This book was first published in 1990; the text as set out here is the same as that found in the 1990 edition and its 1993 paperback version (with minor corrections and stylistic changes), but the book has been redesigned and includes many new illustrations. I am grateful to Jonathan Reeve of Tempus for offering me the opportunity to reissue the work, and to Kate Adams and Anne Phipps for their assistance.
The 1990s was a fruitful decade for Edward III studies and much new material has become available for the study of the reign. That work, and my own continued interest in the subject, has led me to recast some of my thoughts on both the achievements and the shortcomings of the Edwardian regime: were I writing this book in 1999, it would undoubtedly be different. However, I also hold firm to my original thesis that the long period of domestic political stability during the middle decades of the fourteenth century cannot be accounted for merely in terms of successful foreign war and can only satisfactorily be explained by examining the nature and achievements of Edward’s government in England. While recent work (including my own) has tended to place much greater stress on the theme of justice than is evident in this study, I nevertheless remain convinced that the fiscal accomplishments of the mid-fourteenth century also represent the outcome of sound political management and effective administrative control.
There is still no definitive modern biography of Edward III: in spite of (or rather, perhaps, because of) the recent spate of specialised studies of the reign, it seems that the task becomes more, rather than less, challenging with the passing of time. This is inevitably a somewhat unmanageable reign, too long, too disparate, too eventful (as it were) for its own good. To write it from the perspective of 1327 is to acknowledge Edward III’s extraordinary transformation of a monarchy brought low by the personal and political ineptitude of his father into one of the most respected regimes in fourteenth-century Europe; yet to write it from the vantage point of 1377 is to emphasise the defects and weaknesses of the regime exposed to bitter public criticism in the Good Parliament and the Peasants’ Revolt. Above all, perhaps, Edward himself remains an enigma. Lacking the vividness of contemporary sources that open windows on the characters of a Henry II, a Henry V or a Henry VIII, we are left with mere fragments and constructions that are strong on the king’s attitude to fighting, less certain on his commitment to culture, decidedly shadowy on his personal vision of governance. It may be that new techniques in textual analysis may yet fill some of the holes in our understanding. In the meantime, however, the subject (both human and thematic) remains an abiding interest precisely because it is so uncertain and so fluid.
I have never liked the notion of intellectual monopolisation that lies behind the claim that Edward III is ‘my’ king; rather, I offer this book as representing something of ‘my’ personal interpretation of that king and of his reign. It is in the contrasts that emerge between this and other, less sympathetic, studies that we will begin to find if not the definitive Edward III then at least a new, more vivid and more dynamic picture of political life in fourteenth-century England.
Mark Ormrod
November 1999