Edward III of England

Edward III (1312–1377), king of England from 1327, was fourteen when Isabella and Roger Mortimer deposed Edward II. In 1330 he seized Mortimer at Nottingham and ruled. When Philip VI seized Gascony in 1337, Edward claimed the French crown, opening the Hundred Years' War.

He won at Sluys in 1340 and beat the French at Crécy in 1346; Calais fell in 1347. In 1356 the Black Prince took King John II at Poitiers, and the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny secured Edward's French lands. The Black Death of 1348 killed a third of the English.

He founded the Order of the Garter around 1348 and used Parliament for taxes, strengthening the Commons. Froissart wrote his like had not been seen since King Arthur. War resumed in 1369; by 1375 Edward held only the Calais Pale. The Black Prince predeceased him, and Edward died in 1377, succeeded by grandson Richard II.