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.......In a palace council chamber in London, King Edward III confers the title Earl of Richmond on Robert of Artois, a banished Frenchman. Well does Artois deserve the honor, Edward believes, for Artois is helping the king understand the French line of line of succession to the throne of France--a line of succession that appears to favor Edward, the undisputed King of England, as the rightful king of France. Here is the the gist of what Artois tells the king: ......Upon the death of his father, Edward II, in 1327, Edward inherited the English throne as Edward III, who was then age 15. Because his mother was Isabel, the daughter of King Philip IV of France, Edward also stood to inherit the throne of France through his mother if Philip's three sons died before Edward. These three sons did accede to the French throne as Louix X, Philip V, and Charles IV, but the last of them--Charles--died in 1328 while Edward was still a teenager. Since there was no remaining male heir to the throne, the right of succession should have passed through Isabel, the last of Philip's surviving children, to Edward, Artois says. He concludes, saying:
And, though she were the next of blood, proclaimed John of the house of Valois, now their king. The reason was, they say, the realm of France, Replete with princes of great parentage, Ought not admit a governor to rule, Except he be descended of the male. (Act I, Scene I, Lines 19-27) .......Meanwhile, belligerent Scots under King David invade England, capture Berwick and Newcastle, and besiege a castle at Roxborough  that
lodges the beautiful Countess of Salisbury, the daughter of the Earl of
Warwick. King Edward dispatches troops to engage the French while he marches
against David and the Scots. When Edward reaches Roxborough, the Scots
flee and Edward prepares to pursue them until he sees the countess. Her
charm and her looks utterly bewitch him, and he abandons his campaign against
David to woo her. Although he and the countess are both married, Edward
unabashedly proclaims his love for her. Morally upright, she rejects him–and
refuses to yield to importunities from her father, whom Edward has forced
into speaking up on his behalf. In the end, Edward and the countess never
know each other except through eye contact.
.......In France, the English capture Barfleur, Lo, Crotoy, and Carentan and lay waste the countryside even though John has a massive army that includes allies from Denmark, Bohemia, Sicily, Russia, and Poland. After John withdraws with 100,000 men to the plain of Crécy, he and King Edward–now encamped in France–meet briefly during a lull in fighting and exchange insults before the French move on. On King Edward's behalf, the Earl of Derby tells King John that Edward has a just claim to the French crown:
But thyself, before this present time? Edward's great lineage, by the mother's side, Five hundred years hath held the scepter up. Judge then, conspirators, by this descent, Which is the true born sovereign, this or that? (Act III, Scene III, Lines 130-135) .......At Calais, bully news arrives from England: Armies of the crown have defeated the Scots. Moreover, John Copland, an esquire, has captured King David. King Edward sends a dispatch summoning Copland just as Edward’s wife, the queen, arrives at the port of Calais for a visit with her husband. After Edward pitches his tent near the shore to await his wife, the burgesses of Calais agree to surrender if Edward grants the town clemency. Edward tells a French captain that six of the town’s wealthiest merchants must
With each a halter hanged about his neck, And, prostrate, yield themselves upon their knees, To be afflicted, hanged, or what I please. (Act IV, Scene II, Lines 74-77) .......Prince Edward’s situation indeed appears hopeless, for his archers have spent all their arrows. But the resourceful prince orders his troops to use what French soil has in abundance–flint. Still distracted by the ravens, the French troops panic. When some of them flee, their own compatriots turn against them. John’s son, Prince Philip, observes: “One poor David hath with a stone foiled twenty stout Goliaths. Some twenty naked starvelings with small flints have driven back a puissant host of men. . . .” Prince Edward once again has turned what appeared to be certain defeat into a victory. .......At Calais, King Edward decrees death for the six merchants brought before him. However, after the queen persuades him to show mercy, he relents. Copland then arrives with the captive Scottish king and Salisbury with news that Prince Edward appears doomed. Shortly thereafter, though, a herald delivers the glorious tidings that the young prince has won another great victory and, what is more, has brought with him two royal captives:
The mighty and redoubted Prince of Wales, Great servitor to bloody Mars in arms, The Frenchman's terror and his country's fame, Triumphant rideth, like a Roman peer, And lowly, at his stirrup, comes afoot King John of France together with his son In captive bonds; whose diadem he brings To crown thee with and to proclaim thee king. (Act V, Scene I, Lines 177-184) . The English Edward
III Plantagenet: King of England. He is quick-tempered and arrogant
but yields to wise counsel when pressed.
The French and Their Allies John
(Valois): King of France
The Scots David
II: King of Scotland
The action takes place at the royal palace in London; Roxborough Castle, near the Scottish border; a French camp near Sluys, Flanders; a field near Crécy; (3) English camps near Calais; (4) battlefield. Date
Written: Probably between 1589 and 1592
Edward III is a history play. The battlefield feats of Prince Edward, known as the Black Prince, resemble those of Prince Hal (later King Henry V) in Henry IV Part I, Henry IV, Part II, and Henry V. The climax occurs when Prince Edward, the Black Prince, turns the tide of battle and wins a smashing victory, enabling his father to receive the crown of France from the Prince's captive, King John. Theme
1: The clash between England and France over the throne of France.
Edward III, King of England, believes he is the rightful heir to
the throne of France as the son of Isabel, the only surviving child of
Philip IV of France (1268-1314). His claim
And never henceforth to solicit me, Or else, by Heaven, this sharp-pointed knife Shall stain thy earth, with that which thou would stain: My poor chaste blood. Swear, Edward! Swear, Or I will strike and die before thee here. (Act II, Scene II, Lines 181-186) Since the publication of Edward III more than 400 years ago, its creator has been in doubt for two key reasons: (1) The publisher, Cuthbert Burby, failed to identify the author when the first copies of the play appeared in print, probably in 1596; (2) the Great Fire of London in 1666 probably destroyed any records referring to the author. However, over the centuries, scholars began to recognize similarities between the style of Edward III and other Shakespeare plays, although Edward III is clearly inferior to the great Shakespeare plays. One of the most obvious similarities is its use of Shakespeare’s preferred poetic meter, iambic pentameter. In addition, the play contains direct quotations from three of Shakespeare's Sonnets–Numbers 29, 94, and 142–and includes many obscure words (such as mote, conventicle, belike, orison, vail, and bruit) which also appear in other Shakespeare plays. In the late 1990's, several prestigious publishers decided to acknowledge Shakespeare as the author of Edward III and include the play in new editions. In addition, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the play as a Shakespeare work at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and at the Gielgud Theatre in London. Edward III was one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. While writing it, he practiced a skill that served him well in later plays: making believable for his audiences a scene that was too large in scope for an Elizabethan stage (a raging battle, for example). In Act III, Scene I, Shakespeare accomplishes this task by having a mariner describe to King John of France an encounter between the English and French navies. The mariner’s description says, in part:
With streaming gore that from the maimèd fell, As did her gushing moisture break into The crannied cleftures of the through-shot planks. Here flew a head, dissevered from the trunk; There mangled arms and legs were tossed aloft, As when a whirlwind takes the summer dust And scatters it in middle of the air. Then might ye see the reeling vessels split, And, tottering, sink into the ruthless flood, Until their lofty tops were seen no more. (Lines 161-171) Edward III, like all other Shakespeare plays, is rich in imagery. Often, the imagery uses nature and animals to make comparisons, as the following two examples demonstrate: Metaphor Comparing Edward to a Garden Flower
Your gracious self, the flower of Europe's hope, Derivèd is -- inheritor to France. (Artois, Act I, Scene I, Lines 14-16) Personification/Metaphor Comparing Swords to Advocates
Sting with their tongues; we have remorseless swords, And they shall plead for us and our affairs. (Prince Edward, Act III, Scene III, Lines 98-100)
As I was busy in my watchful charge, The proud armada of King Edward's ships, Which, at the first far off when I did ken, Seemed as it were a grove of withered pines; But, drawing near, their glorious bright aspect, Their streaming ensigns wrought of colored silk, Like to a meadow full of sundry flowers, Adorns the naked bosom of the earth. (Mariner, Act III, Scene I, Lines 62-71) Shakespeare also drenches the audience in gore, as he sometimes does in other plays--most notably Titus Andronicus. In the following passage, a mariner delivers a gruesome report to King John on the progress of the fighting:
 With
streaming gore that from the maimèd fell,
As did her gushing moisture break into The crannied cleftures of the through-shot planks. Here flew a head, dissevered from the trunk; There mangled arms and legs were tossed aloft, As when a whirlwind takes the summer dust And scatters it in middle of the air. Then might ye see the reeling vessels split, And, tottering, sink into the ruthless flood, Until their lofty tops were seen no more. (Mariner, Act III, Scene I, Lines 161-171) King
Edward, captivated by the beauty of the Countess of Salisbury, cannot resist
making a play for her. He experiences overwhelming desire that he cannot
control--and overwhelming guilt when he sees the reflection of his wife's
face in the face of his son.
That more persuades than winning oratory? (King Edward, Act I, Scene II, Lines 139-140) Metaphor: Looks Compared to Summer, Disdain Compared to Winter
Beauty a slander but in her fair face, There's no summer but in her cheerful looks, Nor frosty winter but in her disdain (King Edward, Act II, Scene I, Lines.40-43)
Modelled in his, corrects my strayed desire, And rates my heart, and chides my thievish eye, Who, being rich enough in seeing her, Yet seeks elsewhere. And basest theft is that Which cannot cloak itself on poverty. (King Edward, Act II, Scene I, Lines 74-80) Henry
II (son of Henry I's daughter and Geoffrey Plantagenet) 1154-1189.
Age at death: 56.
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