ENGLISH MONARCHY'S THE PLANTAGENETS BETWEEN 1307--1399

ENGLISH

MONARCHY'S

THE

PLANTAGENETS

BETWEEN

1307--1399

QUEEN ISABELLA

(1308--1327)

**Isabella of France** (c. 1295 – 22 August 1358)
Nicknamed the “She-Wolf of France” (a later, romanticised label)

### Key Facts
- **Born**: c. 1295, probably Paris (exact date unknown)
- **Died**: 22 August 1358 (aged ~63), Hertford Castle, England
- **Buried**: Greyfriars Church, London (her wedding dress was buried with her)
- **Queen consort of England**: 25 January 1308 – 20 January 1327
- **Regent for her son Edward III**: 1327–1330 (de facto ruler with Roger Mortimer)
- **Parents**: King Philip IV “the Fair” of France and Joan I of Navarre
- **Siblings**: Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV of France (all three became kings)
- **Spouse**: Edward II of England (m. 25 January 1308, Boulogne)
- **Children with Edward II**:
- Edward III (1312–1377)
- John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall (1316–1336)
- Eleanor of Woodstock (1318–1355)
- Joan of the Tower, Queen of Scots (1321–1362)

### Major Phases of Her Life

#### 1. Childhood and Marriage (1295–1308)
- Daughter of the powerful and ruthless Philip IV of France.
- Married Edward II at age ~12 in a grand ceremony at Boulogne-sur-Mer (25 Jan 1308) to seal peace between England and France.
- Described at the time as extraordinarily beautiful (“the beauty of beauties … in the kingdom if not in all Europe”).

#### 2. Queen Consort (1308–1326): Humiliation and Exclusion
- Quickly sidelined by Edward II’s obsession with Piers Gaveston (whom she hated).
- Gaveston was godfather to her first child (Edward III) yet mocked her publicly.
- After Gaveston’s execution (1312), Hugh Despenser the Younger became the new royal favourite; the Despensers treated Isabella with open contempt and seized much of her property.
- By 1325 she was effectively estranged from her husband and stripped of income.

#### 3. Diplomatic Mission and Rebellion (1325–1326)
- Sent by Edward II to France in 1325 to negotiate with her brother Charles IV over Gascony.
- Refused to return to England while the Despensers remained in power.
- Began an open affair with the exiled Marcher lord Roger Mortimer (who had escaped the Tower of London in 1323).
- From the continent she issued a famous declaration: “I feel that marriage is a joining together of man and woman … and someone has come between my husband and myself.”

#### 4. The Invasion of 1326 – “The She-Wolf in Action”
- On 24 September 1326 Isabella and Mortimer landed at Orwell (Suffolk) with a tiny force of ~700–1,500 men.
- The country rose almost unanimously against Edward II and the Despensers.
- Hugh Despenser the Younger was captured and subjected to a gruesome public execution (hanged, drawn, and quartered) at Hereford in November 1326; Edward II was captured soon after.
- Isabella was now de facto ruler of England.

#### 5. Regency with Mortimer (1327–1330)
- Edward II forced to abdicate (January 1327); 14-year-old Edward III crowned.
- Isabella and Mortimer ruled as regents.
- Ordered (or acquiesced in) the probable murder of Edward II at Berkeley Castle (September 1327).
- Extravagant court, massive grants of land and money to themselves, deeply unpopular.
- Executed Edward II’s half-brother Edmund Earl of Kent (1330) on a trumped-up charge, which shocked the nobility.

#### 6. Downfall (1330)
- In October 1330 the 18-year-old Edward III staged a coup at Nottingham Castle.
- Roger Mortimer was arrested in Isabella’s bedchamber, tried, and hanged at Tyburn (November 1330).
- Isabella was spared (she was, after all, the king’s mother). Legend says she screamed “Fair son, have pity on gentle Mortimer!” – almost certainly apocryphal.

#### 7. Retirement (1330–1358)
- Confined for ~2 years at Berkhamsted and Windsor, then gradually allowed freedom.
- Granted a generous income (£3,000 a year, later increased).
- Lived quietly but luxuriously, mostly at her castles (Castle Rising in Norfolk was a favourite).
- Became close to her son Edward III again and was a doting grandmother to his many children.
- Took Franciscan vows late in life but never became a nun.
- Died peacefully on 22 August 1358 and was buried with Edward II’s heart (a silver casket) on her breast.

### Reputation
- Medieval chroniclers were vicious: portrayed her as cruel, adulterous, and murderous (“Jezebel,” “iron virago”).
- Victorian historians romanticised her as a wronged woman who liberated England from a tyrant.
- Modern view: a capable, determined woman operating in an extremely patriarchal world; her invasion of 1326 was one of the most successful in English history, but her ruthless rule with Mortimer alienated almost everyone.

In essence: the only queen of England ever to successfully overthrow her husband and rule the kingdom herself (albeit briefly). Her life is one of the great dramatic arcs of medieval history.

English historical tradition has been extraordinarily harsh — and extraordinarily inconsistent — towards **Queen Isabella of France** (1295–1358), the wife of Edward II and mother of Edward III. Nicknamed the **“She-Wolf of France”**, she is one of the most demonised (and later romanticised) women in English history.

### The Traditional English Portrayal (14th–19th centuries)
For centuries the dominant image was almost entirely negative:

- **Adulteress and murderess**
She took Roger Mortimer as her lover and openly lived with him while Edward II was still alive. Most chroniclers (Lanercost, Froissart, etc.) accuse her of direct complicity in the horrific murder of Edward II at Berkeley Castle in 1327 (the famous red-hot poker story, though probably propaganda).

- **Unnatural woman and power-hungry virago**
She led an armed invasion of England in 1326 with foreign (Hainault) mercenaries, deposed her own husband, and ruled as de facto regent through Mortimer for three years. Chroniclers called her cruel, vindictive, and “Jezebel”.

- **The “She-Wolf of France**
The nickname first appears in the 1757 play *Edward III* by William Shirley, but it caught on instantly. By the 18th and 19th centuries poets (Thomas Gray’s 1757 poem *The Bard*), novelists, and historians portrayed her as a beautiful but merciless predator who destroyed her husband and terrorised the kingdom.

- **Responsible for the disasters of Edward II’s reign**
Victorian historians often blamed her for humiliating England by running off with Mortimer and handing English policy over to a low-born favourite.

### 20th–21st Century Reassessment
Modern scholarship has dramatically softened — and in many cases reversed — the picture:

- **Victim of an abusive marriage**
Edward II’s obsessive favouritism toward Piers Gaveston and later Hugh Despenser the Younger left Isabella humiliated, sidelined, and eventually stripped of her lands and children. Her 1325–26 diplomatic mission to France (officially to negotiate peace) became her only chance to escape.

- **Successful invader and protector of the realm**
Her 1326 invasion was astonishingly bloodless and massively popular. London and most of the nobility flocked to her and her 14-year-old son (the future Edward III). She presented herself not as a rebel, but as the liberator removing the tyrannical Despensers.

- **Capable regent**
Between 1327 and 1330 she and Mortimer governed competently: they ended the disastrous Scottish war (Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton 1328), restored financial stability, and kept the peace.

- **Scapegoat for Edward II’s murder**
Most historians now think the red-hot-poker story was propaganda spread by her enemies after 1330. There is no solid evidence she ordered or even knew about Edward II’s death (and some evidence he may have survived until the early 1340s).

- **Brilliant but ruthless politician**
Today she is often admired as a woman who, in an age that gave women almost no political space, managed to topple a reigning king and rule England for three years.

### Current Consensus (2020–2025)
The modern view in serious history (Alison Weir, Lisa Hilton, Kathryn Warner, Paul Doherty, Seymour Phillips, etc.) is roughly:

- Isabella was neither a saint nor a she-wolf.
- She was a highly intelligent, charismatic French princess who endured years of neglect and danger, then seized her moment in 1326, and governed effectively until her teenage son was ready to rule.
- Her great “sin” in medieval eyes was transgressing gender norms: a woman who wore armour, raised an army, deposed a king, took a lover, and ruled in her son’s name.
- Edward III’s coup in 1330 (arresting and later hanging Mortimer, forcing Isabella into retirement) was remarkably gentle toward his mother — she was given a generous income, castles, and freedom to travel, and lived in luxury until her death in 1358. This suggests even Edward III did not believe the worst accusations against her.

### Popular Culture Today
- Still called the “She-Wolf” (Braveheart, World Without End, The King on Netflix, etc.), but now usually portrayed as a glamorous, tragic anti-heroine rather than a simple villain.
- Many novelists (Maurice Druon’s *The Accursed Kings* series, Susan Howatch, etc.) and recent biographies present her sympathetically.

**In short:**
Traditional English history painted Isabella as one of the great wicked queens. Modern history sees her as one of the most formidable and successful queen consorts England ever had — a woman who, for a few extraordinary years, ruled the kingdom more effectively than her husband ever did.

The famous line that turned Isabella into the ultimate “She-Wolf” in English popular imagination is this couplet from Thomas Gray’s 1757 poem *The Bard*:

> “She-Wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,
> That tear’st the bowels of thy mangled mate,
> From thee be born, who o’er thy country hangs
> The scourge of Heav’n. …”

But the single image that has stuck even harder — the one that made her a near-mythical monster — is the claim that in September 1326 she **literally swam the Channel** to invade England.

### Where did “Isabella swam the Channel” come from?

It is pure 18th- and 19th-century romantic exaggeration, but it is based on a kernel of truth that got wildly embellished.

#### The real events (September 1326)
- Isabella and Roger Mortimer were in Hainault (modern Belgium) raising money and troops for the invasion.
- They hired a small fleet of about 80–100 ships from the Count of Hainault (paid for by Isabella pledging her son Prince Edward’s marriage to Philippa of Hainault).
- On 24 September 1326 the fleet sailed from Dordrecht, crossed the North Sea, and landed unopposed at Orwell in Suffolk.
- The crossing took roughly 24 hours in good weather.

That’s it. A perfectly normal medieval Channel crossing in hired ships.

#### How it turned into “she swam”
By the 1770s–1780s, when anti-French feeling was high in Britain, playwrights and pamphleteers wanted a more lurid image of the wicked Frenchwoman who destroyed an English king.

- 1777 – A popular print shows Isabella standing on the French shore in armour, sword raised, waves crashing around her, captioned “The She-Wolf crosses the sea to devour England.”
- 1790s – A children’s history book claims she “leapt into the waves and swam at the head of her army.”
- By the 1830s school textbooks were flatly stating she “swam the Channel with her lover Mortimer clinging to her neck.”
- Victorian melodramas literally had actresses wading on stage through blue-painted cloth while singing about vengeance.

The image stuck so hard that even in the 20th century some popular histories still repeated it as fact.

### Why the “swimming” myth worked so well
1. **Gender transgression** – A woman doing something physically impossible for a man made her unnatural, demonic.
2. **Animal imagery** – Wolves swim rivers to hunt; a she-wolf swimming the sea made her a supernatural predator.
3. **Anti-French propaganda** – In the 18th–19th centuries Britain was almost continually at war with France; painting the most infamous French-born queen as an aquatic monster was perfect propaganda.

### Modern verdict
No serious historian since about 1920 has believed she swam. The original chroniclers (Froissart, le Baker, Murimuth, etc.) all say she sailed in the normal way. But the myth is so powerful that it still appears:

- In Ken Follett’s *World Without End* (2007) there is a tongue-in-cheek nod to it.
- In the 2018 Netflix series *The King* the line is jokingly referenced.
- Even some recent “fun fact” social-media posts still claim it.

### So the real “She-Wolf” crossing was:
A highly competent, well-financed amphibious operation led by a 31-year-old queen who managed to transport 700–1,500 armed men across the water, land without opposition, and topple a reigning king in six weeks — all while wearing silk and velvet, not a wetsuit.

Far more impressive than swimming… and far more terrifying to medieval (and later) patriarchies.

Here is a clear, chronological map of Queen Isabella’s shifting political alliances from 1308 to her death in 1358. She was never a passive consort; she built, broke, and rebuilt coalitions with extraordinary skill, always with one constant goal: **protect herself and her children, and later to wield power in her son’s name**.

### Phase 1: 1308–1322 — The Isolated French Princess
- **Alliance**: Her father Philip IV of France and her brothers (Louis X, Philip V, Charles IV)
- Purpose: Protection against Edward II’s favourites (Piers Gaveston, then Hugh Despenser the Younger).
- Reality: Weak. The French kings used her only as a diplomatic pawn and refused to help when Edward II confiscated her lands and took her children in 1324.

- **English magnates**: Very few reliable ones. The earls of Lancaster and Hereford disliked her because she was French and initially loyal to Edward II.

Outcome: Almost no domestic allies by 1324–25. She was politically cornered.

### Phase 2: 1325–1326 — The Great Realignment in France
- **New core alliance**:
- Count William I of Hainault (and his brother John)
- Key bargain: Betrothal of Prince Edward (future Edward III) to William’s daughter Philippa → in exchange Hainault provided money, ships, and 700–1,500 mercenaries for the 1326 invasion.
- Pope John XXII (Avignon) — gave tacit blessing and excommunicated the Despensers.
- Disaffected English exiles in Paris: Bishop Orleton of Hereford, Henry Beaumont, the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln, etc.

- **Turning the English nobility**:
- Once she landed in England (24 Sept 1326), almost every major magnate defected to her within weeks:
    - Her half-uncles Thomas of Norfolk and Edmund of Kent
    - Henry “Tort-Col” de Lancaster (brother of the executed earl)
    - Almost the entire episcopate except two Despenser loyalists

Outcome: A coalition that swept Edward II from the throne in six weeks with almost no fighting.

### Phase 3: 1327–1330 — The Mortimer Regime
- **Inner circle**:
- Roger Mortimer, Earl of March — lover and de facto co-ruler
- Adam Orleton, Bishop of Hereford — chief propagandist and diplomat
- Henry Burghersh Bishop of Lincoln — chancellor
- A small clique of Marcher lords loyal to Mortimer

- **Outer circle (kept at arm’s length)**:
- Henry of Lancaster (never fully trusted Mortimer)
- The young King Edward III (aged 14–17) — outwardly obedient but increasingly resentful

- **Foreign policy**:
- Peace with Scotland (Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton 1328) — deeply unpopular in England
- Continued good relations with Hainault and France

This regime was stable for three years but rested on a narrow base and massive unpopularity over the Scottish treaty.

### Phase 4: October 1330 — Edward III’s Coup at Nottingham
- **New alliance** (secret until the last moment):
- Edward III (now 17) and a small group of trusted friends (William Montagu, Edward Bohun, etc.)
- Most of the higher nobility quietly supported or acquiesced in Mortimer’s arrest

Result: Mortimer hanged at Tyburn (Nov 1330). Isabella was spared, retired with honour and a huge income (£3,000–£4,000 a year), and never politically active again.

### Phase 5: 1330–1358 — The Dowager Queen
- **Final alliance**: Her son Edward III
- She became a respected elder stateswoman.
- Close to Queen Philippa (her daughter-in-law from the 1326 Hainault marriage).
- Acted as godmother to several grandchildren, including the Black Prince’s children.
- Regularly visited court, mediated minor disputes, and lived in great comfort at Castle Rising (Norfolk) and Hertford.

### Summary Table of Isabella’s Major Alliances

| Years       | Main Allies                                      | Purpose / Outcome                                      |
|-------------|--------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| 1308–1324   | French royal family                              | Little real help; ultimately abandoned her               |
| 1325–1326   | Hainault, English exiles, English bishops        | Built invasion force; toppled Edward II                  |
| 1326–1330   | Roger Mortimer + Marcher lords + some bishops    | Ruled England as regents; unpopular Scottish peace       |
| Oct 1330    | Edward III + Montagu circle                      | Coup that ended her rule but saved her life and status   |
| 1330–1358 | Edward III and Philippa of Hainault              | Honourable retirement; became beloved dowager queen      |

### Verdict
Isabella was one of the most skilful alliance-builders of the entire Middle Ages. In 1325 she had almost no one; by 1327 October 1326 she had the entire kingdom. She lost power in 1330 not because her alliances collapsed, but because her son grew up and no longer needed a regent. The fact that she died peacefully in her bed, rich and honoured, after everything she had done, is the final proof of how deftly she played the game.

**King Edward II of England** (1284–1327)
Full name: Edward of Caernarfon

### Key Facts
- **Born**: 25 April 1284, Caernarfon Castle, Wales
- **Died**: 21 September 1327 (aged 43), Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire (officially of natural causes; widely believed murdered)
- **Reign**: 7 July 1307 – 20/25 January 1327 (deposed)
- **House**: Plantagenet
- **Parents**: Edward I “Longshanks” and Eleanor of Castile
- **Spouse**: Isabella of France (m. 1308)
- **Children**: Edward III (legitimate), Adam FitzRoy (illegitimate), and possibly others
- **Succession**: First English king to be formally deposed

### Major Aspects of His Reign and Life

#### 1. Early Life and Prince of Wales
- Created the first English Prince of Wales in 1301 (the title has been held by the heir apparent ever since).
- Grew up in a martial, authoritarian court under his formidable father Edward I.

#### 2. Personality and Controversial Favorites
- Widely criticized by contemporaries for favoring low-born or socially inferior men over the nobility:
- Piers Gaveston (c. 1300–1312): childhood friend, possibly lover; made Earl of Cornwall; exiled three times; eventually captured and executed by barons in 1312.
- Hugh Despenser the Younger (c. 1318–1326): became the king’s chief favorite after Gaveston’s death; amassed huge power and wealth, deeply hated by the nobility and Queen Isabella.

#### 3. Military Failures
- Disastrous campaign against Scotland:
- Defeated catastrophically at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) by Robert the Bruce; effectively ended English attempts to conquer Scotland for a generation.
- Lost most English holdings in Gascony (southwest France) by the mid-1320s.

#### 4. Political Crises and Civil War
- Chronic conflict with the baronial opposition (the “Lords Ordainer”).
- 1321–1322: The Despenser War – barons rose against Hugh Despenser; Edward crushed the rebellion (Battle of Boroughbridge, 1322) and executed many opponents, including his own cousin Thomas of Lancaster.
- This brutal victory created deep resentment.

#### 5. Deposition (1326–1327)
- Queen Isabella (“the She-Wolf of France”) and her lover Roger Mortimer invaded England in September 1326 with a small force.
- Almost the entire country deserted Edward II within weeks.
- Edward was captured in November 1326, forced to abdicate in January 1327 in favor of his 14-year-old son Edward III.
- Imprisoned at Berkeley Castle.

#### 6. Death
- Officially died of natural causes on 21 September 1327.
- Contemporary chronicles and later tradition claim he was murdered, most famously by having a red-hot poker thrust into his bowels (a symbolically humiliating death rumored because of alleged homosexuality). Modern historians consider murder likely but the poker story probably propaganda.

### Historical Reputation
- One of England’s most unsuccessful kings: weak, extravagant, vindictive when crossed, and unable to control his favorites.
- First monarch formally deposed since the Anglo-Saxon period.
- His reign is seen as the low point between the strong rule of Edward I and the eventual successes of Edward III.

### Sexuality
- Contemporary chroniclers accused him of an “unnatural” relationship with Gaveston and later Despenser.
- Modern historians debate whether he was homosexual, bisexual, or whether the accusations were political smears; the truth is impossible to prove, but his intense emotional attachments to male favorites are undisputed.

### Cultural Legacy
- Subject of Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward II (c. 1592), which portrays him as openly homosexual.
- Appears in the film Braveheart (1995) in a highly fictionalized and caricatured form.
- Frequently ranked among England’s worst monarchs in historical polls.

In short: a tragic, incompetent king whose obsession with unpopular favorites led to rebellion, invasion by his own wife, deposition, and probable murder. His 20-year reign (1307–1327) remains one of the great disasters of medieval English history.

### Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377)
King of England 1327–1377 (reigned 50 years, 148 days)
One of the three or four greatest warrior-kings in English history, alongside Alfred, Henry V, and (in some rankings) Henry II.

#### The Five Acts of His Reign

1. **1312–1330 – The Boy King and the Mortimer Regime**
   - Born at Windsor, only surviving son of Edward II and Isabella of France.
   - Aged 14, proclaimed king January 1327 after his mother’s invasion deposed Edward II.
   - Real power held by Isabella and Roger Mortimer 1327–1330.
   - 18 October 1330 (age 17): daring night coup at Nottingham Castle. Edward and a handful of friends (led by William Montagu) entered through a secret passage, arrested Mortimer in his mother’s bedroom, and had him hanged a month later. Isabella was retired with honour.
   → From this moment Edward III ruled in his own right.

2. **1330–1340 – The Making of a Chivalric Superstar**
   - Restored royal finances, crushed Scottish incursions (Halidon Hill 1333).
   - Began claiming the French throne through his mother (1337).
   - Founded the Order of the Garter (1348) – still Britain’s highest order of chivalry.
   - Turned the court into the most glamorous in Europe: round tables, jousts, Arthurian cosplay.

3. **1340–1360 – The Golden Decade: England’s Imperial Zenith**
   Greatest victories:
   - Sluys (naval, 1340)
   - Crécy (1346)
   - Poitiers (1356) – Black Prince captures King John II of France
   - Calais captured 1347 (remained English until 1558)

   Treaty of Brétigny (1360):
   - Edward renounced his claim to the French crown (temporarily).
   - In return received Aquitaine, Gascony, Poitou, Calais, Ponthieu etc. in full sovereignty – the largest territory ever ruled by an English king since 1066.

   For a brief moment England was the dominant military power in western Europe.

4. **1360–1369 – Philippa’s Death and the Slow Decline**
   - Queen Philippa died 1369 after a long illness. Edward was shattered and never fully recovered emotionally.
   - Began a controversial affair with Alice Perrers (a low-born lady-in-waiting) who dominated the ageing king.
   - War in France restarted 1369; English gains began to slip away.

5. **1369–1377 – The Sad Sunset**
   - Black Prince died 1376 (dysentery and battle wounds).
   - Edward himself became senile and bedridden from 1376.
   - Alice Perrers and a clique of courtiers looted the treasury.
   - Died at Sheen Palace 21 June 1377, aged 64. Succeeded by 10-year-old grandson Richard II.

#### Achievements
- Longest reign between Henry III and George III.
- Turned a bankrupt, humiliated kingdom (1327) into the pre-eminent military power of Europe (1360).
- Created the medieval “national myth” of English chivalry that still lingers (Crécy, Poitiers, Garter, Black Prince).
- Parliamentary system matured under him: Commons became a permanent taxing and petitioning body.
- English replaced French as the language of law and administration.

#### Children (with Philippa of Hainault)
- Edward the Black Prince (1330–1376)
- Isabella (1332–1379)
- Joan (1333–1348, plague)
- Lionel of Antwerp (1338–1368)
- John of Gaunt (1340–1399)
- Edmund of Langley (1341–1402)
- Mary (1344–1362)
- Margaret (1346–1361)
- Thomas of Woodstock (1355–1397)
Plus three who died in infancy.

#### Reputation
- Contemporary chroniclers worshipped him: Froissart called his court “the most brilliant in Christendom”.
- 15th–18th centuries: seen as the perfect king – warrior, lawgiver, pious, generous.
- Victorian historians slightly downgraded him for the Alice Perrers scandal and for losing most of France again.
- Modern ranking (Ormrod, Mortimer, Prestwich, Sumption): usually top 3–5 medieval English kings, often just behind or slightly ahead of his grandfather Edward I.

#### Famous last words (according to tradition)
When priests urged him to repent on his deathbed, the dying king reportedly whispered:
“I have loved too much earthly glory.”

#### Verdict
Edward III gave England its single most glorious half-century in the entire Middle Ages. His reign is the moment when the small, rainy island off the coast of Europe could genuinely claim to be the greatest military and chivalric power on the continent. Almost everything that later generations think of as “medieval English splendour” – the longbow victories, the Garter, the Black Prince, Westminster Hall’s hammer-beam roof – begins with him.

### Philippa of Hainault (c. 24 June 1314 – 15 August 1369)
Queen consort of England 1328–1369, wife of Edward III, mother of the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, and nine other surviving children

#### Short verdict
Philippa is almost universally regarded as one of the most successful and beloved queen consorts in English history: kind, diplomatic, financially astute, politically moderate, and personally adored by Edward III for forty-one years. She is the quiet counter-balance to the dramatic legend of her mother-in-law Isabella.

#### Life in five acts

1. **1314–1327 – The Hainault Bargain**
   Born in Valenciennes, fourth daughter of Count William I “the Good” of Hainault and Joan of Valois (grand-daughter of Philip III of France).
   1326–27: Isabella of France, desperate for money and ships to invade England, betroths the 13-year-old Prince Edward to 12-year-old Philippa in exchange for Hainault military support.
   December 1327: Philippa sails to England only **after** Isabella and Mortimer have already won. She lands as the fiancée of the new boy-king Edward III.

2. **1328–1340 – The Perfect Young Queen**
   - Married Edward III at York Minster, 24 January 1328 (she 13–14, he 15).
   - Rapidly wins universal popularity: generous, pious, speaks English quickly, loves tournaments and romance literature.
   - Begins almost annual pregnancies: 12 children born 1330–1355, 9 survive infancy (extraordinary for the time).
   - Acts as mediator during the 1330 Nottingham coup: she is seven months pregnant and personally pleads with her teenage husband to spare Isabella’s life.

3. **1340–1360 – The Queen at the Height of Edward III’s Glory**
   - Regularly accompanies Edward on campaign (1346–47 Crécy-Calais campaign she is with him until just before the battle).
   - Famous mercy at Calais (1347): legend says she begs Edward to spare the six burghers (probably embroidered, but reflects her reputation).
   - Runs the royal household with spectacular efficiency; keeps detailed accounts (the first English queen whose household books largely survive).
   - Patron of Queen’s College, Oxford (founded 1341 in her honour).
   - Close friendship with Queen Isabella in her retirement; the two women often live near each other and exchange gifts.

4. **1360–1369 – The Matriarch**
   - After the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) England is at the peak of power; Philippa is the dignified centre of a glittering court.
   - Health begins to fail (probably dropsy/edema and possibly old injuries from a riding accident).
   - 1361–62: her eldest son Lionel and favourite daughter Isabella die; she never fully recovers.
   - 1369: dies at Windsor on 15 August, aged about 55. Edward III is devastated; he never remarries and wears black for the rest of his life.

#### Children (the “Plantagenet nursery” that shaped later English history)
1. Edward “the Black Prince” (1330–1376)
2. Isabella (1332–1379)
3. Joan (1333–1348, died of plague)
4. William of Hatfield (1337, died infant)
5. Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence (1338–1368)
6. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399)
7. Edmund of Langley, Duke of York (1341–1402)
8. Blanche (1342, died infant)
9. Mary (1344–1362)
10. Margaret (1346–1361)
11. Thomas of Windsor (1347–1348, died infant)
12. William of Windsor (1348, died infant)
13. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (1355–1397)

#### Reputation
- Contemporary chroniclers (Froissart, Chandos Herald) call her “the good queen” (la bonne reine).
- No scandals, no political faction, no accusations of greed or cruelty – unique among 14th-century English queens.
- Modern historians (Ormrod, Mortimer, Weir, Packe) rank her with Eleanor of Aquitaine and Catherine of Aragon as one of the three outstanding medieval English consorts.

#### Death and legacy
Buried in Westminster Abbey with great pomp. Edward III commissioned a magnificent alabaster effigy (still visible today) showing her as serene and beautiful even in death.
Her descendants through John of Gaunt and Edmund of York eventually produce both the Lancastrian and Yorkist claimants in the Wars of the Roses – meaning every English monarch from 1461 onward descends from Philippa.

In short: the quiet Flemish girl who was bought as a mercenary contract in 1326 became, for four decades, the steady heart of the most successful and glamorous reign in medieval English history.

### Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales
“The Black Prince”
(15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376)

The greatest English warrior of the 14th century and the living embodiment of his father Edward III’s chivalric dream. He never became king, dying one year before his father, but for twenty years he was the most famous knight in Europe.

#### Timeline & Major Phases

1. 1330–1346 – The Prodigy
   - Born at Woodstock Palace, eldest son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault.
   - 1333 (age 3): created Earl of Chester
   - 1337 (age 7): created Duke of Cornwall (first English dukedom ever)
   - 1343 (age 13): created Prince of Wales
   - Trained relentlessly in arms from childhood; already 6′2″ and a tournament champion by 16.

2. 1346–1348 – Crécy and Calais: Birth of the Legend
   - 16 years old at the Battle of Crécy (26 August 1346).
     - Commanded the English right wing.
     - Overwhelmed by French knights, knocked to his knees, helmet battered.
     - Refused his father’s offer of reinforcements, saying: “Let the boy win his spurs.”
     - Victory made him an instant European celebrity.
   - Took John of Bohemia’s ostrich-feather crest and triple plume motto “Ich dien” as his own (still used by Princes of Wales today).
   - 1347: present at the siege and surrender of Calais.
   - 1348: founding knight of the Order of the Garter (motto on his tomb: “Honi soit qui mal y pense”).

3. 1350–1355 – The Chivalric Superstar
   - 1350: naval victory off Winchelsea (“Les Espagnols sur Mer”) against Castile.
   - Constant jousting and tournaments across England–France.
   - Married his cousin Joan of Kent (“the Fair Maid of Kent”) in 1361 – a love match that scandalised the court but was passionately happy.

4. 1355–1359 – The Chevauchée Years in France
   - 1355: devastating raid across southern France.
   - 1356: the defining moment – Battle of Poitiers (19 September 1356)
     - 6,000–8,000 English vs 12,000–15,000 French.
     - Captured King John II of France and his youngest son Philip.
     - Carried them back to London in triumph (1357).
     - Ransomed John for 3 million gold crowns (never fully paid).

5. 1362–1371 – Prince of Aquitaine
   - 1362: granted the huge principality of Aquitaine by his father (basically south-west France).
   - Moved to Bordeaux with Joan and their two sons.
   - Ruled as a semi-independent sovereign prince.
   - 1367: Greatest single campaign – Battle of Nájera (3 April 1367) in Castile
     - Restored Pedro the Cruel to the Castilian throne.
     - Fought in 40 °C heat wearing full black armour → the nickname “Black Prince” first appears in writing around this time (probably from the colour of his armour or shield).

6. 1369–1376 – Decline and Death
   - 1369–70: French war restarts; Aquitaine revolts against heavy taxes needed to pay for Nájera.
   - 1370: massacre at Limoges (ordered reprisals after the city betrayed him) – the one serious stain on his chivalric reputation.
   - Chronic illness (probably amoebic dysentery caught in Spain, possibly compounded by nephritis or cancer).
   - 1371: forced to return to England a broken man; can no longer ride or even walk without crutches.
   - 1372: attempts one last voyage to relieve La Rochelle but is blown back by storms.
   - Dies at Westminster Palace 8 June 1376, aged 45, one week before his 46th birthday.
   - His father Edward III, already senile, dies exactly one year later (21 June 1377).
   - Succeeded by his 10-year-old son Richard II.

#### Tomb & Legacy (Canterbury Cathedral)
- Magnificent gilt-bronze effigy in full armour (still one of the finest medieval tombs in Europe).
- Epitaph (in French) composed by himself:
“Such as thou art, so once was I.
As I am now, so shalt thou be.”

#### Reputation
- To contemporaries: the perfect knight – brave, generous, pious, terrifying in battle.
- 16th–19th centuries: national hero second only to Henry V.
- Modern view: still admired as a battlefield genius, but the Limoges massacre and harsh taxation in Aquitaine have slightly dented the “perfect knight” image. Most historians now see him as the greatest pure battlefield commander England ever produced.

#### Children (with Joan of Kent)
1. Edward (1355–1370, died age 15 in Aquitaine)
2. Richard II (1367–1400), King of England 1377–1399

#### Verdict
For one dazzling generation (1346–1367) the Black Prince made the name of England feared and admired from Scotland to Spain. No English commander before or since has won three such spectacular victories (Crécy, Poitiers, Nájera) on his record before the age of 37. He remains the supreme icon of English medieval chivalry – the knight who literally died of glory.

### Richard II
(6 January 1367 – c. 14 February 1400)
King of England 1377–1399 │ Deposed │ Probably murdered
The last Plantagenet king of the direct male line. Aesthete, autocrat, tragic Shakespearean hero, and the only English king since 1066 to be forcibly removed from the throne and die in captivity.

#### The Five Acts of His Life

1. **1367–1381 – The Child-King and the Peasants’ Revolt**
   - Born Bordeaux, second son of the Black Prince and Joan of Kent.
   - 1376: father dies → Richard becomes heir.
   - 1377 (age 10): grandfather Edward III dies → crowned 16 July 1377 in a deliberately magnificent ceremony to emphasise divine right.
   - Real power in hands of a “continual council” dominated by his uncles (John of Gaunt especially).
   - 1381 (age 14): Peasants’ Revolt. Richard meets the rebels at Mile End and Smithfield, promises pardons, then coolly revokes them once the danger passes. Shows extraordinary personal courage but also ruthlessness.

2. **1382–1388 – The Tyranny of the Favourites**
   - 1382: marries Anne of Bohemia (love match; she is universally adored).
   - Surrounds himself with a narrow court circle: Robert de Vere (created Duke of Ireland), Michael de la Pole, Chief Justice Robert Tresilian.
   - 1386–88: clash with the “Lords Appellant” (Gloucester, Arundel, Warwick, Henry Bolingbroke, Mowbray).
     - 1388: “Merciless Parliament” – many of Richard’s friends executed or exiled.
     - Richard is forced to watch powerless, age 21.

3. **1389–1397 – The Decade of Personal Rule**
   - 1389 (age 22): dramatically declares himself of age and takes power.
   - Surprisingly successful period:
     - 1394: leads large expedition to Ireland (first English king there since 1210).
     - 1396: marries 7-year-old Isabella of France for 28-year truce with France.
     - Builds the present Westminster Hall roof (1394–99) – still the largest medieval timber roof in Europe.
   - Develops an exalted, almost sacred idea of kingship: begins to insist on being addressed as “your highness” / “majesty”, demands courtiers kneel, has himself painted on the Wilton Diptych as God’s anointed.

4. **1397–1399 – The Revenge Tyranny and Fall**
   - 1397: sudden coup against the senior Appellants.
     - Arundel executed, Warwick imprisoned for life, Gloucester almost certainly murdered at Calais on Richard’s orders.
   - Henry Bolingbroke (John of Gaunt’s son) exiled for 10 years (later changed to life).
   - Richard now rules with a private bodyguard of Cheshire archers and terrorises the nobility with blank charters (forced loans).
   - February 1399: John of Gaunt dies. Richard seizes the entire Lancaster inheritance instead of letting it pass to Henry.
   - June–July 1399: Richard sails to Ireland again.
   - July 1399: Henry Bolingbroke lands at Ravenspur with a tiny force. Within four weeks almost the entire kingdom defects to him.
   - 19 August: Richard surrenders at Flint Castle (the famous “unkinged Richard” scene in Shakespeare).
   - 30 September 1399: formally deposed in Westminster Hall.
   - Henry IV crowned 13 October.

5. **1399–1400 – Death**
   - Imprisoned first in the Tower, then secretly moved (probably Pontefract Castle).
   - January 1400: Epiphany Rising (failed attempt to restore him) seals his fate.
   - Died sometime between 14 February and early March 1400 (aged 33).
   - Official story: starved himself in despair.
   - Modern consensus: deliberately starved or possibly smothered on Henry IV’s orders.

#### Physical appearance & personality
- Exceptionally handsome, golden-haired, delicate features (portrait in Westminster Abbey is probably accurate).
- Highly cultured: patron of Chaucer, Gower, Lollard translators.
- Alternately charming and terrifying; prone to sudden rages and long sulks.
- Deeply pious in a theatrical way but also vindictive and unforgiving.

#### Marriages
1. Anne of Bohemia (1382–1394) – genuine love match, childless. Her death devastates him.
2. Isabella of France (1396–1399) – child bride (age 7 at marriage; treated more as a ward. Returned to France untouched after deposition.

#### Reputation through the centuries
- Lancastrian/Tudor era: tyrant who deserved his fate.
- 17th–18th centuries: martyr-king murdered by usurper.
- Shakespeare (c. 1595: tragic, poetic figure – “For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings.”
- Modern historians (Saul, Bennet, Fletcher): a highly intelligent but emotionally brittle man who inherited an impossible situation (too young, too many powerful uncles, too much money needed for war) and tried to solve it with ever-greater displays of sacral monarchy, until he pushed the nobility past endurance.

#### Verdict
Richard II is the great “what-if” of the Plantagenet dynasty.
Had he been born twenty years earlier, or had a son, or possessed even a fraction of his father’s and grandfather’s political touch, the Wars of the Roses might never have happened. Instead he became the only English king between 1066 and 1688 to lose his throne by force, and the last king of the unbroken Plantagenet male line that began with Henry II in 1154.

His tomb in Westminster Abbey (commissioned by himself) still shows him serene and crowned, hand-in-hand with Anne of Bohemia, as if the catastrophe of 1399 never happened.