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Edward II.
From the start Edward II alienated the barons by showering gifts and honors on his or lover Piers Gaveston. As soon as he became king Edward made Gaveston Earl of Cornwall (a title with rich estates). Normally a member of the royal family was given the title and the barons were very annoyed.
In 1308 Edward II married Princess Isabella of France in Boulogne. However before he left the country for France Edward made Gaveston regent to rule England in his absence.
Twice the barons forced Edward to banish Gaveston but both times he returned. Finally in 1312 some barons kidnapped Gaveston and had him beheaded.
The in 1314 Edward II suffered a total defeat at the hands of the Scots at Bannockburn. The battle assured Scottish independence and in 1323 Edward was forced to make a truce with the Scots.
Finally Edward alienated the barons by having an affair with a young man called Hugh Despenser. Isabella fled to France. With her lover Roger Mortimer, a rebel English Earl she plotted her husband's downfall. In 1326 Isabella and Roger led an army from France. The English people welcomed them.
Hugh Despenser was hung, drawn and quartered and King Edward II was taken prisoner. In January 1327 Edward abdicated in favor of his son. Edward II was murdered in September 1327.
Edward III.
Meanwhile on 1 February 1327 his son Edward III was crowned.
However he did not rule until 1330 when he staged a coup. In October, with friends, he entered Nottingham Castle through a secret tunnel. He entered his mother’s bedroom and arrested her lover Mortimer.
In 1337 Edward claimed the throne of France. War began in 1338. The French raided Southampton. Then on 24 July 1340 the English annihilated the French fleet off Sluys. English longbow men rained arrows down onto the French sailors. Men with swords, axes and spears fought to hand.
To finance his wars the king had to raise taxes and to do that he needed parliament's co-operation. As a result parliament became more powerful during his reign. In 1340 the Commons and the Lords began meeting separately.
Edward continued to have success in war. On 26 August 1346 the French were crushed by English longbow men at Crecy. Then on 17 October 1346 the Scots were severely defeated at Neville's Cross near Durham. The English army was led by William La Zouche, Archbishop of York and David II of Scotland was captured.
However in 1348-49 disaster struck. The Black Death reached England and it killed about 1/3 of the population. Afterwards there was a severe shortage of labour and as a result wages rose. Men began to move from village to village to get better wages, undermining the institution of serfdom. Parliament tried to peg wages at their 1349 level. The measure did not work and only caused resentment among the peasants.
One of the victims of the plague was the king's daughter, Princess Joan, who died in Bordeaux. The Black Death was no respect of persons.
Despite his loss King Edward continued to beat the French. On 19 September 1346 the English won another great victory at Poitiers and the French king was captured. In 1360 the French were made to accept a humiliating peace treaty and pay a ransom for their king.
Finally Edward III died in 1377. He was 65.
Richard II.
Richard II was just 10 years old when he was crowned.
In 1381 he was faced with the peasants revolt. It was sparked off by a poll tax.
On 13 July the rebels marched on London and sympathizers opened the gates to them. The king and his ministers took refuge in the tower of London while the rebels opened the prisons and looted the house of John of Gaunt, an unpopular noble. On 14 July the king met the rebels at Moorfield and made them various promises, none of which he kept.
The next day the king went to mass at Westminster and while he was away the rebels broke into the tower of London and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and several royal officials who had taken refuge there. They confronted the king on his way back from mass. The mayor of London stabbed the leader of the rebels, fearing he was going to attack the king. Afterwards the king managed to calm the rebels and persuaded to go home by making various promises.
The rebels demanded the end of serfdom. At first the king promised to grant it. However as soon as the rebels dispersed he broke all his promises. About 200 of the ringleaders were hanged.
However serfdom continued to decline of its own accord and by the 15th century it had virtually disappeared.
However the powerful men in England hated Richard's close friends. In 1388 the so-called Merciless Parliament had several of them executed. However in 1397 Richard II got his revenge. He executed two of his enemies. In 1398 he banished Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Hereford. However in 1398 Richard went to Ireland and while he was away Bolingbroke staged a coup. Richard II was deposed and Bolingbroke then became Henry III. Richard II died in 1400. (He was probably murdered).
England in the 15th century
Henry III reigned until 1413. It was a troubled reign. Henry III faced a major revolt in Wales at the beginning of the 15th century, which he eventually crushed.
His son, Henry V, succeeded him. This king claimed the throne of France and in 1415 he went to war. On 25 October 1415 the English longbow men won a great victory over the French at Agincourt. In 1416 the Battle of the Seine gave the English control of the Channel. Henry was a hero to his people. however he was cruel. He used cruelty to try and force the French into submission. In 1418 Henry captured Caen and his men massacred 2,000 civilians. Henry once said “war without fire is like sausage without mustard”.
In 1419 Henry V captured Rouen, the capital of Normandy and by the treaty of Troyes, 1420, he was recognized as heir to the French throne. However Henry died in 1422.
Moreover after his death the French began to win the war. In 1429 Joan of Arc lifted the siege of Orleans. This proved to be a turning point and afterwards English fortunes waned.
In 1443 Henry VI sent the Duke of Somerset to France with an army and told him to 'use most cruel and mortal war'. However by 1453 the English had been driven out of all of France except Calais.
The Wars of The Roses.
Worse England was plunged into a series of civil wars called the Wars of the Roses. In 1454 Edward VI was mentally ill and was incapable of ruling. The Duke of York became regent. However at the end of 1454 Edward VI recovered and in January 1455 York was forced to step down as regent. However York was unwilling to give up power and he gathered an army. On 22 may 1455 the forces of York (known as Yorkists) and the forces of the King (known as Lancastrians) fought a battle at St Albans. Afterwards the king was taken prisoner and the Yorkists ruled in his name.
(The Yorkist symbol was the white rose and the Lancastrian symbol was the red rose hence the name of the wars).
However in 1459 the queen gathered an army to fight the Yorkists. The two sides clashed in September 1459. Afterwards the Yorkists took Ludlow. However when they were offered a pardon most of the Yorkist soldiers deserted and their leaders fled abroad. In November 1459 Parliament condemned the Yorkist leaders as traitors (meaning the crown would confiscate their property).
Not surprisingly the Yorkist leaders returned to England with an army in June 1460. They landed at Sandwich and many people in Kent and London went over to their side. They fought a battle at Northampton on 10 July 1460 and captured Henry VI. However in 1461 Queen Margaret, Henry's wife, won a battle at Wakefield on 30 December 1460. The Duke of York was killed. Edward of March took over the Yorkist cause and he proclaimed himself Edward IV on 4 March 1461. He won a great victory at Towton on 29 March 1461 and for some years his rule was secure.
However Edward alienated his supporter the Earl of Warwick (The Kingmaker) by not allowing him enough power. Warwick turned against him and won a battle at Edgecote on 26 July 1469. In 1470 Edward was forced to flee abroad but he returned the next year.
Yorkists and Lancastrians fought at Tewkesbury on 10 May 1471. The battle proved to be a great Yorkist victory. Afterwards Edward ruled unchallenged until his death in 1483.
He was succeeded by his 12-year-old son Edward V. However before he could be crowned the Bishop of Bath and Wells announced that this parents marriage was invalid. Edward was therefore illegitimate and he could not inherit the throne. Both Edward and his younger brother Richard were imprisoned in the tower and later murdered.
Meanwhile the throne was offered to his uncle who became Richard III. However Richard's position was undermined when his only son Eustace died. Henry Tudor landed in Wales and led his army to Bosworth field where Richard III was killed in battle. A new dynasty began.
People.
Rich people in the Middle Ages.
The main pastime of the upper class was hunting. Lords hunted deer with packs of dogs and killed them with arrows. They also hunted wild boar with spears. Both men and women went hawking. In the evenings they feasted, danced and played board games such as chess and backgammon. In the mid-15th century playing cards arrived in England.
When he was not hunting the noble or knight was fighting. Their wives were also kept busy. They had to organize the servants and generally run the household.
Knights also took part in tournaments. These events drew large crowds of spectators. At them knights fought with wooden lances, swords or maces. This was called jousting. There were also tourneys (fights between teams). Tournaments often lasted four days. Two days were for jousting, one was for tourneys and one was for archery competitions.
A Peasant’s Life In The Middle Ages.
For peasants life was one of toil. Most people in the Middle Ages lived in small villages of 20 or 30 families. The land was divided into 3 huge fields. Each year 2 were sown with crops while one was left fallow (unused) to allow it to recover. Each peasant had some strips of land in each field. Most peasants owned only one ox so they had to join with other families to obtain the team of oxen needed to pull a plough. After ploughing the land was sown. Men sowed grain and women planted peas and beans.
Most peasants also owned a few cows, goats and sheep. Cows and goats gave milk and cheese. Most peasants also kept chickens for eggs. They also kept pigs. Peasants were allowed to graze their livestock on common land. In the autumn they let their pigs roam in the woods to eat acorns and beechnuts. However they did not have enough food to keep many animals through the winter. Most of the livestock was slaughtered in autumn and the meat was salted to preserve it.
However life was not all hard work. People were allowed to rest on Holy days (from which we get our word holiday). During them poor people danced and wrestled. They also played a very rough form of football. The men from 2 villages played on a 'pitch' which might include woods and streams! There were no rules so broken limbs and other injuries were common. People also enjoyed cruel 'sports' like cockfighting and bear baiting. (A bear was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it). Gambling was also common.
The church in the Middle Ages.
In the Middle Ages religion was a vital part of everyday life. All children were baptised (unless they were Jewish) and everyone attended mass on Sunday. Mass was in Latin, a language that ordinary people did not understand.
Bishops ruled over groups of parishes called dioceses. They usually came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and often took part in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They were poor and often had little education. Parish priests had their own land called the glebe where they grew their own food. They lived and worked alongside their parishioners.
In the Middle Ages monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They also ran the only hospitals where they tried to help the sick as best they could. They also provided hospitality for pilgrims and other travellers (although as time went by there were an increasing number of inns where you could pay to stay the night). In a medieval monastery there was an almonry where food or money was given to the poor, the refectory where the monks ate, the dormitory, infirmary and the cloisters where the monks could take exercise. An almoner looked after the poor, an infirmarian looked after the sick and a hospitaller looked after visitors.
As well as the monks from the 13th century there were also friars. They took vows like but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars were called grey friars because of their grey costumes. Dominican friars were called black fairs.
Education in the Middle Ages.
In the Middle Ages most people were illiterate but not all. Upper class children were educated when they were pages. Among the poor the better educated priests might teach some children to read and write - a little. In many towns there were grammar schools where middle class boys were educated. (They got their name because they taught Latin grammar). Boys worked long hours in the grammar schools and discipline was severe. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs.
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