella was removed from power but allowed a generous financial allowance. This event signaled Edward III's coming of age and his commitment to healing domestic divisions through vigorous leadership.

• Edward III is characterized as a warrior-king, often compared to Richard the Lion-Hearted. He was noted for being chivalrous, magnanimous, and popular, maintaining an amiable disposition even during political friction.

• Unlike his predecessors William I and Henry II, Edward III maintained the unwavering loyalty of his six sons and his magnates. Throughout his $50$-year reign, the barons never raised a standard of rebellion against him.

• Contemporary praise described him as "our comely king" and a "famous and fortunate warrior." He successfully fostered a sense of national pride and an international reputation for English military prowess.

The Hundred Years’ War: Origins and Ideological Foundations

• The Hundred Years' War lasted for $115$ years, from $1338$ to $1453$, making the traditional name a convenient misnomer. The conflict was not a single continuous war but a series of struggles interrupted by prolonged truces.

• The root of the conflict traced back to the Norman Conquest of $1066$ and subsequent disputes over English holdings in France.

• A defining theme of this era was the English claim to the French throne. When Charles IV, the last Capetian king, died childless in $1328$, Edward III claimed succession through his mother, Isabella (Charles's sister).

• The French resisted this claim by invoking a custom that royal succession could not pass through the female line, instead crowning Philip VI (Founder of the Valois dynasty).

• Tensions were further exacerbated by:

  • Conflict over Flanders, a critical market for English wool targeting French control.

  • French support for the Scots during Anglo-Scottish warfare.

  • Persistent disputes over English territories in southern France (Gascony).

Military Evolution and the Triumphs at Crecy and Poitiers

• Early land campaigns between $1338$ and $1340$ were costly and frustrating, largely due to an inefficient system of subsidizing continental allies. However, a significant early victory occurred at the naval Battle of Sluys in $1340$, granting England control of the Channel.

• Edward III shifted strategy in the $1340$s to utilize English armies that foraged off the land, reducing costs. This led to the establishment of control over Brittany in $1342$.

• The Battle of Crecy ($August 26, 1346$) saw an army of $10,000$ men secure a stunning victory. The English longbowmen decimated the mounted French nobility, proving the effectiveness of the weapon against heavy cavalry.

• The capture of Calais in $1347$ provided England with a strategic bridgehead on the continent that would remain in English hands for two centuries.

• At the Battle of Poitiers in $1356$, Edward the Black Prince (the king's eldest son) defeated a larger French force and captured King John the Good.

• The ensuing Treaty of Calais ($1360$) granted Edward vast territories in southern France in full sovereignty and set King John's ransom at the staggering sum of $£500,000$.

Late-Reign Reversals and the Decline of Royal Power

• The successes of the $1360$s faded as leadership dynamics shifted. Edward III became senile in his late fifties and was influenced by courtiers and his mistress, Alice Perrers. The Black Prince suffered from a debilitating illness.

• France recovered under King Charles V and his general, Bertrand du Guesclin, who utilized harassment and skirmishes rather than major pitched battles to reclaim territory.

• By Edward III's death in $1377$, English holdings were reduced to Calais, Cherbourg, a small portion of Bordeaux, and several Breton harbors.

The Constitutional Development of Parliament

• The immense cost of the Hundred Years' War forced the monarchy to rely on extraordinary taxation, which required parliamentary consent and gave the assembly significant bargaining power.

• Parliament split into two distinct bodies: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

  • The House of Lords: Comprised of the "peerage," high-ranking magnates and prelates whose right to a summons became hereditary.

  • The House of Commons: Formed by the political fusion of shire knights and urban burghers.

• The Commons established the exclusive right to originate taxation. By $1450$, the standard formula for grants was "by the Commons with the advice and assent of the Lords."

• Political Mechanisms established in this era included:

  • The Commons Petition: A shift from individual requests to matters of general interest, eventually evolving into the Commons Bill.

  • Redress Before Supply: The principle that the King must satisfy parliamentary grievances before a financial grant was finalized.

  • Impeachment: First used in the "Good Parliament" of $1376$ to remove unpopular royal ministers.

Judicial Modernization and the Justices of the Peace

• The Court of Chancery emerged to handle cases in equity, providing a flexible alternative to the rigid common-law courts (King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer).

• Under Edward III, itinerant justices were phased out. In $1361$, the "eyres" were abolished.

• The Justices of the Peace (JPs), drawn from the local gentry, became the primary link between the crown and the shires.

• The Statute of $1360$ empowered JPs to try felons and trespassers, and the "quarter sessions" (held four times a year) superseded older shire courts in administrative and judicial importance.

The Black Death: Demographic Impact and Economic Transformation

• The plague reached England in the summer of $1348$, peaking in $1349$. It reduced the national population from approximately $5,000,000$ in $1300$ to $3,000,000$ by $1400$.

• Variants of the Plague:

  • Bubonic: Carried by black rats and fleas; attacked the lymphatic system; mortality rate of $60\%$ to $90\%$.

  • Pneumonic: Highly contagious via air; attacked the lungs; nearly always fatal.

  • Septicemic: Attacked the bloodstream; caused death within hours.

• The massive labor shortage led to rising wages and falling land values, hastening the end of the manorial system. Landlords began converting demesne lands to sheep raising or dividing them into peasant plots for rent.

• Serfdom effectively ended with the rise of "copyhold," as royal courts began recognizing the legal rights of peasants to customary lands.

The Great Revolt of 1381

• Social antagonism peaked following the Statute of Laborers, which attempted to freeze wages at pre-plague levels, and the imposition of regressive poll taxes.

• The revolt began in Essex and Kent in $May 1381$, led by figures such as Wat Tyler and the preacher John Ball.

• Rebels entered London, executing the Chancellor (Archbishop Simon Sudbury) and the Treasurer (Robert Hales).

• The fourteen-year-old Richard II met the rebels at Mile End and Smithfield. At Smithfield, Wat Tyler was killed by the Lord Mayor of London. Richard famously diffused the situation by offering to be the rebels' leader, leading them out of the city before the government suppressed the movement.

• While the immediate concessions (like the abolition of villeinage) were revoked, the poll tax was abandoned, and the government recognized that the common people could no longer be ignored.

Religious and Cultural Ferment

• The Avignon Papacy ($1309-1377$) and the Great Schism ($1378-1417$) weakened the prestige of the central Church. Parliament passed the Statutes of Provisors ($1351$, $1390$) to limit papal appointments and the Statutes of Praemunire ($1353$, $1393$) to limit legal appeals to Rome.

• John Wycliffe and the Lollards: Wycliffe, an Oxford philosopher, attacked the sacramental system, the worldly wealth of the Church, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. He advocated for vernacular Bible translations and the idea of the "invisible church" of the predestined.

• The Statute on the Burning of Heretics was enacted in $1401$ to suppress the Lollard movement.

• Vernacular Literature: Middle English replaced French as the high-culture language. Key works include Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and William Langland's Piers Plowman.

• Architecture: The Perpendicular Gothic style emerged as a uniquely English form, seen in the naves of Canterbury and Winchester cathedrals.

The Reign and Deposition of Richard II

• Richard II (reigned $1377-1399$) ascended as a child and sought to reclaim absolute royal prerogative, emphasizing the sacred and ceremonial nature of kingship.

• The Lords Appellant: Five powerful magnates defeated a royalist army at Radcot Bridge in $1387$ and dominated the "Merciless Parliament" of $1388$, executing or exiling Richard's favorites (including Michael de la Pole).

• Richard's Vengeance: In $1397$, Richard struck back, murdering or executing several Lords Appellant and seizing vast lands. He forced a parliament to grant him customs duties for life and assessed heavy fines on dissenters.

• The Fall of Richard II: In $1399$, Richard seized the Lancastrian inheritance after the death of John of Gaunt, preventing the return of his exiled cousin, Henry Bolingbroke.

• While Richard was on an expedition in Ireland, Bolingbroke returned to England to claim his lands. Bolingbroke successfully overthrew Richard, who was forced to abdicate in $September 1399$.

• Henry Bolingbroke was recognized as King Henry IV, founding the Lancastrian dynasty. Richard II died (and was likely murdered) in captivity in early $1400$.