King Edward III

The Armoury's  exclusive range of intricately hand painted mounted armoured knights cover the period AD1100 to up the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1485, and includes English kings from Richard the Lionheart, through to Edward I, Edward III, the Black Prince and Richard III. Each figure combines high quality sculpting with historically accurate heraldic painting by internationally acknowledged painters, who spend up to 80 hours on each figure. The overall dimensions of the 90mm scale cast metal knights are aproximately 6 inches in length x 7 inches high. Prices range from £850 to £1200. Sculptures can be painted to specific heraldic designs on request.

King Edward III of England

Edward III (1312 –1377) was one of the most successful English kings of medieval times. His fifty-year reign began when his father, Edward II of England, was deposed on 25 January 1327, and lasted until 1377. Among his immediate predecessors, only Henry III ruled as long, and it would be over 400 years before another monarch would occupy the throne for that duration Edward's reign was marked by an expansion of English territory through wars in Scotland and France. Edward's parentage and his prodigious offspring provided the basis for two lengthy and significant events in European and British history, the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses, respectively.

Edward III, also later referred to as Edward of Windsor from the place of his birth. Crowned at age 14 and married at 15, he was strongly influenced by women throughout his long life. His mother literally captured his throne for him, his wife carefully guided him through many years of war, and his mistress shoved him into and through his dotage. The chronicles imply that Edward III welcomed these female influences, and he seemed eager to accept a new woman each time an older one became useless to him.

Edward III was crowned in 1327 at the age of 14, and married Philippa of Hainault on in 1328. The couple produced thirteen children, including five sons who reached maturity. Their eldest son and Edward's heir apparent, Edward the Black Prince (so called because he wore a black suit of armor) was born in 1330 and was a famed military leader. In the same year as Edward's marriage, his uncle Charles IV of France died without male heirs. Charles' brothers had also died without male heirs. Charles' sister, Isabella, was Edward's mother, making Edward the senior surviving male descendant of King Philip IV (Charles' and Isabella's father) him a tentative claim to the French throne. At the time Edward's younger brother John, Earl of Cornwall, was the only other living male descendant of Philip IV.

As Edward was still a minor when his father was deposed power passed his mother Isabella of France and her lover, Roger Mortimer. In 1330, the seventeen-year old Edward seized control of government, overthrowing Mortimer, who was executed, and removing Isabella from power and public life.

The reign of Edward III was marked by continued war with Scotland, but much more by the war with France. His first major military success was the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, which he won in support of Edward Balliol, pretender to the Scottish throne, to the detriment of his own brother-in-law David II of Scotland, husband of Edward's sister Joan of the Tower.

Edward's claim to the French throne was contested by French nobles who invoked Salic Law, which held that the royal succession could not pass through a female line (such as Edward's mother Isabella, or Queen Joan II of Navarre). The French nobles therefore asserted that the legitimate king of France was Philip VI, Edward's cousin and heir to Charles of Valois, a younger son of Philip III. This however was only one issue in a war that would out live all of the original actors.
The conflict was rooted in one that dated back to William the Conqueror. Since the English kings were also land holders in France there were continual issues that arose whenever these two came into conflict. The performances of homage and fealty were sources of contention. Every time a new King ascended to the French throne they would summon the Kings of England as holders of at first Normandy and later Aquitaine to perform their duties as French lords. Since Edward outlived many of the French kings this was an often occurring source of conflict. Edward's main objective in the conflict was to secure his rights to his land in Aquitaine as Duke of Aquitaine. His claim to the French throne was used as a political tool of war, used and discarded as the occasion demanded.

Originally Edward concluded an alliance with Emperor Louis IV in July 1337, declared war on Philip VI and later declared himself king of France in 1340 in Ghent. The conflict became known as the Hundred Years' War, continuing in hot and cold phases up to the 1450s. The war did not begin smoothly for Edward. He was forced to borrow large sums of money in order to finance his alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor. He bankrupted his creditors, was forced to pawn his crown, and eventually turned to a disastrous foray into the wool trade. However, in 1346, Edward defeated the French at the Battle of Crecy, accompanied in this campaign by his sixteen year old son, the Black Prince. This victory turned the war in favor of the English for a time. Because of the victory Edward was able to capture Calais, which became an English entry point to France.

The Black Prince commanded England's victorious army at the Battle of Poitiers, in 1356. The first phase of the Hundred Years' War was concluded in 1360 with the Treaty of Brétigny, marking the height of English influence in France and providing a three million crown ransom for the release of the captured French king, John II.

While these victories were eventually reversed, and then won and lost again in the resulting generations of war, English and, later, British monarchs would continue to claim the title "King of France" until the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Edward III quartered his coat of arms with "France Ancient", the Azure semé-de-lis (a blue shield with a tight pattern of small golden fleur de lis of the French royal house), and it remained a part of the English Coat of Arms until removed by George III.

Edward III also founded an order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, allegedly as a result of an incident when a lady, with whom he was dancing at a court ball, dropped an item of intimate apparel (possibly a sanitary belt, though sources describe it as being made of velvet). Gallantly picking it up to assuage her embarrassment, Edward tied it around his own leg, and remarked Honi soit qui mal y pense ('Shame on him who thinks evil of it'), which became the motto of the Order of the Garter. The woman in the incident is known only as the "Countess of Salisbury". Some say it was Edward's daughter-in-law, Joan of Kent, but a more likely candidate is Joan's mother-in-law from her first marriage. This order was part of the war machine that Edward turned England into. The Order of the Garter headquarters would become Windsor Castle, a castle that was largely improved upon by Edward himself. Windsor became England's premier royal residence and castle during his reign.