November 13: Edward III of England

Today was the birthday of Edward III, King of England from 1327 to 1377. Here are some facts about him:

1. Edward was born at Windsor Castle on 13 November 1312.
2. Edward's mother and her lover Roger Mortimer deposed his father and had Edward crowned at the age of fourteen - although at first it was Mortimer who ran the country and not the king. Edward put up with this until he was seventeen and then staged a successful coup against Mortimer.
3. He reigned for fifty years, the second longest reign in medieval England.
4. Edward III was a popular king, albeit a temperamental and impulsive one at times, whose main interest was warfare. He could however be forgiving, too. For example, Mortimer's grandson was not only absolved, but came to play an important part in the French wars, and was eventually made a Knight of the Garter. He has been described as the greatest general in English history, and a contemporary chronicler, Jean Froissart wrote in his Chronicles that "His like had not been seen since the days of King Arthur".
5. Edward III set the stage for the Hundred Years War when he put in a claim to the throne of France.
6. His reign saw numerous reforms in Parliament, perhaps most significantly the splitting of parliament into a House of Commons and a House of Lords. The procedure of impeachment and the office of the Speaker were also created during his reign.
7. It was Edward III who created the Order of the Garter and the Duchy of Cornwall as a source of income to the heir to the throne.
8. The Statute of Labourers of 1351 was possibly the most famous law of his reign. It fixed wages at the level they were at before many workers had died of the Black Death and tried to stop workers from moving around. It didn't work, as, according to historians "it was an attempt to legislate against the law of supply and demand".
9. He has a reputation for being a ladies man, but there's no evidence that he had any mistresses before Alice Perrers, who became his lover when his wife, Queen Philippa, was terminally ill. Before this he was devoted to his wife and had fourteen children with her.
10. Edward III died of a stroke in 1377 and was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II.