Edward III by Mark Ormrod

(Yale English Monarchs, Yale University Press), 2011

721pp., £30, hard, ISBN 978-0-300-11910-7

With the publication of Edward III, the English Monarchs series now includes biographies of monarchs from Edward the Confessor to Mary Tudor (apart from Henry III and IV) and James II to George IV.  With volumes on Elizabeth I and James I forthcoming and an excellent volume on Aethelstan already out, it is to be hoped that the gaps will be filled in soon and that some of the earlier volumes, especially Douglas' excellent but dated William I, need revamping to take account of recent research.

This massive and illuminating biography takes a deeper look at Edward to reveal the man beneath the military muscle.  Edward was, with some justification, regarded as the most successful European ruler of his age. Reigning for over fifty years, he achieved spectacular military triumphs and overcame grave threats to his authority, from parliamentary revolt to the Black Death. Revered by his subjects as a chivalric dynamo, he initiated the Hundred Years War and gloriously led his men into battle against the Scots and the French.  The military dimensions of the Hundred Years War are not perhaps as prominent as I expected but then it's not a book about the war.   What emerges is Edward's clear sense of his duty to rebuild the prestige of the Crown, and through military gains and shifting diplomacy, to secure a legacy for posterity.  There are new details of the splendour of Edward's court, lavish national celebrations, innovative use of imagery establish the king's instinctive understanding of the bond between ruler and people and his long decline. There is fresh emphasis on how Edward's rule was affected by his family relationships, including his roles as traumatised son, loving husband and dutiful father.  This is a stunning book and Ormrod gives a valuable new dimension to our understanding of this remarkable warrior king.  To call a book, the definitive study, is always a hostage to fortune but I cannot see anyone writing as good a study of Edward for decades.