Edward III - England's Greatest King Documentary

[Music] Edward of Windsor of the House of Plantagenet was born at Windsor Castle in the county of Berkshire England on the 13th of November 1312 his father was King up at the second of England who has gone down in history as one of England's weaker and less effective monarchs Edwards mother Isabella was the daughter of King Philip the fourth of France and is also known to history by the nickname the she-wolf of France she was an intelligent manipulative and ruthless woman who had later turned against her husband Edward ii and invade England with her lover Roger Mortimer almost bringing down the Plantagenet dynasty and her own son's inheritance in the process Prince Edward was a handsome athletic and intelligent young man and excelled unlike his father at the kingly sports such as jousting and hunting resulting in the nobility and the population placing great hope in him for the future Edwards grandfather was eppard the first of England or Edward the Longshanks as he was known due to the fact that he was over six feet tall which was gigantic by medieval standards during Emma the first reign he secured the final conquest of Wales said during the Welsh princes and also notoriously invaded Scotland he was a powerful intelligent and ruthless King who had become accustomed to battle from an early age and helped his father Henry deferred to secure the final victory over Simon de Montfort forces in the Battle of Evesham in 1265 and later joining the knife crusade against a man looks as is often the case overbearing and authoritative fathers often produced sons who are the opposites of them in nature and above the second is a good example of this medieval kings were expected to take part in activities such as jousting and hunting as well as being experts in warfare edward ii however did not take after his father in terms of his nature preferring the company of men to women and enjoying activities such as boat building and archery which were considered beneath the aristocracy he also proved to be particularly inept at warfare culminating in his disastrous defeat to the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 this greatly weakened his position as monarch and eventually after a famine for our England and the rebellion by his barons he slowly lost influence and power throughout the country then in 1325 the French King Charles the fourth demanded the Edward pay homage to him for the Duchy of Aquitaine the English kings had owned large portions of France since the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in the reign of henry ii henry ii was not just a king of england but also the regent of Normandy and Anjou in France he then married Eleanor of Aquitaine meaning that he now controlled not just England but the vast majority of France itself this became known as the Angevin Empire and is the reason that subsequent English monarchs laid claim to large portions of France however it was often the case for French monarchs required English Kings to pay homage to them for their lands in France but after receiving such a request edward ii was afraid to leave England and pay homage to the french king as he had many enemies on the continent instead he made his son Prince Edward the Duke of Aquitaine and sent him to France along with his wife Isabella who was King Charles the fourth sister whilst in France Isabella arranged a marriage of Edward to Philippa of Hainault who was the daughter of William the first count of a Nolt Isabella then started an affair with Roger Mortimer a powerful martial lord and they both with French backing then invaded England in 1326 and seized power Prince Edward was then crowned King Edward the third of England on the 1st of February 13:27 King Edward the second was then deposed imprisoned and dispatched in September of the same year some say he was smothered but a particularly gruesome accounts written after his death states where he was held down whilst a trumpet like instrument was forced into his anus followed by red-hot poker being frost into his bowels this is now considered by many modern historians to be a false account of his death and was probably due to his apparent homosexual relationship with one of his favorites piers Gaveston some years earlier ever the seconds reign was in many ways an education forever deferred in what not to do to be a successful King and young Edward would take after his grandfather much more than his father as a monarch although ever deferred was now king of England Isabella's lover Roger Mortimer was the de facto ruler of England his popularity slowly declined throughout the country particularly after he lost to the Scots the battlers Stanhope Park and was forced afterwards to sign a peace treaty with them Edward and Philippa of Hainault were then married in January 1328 and then went on two years later to have a son Edward who would go on later to be the Black Prince Roger multimers position was now weakened in highly precarious and after pressure was placed on Edward by an ability to act against Mortimer he hatched a plan to seize power and claim back his birthright Mortimer and Isabella were then captured at Nottingham Castle in October 1330 and despite his mother's pleas for her lover's life should be spared Edward at revenge for his father's own death and to appease the Barons had Mortimer hanged at Tyburn in London with Mortimer's death Edward had prevented any imminent threat of him being deposed like his father and he had also appeased the English nobility who approved of his decisive action during the wars and subsequent defeats to the Scots over the previous decades the country had taken large portions of northern England as recompense in various peace treaties this resulted in various northern landowners known as the disinherited losing their estates and property to the Scots which was a cause of great resentment amongst them they then took it upon themselves to invade Scotland along with various Scottish rebels and seized power in the country they then installed Edward Balliol son of the former King of Scotland John baillio as king instead of David ii who was the son and heir of Robert the Bruce Edward the first had backed John baillio and made him King of Scotland decades before resulting in infighting in the Scottish nobility Robert the Bruce eventually seized power and Scotland and defeated Edward the seconds armies at the Battle of Bannockburn largely securing Scotland as an independent nation for another 400 years and he is still considered a hero in Scotland to this very day despite Edward Balliol being restored as King of Scots david ii forces soon regained the ascendancy and expelled value from the country he then appealed to Edward the third for aid and Edward marched an army north and laid siege to the border town of Berwick on tweed and then defeated a numerically superior Scottish army and Archibald Douglas at the Battle of Halidon Hill in July 1333 Edward had secured England's northern border for a time as neither the English or the Scots were able to defeat the other decisively and then a peace treaty was signed in 1338 another reason for the treaty with Scotland was the growing threat of France Scotland and France had been in an alliance since 1295 in order to contain the threat from England the French had started to conduct raids on ports and towns in southern England promoting widespread rumors of a possible full-scale invasion Philip the sick for France then began to seize England's territories such as the Duchy of Aquitaine and the county upon Sir flew Edward was now in a tricky situation he could even let the King of France do as he wanted and risk weakening his own position as monarch or on the other hand take the also risky step of going to war with the French simultaneously risking an attack from the Scots in the north Edward decided for he could not afford to back down fearing his father's own fate and took the bold move of claiming the French throne which was rejected out of hand and the stage was now set for the conflict which would become known to history as the Hundred Years War one of the imminent dangers posed to England by the French was their fleet this consisted largely of galleys which were highly maneuverable and fast ships these crafts enabled the French to crossing this channel quickly and conduct the raids on southern England as previously mentioned the English however did not possess galleys relying instead on more bulky vessels called cogs these were single sailed ships often used by merchants for trading ranging from 50 to 80 feet in length and could carry as much as 200 tons as cargo Edward requisitioned these ships in large numbers to contain the French fleet and stop their trans channel raids and also the threat of them invading Lindell together he assembled his new fleet in the river Orwell in Suffolk which is the river which runs through modern-day Ipswich Edwards flagship was called the Thomas and he set sail at the head of his fleet on the 22nd of June 1314 crossing the channel towards the modern-day Netherlands town of Slice arriving on the 24th of June he had planned to sail up the river from sois and conduct raids in the area which is modern-day Belgium the French nudists however and positioned their fleet in the mouth of the rivers Wien to stop Edwards advance after conducting a reconnaissance mission of the French Armada Edwards forces attacked the massive French fleet which consisted of over 200 ships whilst Edwards fleet consisted of 120 to 150 ships he did however have the advantage with the French were at anchor and cannot maneuver to counter the English the battle which followed can in many ways be considered as a land battle at sea the English archers would pepper the decks of the French Gally's with arrows then men-at-arms would rush aboard and secure the french vessels the results of the Battle of Lewes was the total defeat of the French who suffered massive losses and lost nearly all their vessels to the English as a result with the channel now secured Edward stood down the Navy but founded a basic naval administration in coming years which in some ways can be considered as a foundation of what was to become the Royal Navy then in 1346 Edward decided to go on the offensive against the French and launched a 15,000 strong raid on Normandy his army sacked the city of calm and then marched east to meet up with other English forces in the Flanders region but they were pursued by a twenty to thirty thousand strong French army led by King Philip the sick himself Edward at first decided not to offer battle but then after finally favourable ground did a small French town of Crecy in northeastern France he turned to face them the English army consisted largely of Welsh and English troops and was divided in the main between two separate groups many arms and archers the tactics and dispositions of troops at crécy would become the basis of all of England's successful battles in the campaign and during the Hundred Years War the English would stay in a fixed position often on high ground with their flanks covered by marshes or forests and allow the enemy to come to them whilst the French were trudging through mud or fields towards English they would have to deal with a hail of arrows fired by the English using the longbow a powerful and effective weapon the longbow had originated in Wales and it's devastating accuracy and rate of fire had impressed English Kings such as Edward the first so much that it was pressed into service in English armies this later resulted in the English basing their armies and strategy around the use of the longbow it's a devastating effect in the early to middle stages of the Hundred Years War estimates suggest four at the Battle of Crecy the English deployed nearly 7,000 long bowmen and given that these archers were trained to shoot 20 hours of minutes this means for at the battle the English could fire a potential 140 thousand hours of minutes at the advancing French cavalry and infantry' considering that the French army totaled between 20 and 30,000 troops it is little wonder but after a few hours the French were in a full-scale retreat the tactics Edward had used at crécy and the power of the longbow became the backbone of England's initial success during the Hundred Years War but by the mid 15th century the French had started to use Italian mercenaries equipped with Milanese armor which was strong enough to withstand a shot from a longbow this together with the increasing use of cannon and guns in the 15th century and the steadily increasing instability in England in the lead up to the War of the Roses resulted eventually in the French taking back the vast majority of the English gains in France and would lead to them eventually winning the Hundred Years War Edward was riding high after his victory at crécy BAE's fortunes are about to improve yet again the Scots had agreed to come to the aid of France in accordance with their alliance with them and they then launched an invasion of northern England the French had a pill - King David of Scotland to intervene earlier but he was aware of Edwards forces in southern England and delayed attacking the country and so Edward and the main bulk of his army had left for France thinking that he would meet little resistance Edward had foreseen this however and had prepared for a Scottish invasion once King David started his invasion of England a small English army was raised in the Yorkshire town of Richmond under the command of the Archbishop of York William de la Zoosh and accompanied by Lord Ralph Neville and Lord Henry Percy the Scots were unaware of the English preparations and stumbled across the English army outside the city of Durham on the morning of the 17th of October 1346 the English took their usual defensive stance but after the Scots failed to attack them longbowman was sent forward and their fire forced the Scots to choose between withdrawal or attacking they chose to attack despite the English arrows and the enemy's favourable position and bitter fighting ensued by the early evening however the Scots were forced to retreat and during the rout King David himself was captured by the English now knowing that his northern border was secure Edward laid siege to Calais which lasted for nearly a year before the town surrendered Calais would remain in English hands until the reign of Henry the eighth and would be England's last territory in mainland France in 1348 Edward founded the Order of the Garter which was a chivalric order or title which the king bestowed on no more than 24 subordinates the concept was largely based on the legend of King Arthur's round table and in many ways the founding of the Order of the Garter was a political move by Edward to help him secure the loyalty of his barons and Nobles who would often be accepted into the order after proving their loyalty to him and the Order of the Garter is still in existence to this very day Edward was now at the zenith of his power and was feared and respected throughout the known world but his reign was destined to go into a downward spiral from this point on the circumstances beyond his control started to come into play the black death or bubonic plague had by this time swept across Europe and now arrived in England being carried by two sailors who landed at Weymouth Dorset in June 13:48 this pandemic quickly spread across the country being carried by fleas whose bites would infect the victim with the ax senior pestis bacteria these bacteria would then spread to the lymph nodes which are small oval-shaped organs throughout the body which helped filter foreign bodies and cancers then when established in the lymph nodes pus-filled bubo would form and the bacteria would then spread into the bloodstream and for out the body resulting in organ failure and death within a few days however people at the time had no idea that rat's borne fleas were the cause of the pandemic and were reduced to concluding but the widespread deaths meant that mankind was being punished for its sins or even that the end of days was nine imagine if you can seeing your nearest and dearest die a slow and painful death and having no idea of how to help them or what the cause might be total despair and fear were rife indeed is difficult for us in the modern world to understand what an apocalyptic events the black death was estimates state for the number of deaths in England alone were between 40 and 60 percent of the population over 3 million people out of a total population of 6 million and Edward himself was personally affected by the black death as his daughter Joan died of the infection in Bordeaux in 1348 whilst traveling to marry Peter of Castile despite the widespread chaos government did not break down an Edward and his officials were able to restrict the damage done by taking preventative measures mass graves were quickly dug and the victims were buried restricting the chances of infection and with the onset of winter the fleas being killed by the cold the crisis largely ended during the ms-13 50s Edward reignited his military operations and the continent which culminated in the Prince of Wales Edward the Black Prince winning his brilliant victory over the French at the Battle of Poitier in which much like Cressy the English defeated a larger French army under the command of the new king john ii and captured him after the battle the Black Prince was by now a national hero and feared and respected throughout Europe King Edward could have been forgiven for feeling a great sense of pride and satisfaction but his son and heir was such an able commander and that he held the love and affection of his people he would have undoubtedly been the great king in his own right and he had lived to claim the throne but sadly for him and for the country as a whole the Black Prince died of dysentery in 1376 ages 45 the later years of King Edward's life and reigned were not nearly as successful as his early reign as the King got older he handed over the running of the country and the military to his nobles and to his children but another notable achievement in his reign were the reforms to the English Parliament culminating in the good Parliament of first in 76 in which the Crown's expenses were placed under greater scrutiny and the King's councilors were replaced this was a result of a nationwide perception that the King's advisers were corrupt Parliament then demanded greater scrutiny of royal expenses which was very popular amongst the people as Edwards Wars had been paid for by taxation of the populace however the real power at this point in English history lay not with the House of Commons but instead of the House of Lords who made all the major decisions the Commons were consisted at this time by Knights of the Shire representing rural constituencies and the burgesses which came largely from the towns these Burgesses outnumbered the Knights of the Shire but has the Knights for landowners and had connections of the aristocracy they had greater political influence and were paid more to attend Parliament than the burgesses in many ways the Commons at this time was a conjurer it's through which landowners and even peasants petition Parliament's with their concerns and problems the good Parliament's of ever deferreds reigned was the greatest example yet of the Commons holding the peerage and the king to account however the reforms of the good parliament were largely reversed for a time as it had powerful opponents such as King Edward's own son John of Gaunt nevertheless the power of the House of Commons got stronger over the years and it held the nobility in successive English kings to account until in the 17th and 18th century the Commons would not only take precedence over the House of Lords but also the monarch the gradual erosion of the power of the nobility in England over the centuries was a result of it often needing money in walls and the more money the lords and indeed the monarch demanded the population the greater the discontent encountered demands became from the Commons to have a greater saying governance although perhaps rightly England and later Britain was seen as an aggressive warlike nation there is no doubt that modern Western democracies birthplace was in England and without it it is highly doubtful that there would be any representative democracy in the Western world today therefore Edward the thirds concessions were an important chapter in England becoming more democratic King Edward had obviously been greatly affected by the loss of his son and had also lost his wife Queen Philippa in 1369 this resulted in him becoming more isolated and insular and the later part of his reign and he increasingly had less and less to do with the day-to-day running of the country his health then went into a steady decline and after a period of illness the old king passed away from a stroke at xin palace in Richmond London on the 5th of July 1377 aged 64 sadly ever deferreds children in grandchildren would one day argue over their rights to the English from resulting in the houses of York and Lancaster fighting over the crown in the War of the Roses in the end everything for Edward and his forebears had fought for was lost and the Plantagenet dynasty and the War of the Roses ended in Henry Tudor defeating Richard deferred in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 Edward the third is not to blame for any of this however as it is highly likely that the War of the Roses wouldn't have happened if the Black Prince had lived in my opinion everything there but the third was able to foresee an effect in his reign was addressed with an energy intelligence and skill but very few of his predecessors and successors could match in researching this video I have read certain articles and books which state forever deferred was not a great king claiming but he was a war monger and criticizing his military adventures stating that he used England and its populations wolf to man and fund his campaigns I feel this entirely misunderstands what was expected of a medieval King of England in order to appease the English Nobles the King had to both be strong and also reward the nobility for their loyalty this often meant for the king would have to show his prowess in battle and in doing so would win him and his nobles greater wealth securing their loyalty I think Edwards reign and his energy in his early years of being King was a result of his fear of what's happened to his father and is also impart down to him following his grandfather's example many people today even historians often make the mistake of judging history and people in history by modern moral standards often stupidly thinking that they would have made different decisions had they lived at a time I counter this by stating but if you've been raised in a medieval age you would have been raised with medieval concepts of morality and values not modern ones this is why historical figures and people should be judged by the moral values and standards of the times they lived in to my mind Edward the firs achievements in life by far eclipsed those of any other medieval English King and very possibly of every other English King . he brought England's enemies to their knees founded the Order of the Garter and also founded the idea of an English national identity as well as this he made government more accountable and also did his best to help his subjects during the horror of the Black Death which is in terms of the percentage of the population which died the largest tragedy forever occurred in English and European history I find it extraordinary and really rather sad that King Edward the third is largely forgotten in England today as in my own humble opinion he is England's greatest ever King and this is why I dedicate this video to his everlasting memory you you

Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 469,056

Rating: 4.8192053 out of 5

Keywords: Edward III, King Edward III, Edward III Documentary, Edward III Biography, Life of Edward III, Edward II, Edward I, History, Historical, Documentary, Biography, Biographical, History Documentary, Historical Documentary, Medieval Documentary, Edward III battle of Sluys, Edward III batlle of Crecy, Battle of Sluys, Battle of Crecy, Edward III The Black Prince, The Black Prince, The Black Death

Id: RYLimZZ4lnk

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018

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[u/Unicorn1234]

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