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reasonable and easy summary of Edward III's reign and times, In some ways exactly as I'd hoped, this turned it to be tales of chivalrous derring do, sieges and pitched battles, courtly intrigue, men in hose and machinating matriarchs.
Edward lived the medieval life we learn about as kids: jousting, battling and carousing,
It's a fine history, But the writer has an annoyting tic, Ordinarily, after being introduced an historic figure is referred to by family name, Here, after the first mention, it is nearly always the first name, or simply their title John, or the count, instead of Count Olaf.
It makes reading back a little slower, Februarys Penguin Monarch is complete remember, one a month,

Edward III. Founder of the Order of the Garter, father to the Black Prince, quintessential medieval Frenchbashing monarch,

Author Johnathan Sumption is an authority on Edward, Hes the author of the series of books on the Hundred Years War four written, one to go I intend to read them all.


Sumption describes Edward as a heroic failure, This is because of his ultimate failure to win the French crown,

I really enjoyed the book, So why only four Some annoying typos and a quote on the back of the book supposedly about Edward III, but actually about his father Edward II.
Sloppy editing.

Marchs monarch King Stephen, Edward III lived through bloody and turbulent times, His father was deposed by his mother and her lover when he was still a teenager a third of England's population was killed by the Black Death midway through his reign and the intractable Hundred Years War with France began under his leadership.
Yet Edward managed to rule England foryears, and was viewed as a paragon of kingship in the eyes of both his contemporaries and later generations.
Venerated as the victor of Sluys and Crécy and the founder of the Order of the Garter, he was regarded with awe even by his enemies.
But he lived too long, and was ultimately condemned to see thirty years of conquests reversed in less than five, As with most of the Penguin Monarchs, a nice, easy to read, summary of one of our longer serving kings, A short critical biography of King Edward III with a strong focus on the Hundred Years' War, Sumption is especially critical of Edward III's approach to finances, arguing that he financed his wars in such a haphazard fashion that a few of his barons, who acted as guarantors for his loans, spent time in debtors prison.
Other aspects of Edward III's reign receive less attention, The Black Death plague is only mentioned in passing a few times even though it caused tremendous social change in Edward III's kingdom and resulted in the deaths of three of his dozen children.
The Six Statutes are not discussed and I would have liked more analysis about the culture of his court, Edward III's plans for his sons are discussed in the text but not his daughters, A good introduction to certain aspects of Edward III's reign but not a comprehensive biography, Edward III: A Heroic Failure is part of the Penguin Monarchs, a series of short biographies of English monarchs for the general reader, usually aroundpages long.
As such, I dont expect an overly thorough exploration of the life and reign of each monarch,

I approached this entry with that understanding and I wasnt disappointed, Jonathon Sumption, limited by format and length, focuses mainly on Edward IIIs military career, largely his war with France that began the Hundred Years War.
This is the area the majority of readers will be interested in the most, I feel, and in keeping with Sumptions specialisation in the Hundred Years War.
However, it does feel lopsided in approach and we find little personal detail about Edward until the final chapter focusing on his later years.
The Black Death is also largely ignored in this treatment, That being said, I tend to be more interested in personalities rather than battles so another reader may feel differently,

Sumptions writing is fine, but not particularly gripping, What typos other readers found in the hardback edition seem to have been corrected for the paperback, I do have a small complaint about the final chapter, in that Sumption will

say something that suggests what hes telling us is not necessarily true and should be doubted but does not give us anything more.
For instance, Sumption notes Froissarts “exaggerated account” of the sack of Limoges by Edward the Black Prince, but does not tell us what actually happened.
In another example, he describes Walsingham as “malicious” before discussing Walsinghams account of Edward IIIs death but does not tell us why or what is more likely to have happened.


Whatever my criticisms, this is a decent overview of Edward IIIs military career and Sumptions central argument that Edward was more “lucky” than a naturally born genius strategist and that he tended to harm his own interests as much as he aided them makes for interesting food for thought.
I picked this up to read a critical view of Edward III as a precursor to eventually reading Ian Mortimers hagiographic biography of the same king and wasnt disappointed.


In short, I do recommend this, but with the caveats listed here, the worst of which is that its focused mainly on Edward IIIs military career and its not especially compellingly written.
Nice summary of Edward's life, and made me want to read more about it, which is what these little introductory book should do.
There was a some nice suggestions for further reading at the back too, A solid, brief introduction. The writing sometimes seems a bit abrupt but that's due to the fact that it's intended to be so short, The son of a barrister, Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption attended Eton then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with first class honours in history in.
After being called to the bar at Inner Temple in, he became a Queens Council inand a Bencher in, He is joint head of Brick Court Chambers and was appointed to the UK Supreme Court in, He has written numerous books on history and is a governor of the Royal Academy of Music, The son of a barrister, Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption attended Eton then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with first class honours in history in.
After being called to the bar at Inner Temple in, he became a Queen's Council inand a Bencher in, He is joint head of Brick Court Chambers and was appointed to the UK Supreme Court in, He has written numerous books on history and is a governor of the Royal Academy of Music, sitelink.