Genesis of Lancaster or the Three Reigns of Edward II., Edward III., Richard II., 1307-1399

1914 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 871
Author(s):  
James Westfall Thompson ◽  
James H. Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Richard Ii ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
Edward Iii

Edward III and His Family

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Ormrod
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Large Family ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Overseas Territories ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
Exhausted Resources ◽  
Favorable Light

The chroniclers and poets of the later Middle Ages credited Edward III with many successes, among which the production of a large family rated highly. The king had a total of twelve children, of whom no fewer than nine—five sons and four daughters—survived to maturity (fig. 1). Historians have not always been enthusiastic about the generous provisions made for this large family. Edward's very fecundity, viewed by fourteenth-century writers as a sure sign of God's grace, has been seen as a political liability because it exhausted resources, created a political imbalance between the crown and the younger branches of the royal family, and led ultimately to the deposition of Richard II and the Wars of the Roses.It is possible, however, to view Edward III's family arrangements in a different and rather more favorable light. Since the loss of many of their overseas territories in the thirteenth century, the Plantagenet kings had come to regard their remaining possessions as an inalienable patrimony to be handed on intact from father to eldest son. Unless younger children were able to create titles for themselves in foreign lands, kings had no option but to reward their sons with English earldoms. This was not a policy guaranteed to benefit the crown: the bitter quarrels between Edward II and his cousin Thomas of Lancaster showed very clearly the dangers that might arise when cadet branches of the Plantagenet dynasty became bound up with the English aristocracy.

scholarly journals Edward II and Ireland (in fact and in fiction)

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (129) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.R.S. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Law ◽  
John Xxii ◽  
King John

One of the most familiar facts in the history of the medieval lordship of Ireland is that, despite plans by Henry III in 1243 and by Edward III in 1331–2, no king of England came to Ireland between the expedition of King John in 1210 and those of Richard II in 1394–5 and 1399. I am not about to subvert the historical record by revealing a previously unknown royal visit to Ireland, but there is, as I shall try to demonstrate, enough evidence, some of it very strange indeed, to justify the title of this article. The unknown author of the prophecy entitled theVerses of Gildas,who wasapparentlywriting in the middle of the reign of Edward II, forecast that in 1320 the king of England would come to Ireland after the passing of a certain grave crisis. Once in Ireland, he would bring about peace between the English and the Irish, who would live together in harmony under one English law. The English would demolish the walls of their fortifications, while the Irish would cut down the woodlands which served as their defences. On a charitable interpretation, one might find a parallel between these predictions and the letter written to Edward II by Pope John XXII in May 1318, in which the pope asked the king to give his attention to the grievances of the Irish: these grievances had been expressed at length in the famous Irish Remonstrance, which had probably been composed towards the end of 1317 and had recently been received in Avignon.

Parliament and ‘Bastard Feudalism’

1944 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 53-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. B. McFarlane
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
The Political ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
The Third ◽  
Opposite Pole ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
The Commons

‘Edward I’, said Stubbs, ‘had made his parliament the concentration of the three estates of his people; under Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II, the third estate claimed and won its place as the foremost of the three.’ While the resounding emphasis is Stubbs's own—his common sense was of the kind called robust—the sentiment expressed was then and for long afterwards the traditional one. It is only of late years that opinion has swung to the opposite pole and maintained with an equal want of compromise the absolute insignificance of the commons in the political struggles of the later middle ages. The first open challenge to tradition came, I think, from Professor J. E. Neale in 1924. Mainly concerned to trace the growth of free speech in parliament under the Tudors, he found himself confronted with a medieval background to his subject which seemed to him at variance with the course of its later development. The prologue, as it were, anticipated too much of his play. In a bold attempt to refashion it, he outlined a theory which did not at first attract much attention from medievalists, but which has recently, thanks to Mr. H. G. Richardson, begun to enjoy a considerable vogue among them.

Archbishop Melton, his Neighbours, and his Kinsmen, 1317–1340

1951 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
L. H. Butler
Keyword(s):  
Edward Ii ◽  
Comprehensive Knowledge ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
The Needy

It was probably during the thirteen-eighties that the Dominican Thomas Stubbs wrote his short lives of the Archbishops of York. A Yorkshireman, from the forest of Knaresborough, Stubbs had been a close acquaintance of Bishop Bury and Bishop Hatfield of Durham, both of whom, in earlier years, were members of the York chapter. He is therefore likely to have been well informed about his subject. His life of William Melton, archbishop from 1317 to 1340—under whom Bury had been chancellor of York—though laconic, is no merely formal piece. Its phrases suggest a comprehensive knowledge. Stubbs apparently wished to leave a distinctive impression of Melton. He tells his reader that the archbishop was severe in correcting rebels; that he kept a great household, and clothed it in his livery twice a year; that he would often cancel the amercements imposed on his tenants by his bailiffs, and would remit to the needy the farms and debts they owed him. Above all, Stubbs goes on, he frequently assisted the two kings, Edward II and Edward III, and the noble men of the land in their business, both with loans and with gifts—‘tarn ex mutuo quam ex dono’. Finally, Melton was an ardent promoter of his servants and of all his kinsmen.

John Gower, Mentor for Royalty: Richard II

PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 953-964
Author(s):  
George R. Coffman
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
John Gower ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Unresolved Problem ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
Standard Edition

This paragraph introduces a paper which illustrates a larger project: a study of aspects of Gower's works in fourteenth-century historical relationships. The objective is an interpretation of his writings as mirroring the attitude and point of view of a conservative middle-class Englishman for the years 1381-1400 and through them an interpretation of the England of his day. Though these writings show the long heritage of an economic, political, ethical, and religious past, our interest always centers in his immediate present. Non-literary contemporary records consequently provide the first essential materials for this interpretation. Macaulay's standard edition of his works, published half a century ago, based on all manuscripts then available, constitutes the printed source for this study. The high quality of Gower's preserved manuscripts, which give his own revisions, and the fact that these revisions show important changes in his attitudes toward individuals and organizations or institutions, make a re-examination of all of them now available an essential part of this interpretation and raise again the unresolved problem of his ethical integrity. Gardiner Stillwell's able article, “John Gower and the Last Years of Edward III,” provides a suggestive introduction for the interested student. The title of the present article is John Gower, Mentor for Royalty: Richard II.

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