The perfect king ian mortimer5/23/2023 ![]() Yet as this book shows, beneath the strong warrior king was a compassionate, conscientious and often merciful man - resolute yet devoted to his wife, friends and family. Nineteenth century historians saw in Edward the opportunity to decry a warmonger, and painted him as a self-seeking, rapacious, tax-gathering conqueror. It is to Edward that England owes its system of parliamentary representation, its local justice system, its national flag and the recognition of English as the language of the nation. Yet under his rule England also experienced its longest period of domestic peace in the middle ages, giving rise to a massive increase of the nation's wealth through the wool trade, with huge consequences for society, art and architecture. ![]() In this first full study of his character and life, Ian Mortimer shows how under Edward the feudal kingdom of England became a highly organised nation, capable of raising large revenues and deploying a new type of projectile-based warfare, culminating in the crushing victory over the French at Crecy. ![]() ![]() ![]() Yet for centuries Edward III (1327-77) was celebrated as the most brilliant of all English monarchs. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded he usurped his father's throne he taxed his people more than any other previous king, and he started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. ![]()
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