The later Plantagenet period was marked by warfare both at home with Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and also abroad with France, with whom the Hundred Years War was fought between 1337-1453.
The last Plantagenet monarch to sit on the throne was Richard II, who was deposed by his cousin, Henry, who was the first English King from the House of Lancaster, and was himself descended from an earlier Plantagenet.
Edward I (1272-1307)
Attempts to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and the conquest of Wales were the hallmarks of Edward “Longshanks’” reign.
Wales was incorporated into Edward’s kingdom with the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 while Scotland proved more difficult to subdue and under William Wallace defeated invading forces at Stirling Bridge in 1297 after Edward had deposed the puppet king, John Balliol and seized the Scottish throne.
Wallace was later defeated at Falkirk, betrayed, and executed in London. Robert the Bruce was then crowned King in defiance of Edward and an invasion was launched to restore English rule. Edward died on his way to Scotland, however, and later, in 1314 his son was defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
Edward II (1307-1327)
Unlike his father, Edward was not a military man and counted thatching, ditching and rowing among his favoured pastimes. Territorial ambitions suffered greatly under Edward; his humiliating rout at Bannockburn by Robert the Bruce, after which Scottish independence was proclaimed, showed a marked deterioration from the military prowess enjoyed by England under Edward I.
The King also chose extremely unpopular advisors and favourites; notably Piers Gaveston who was exiled and later murdered by his opponents, and later the Despensers; a father and son both named Hugh who were put to death shortly before the King’s downfall.
Isabella of Boulogne, Edward’s wife abandoned the King and left for France with Roger Mortimer, her lover, in 1326, and a year later returned with the intent of deposing Edward. A strong Parliament agreed to remove the King from power and he was later murdered in Berkeley Castle in 1327.
Edward’s murder is exceptionally gruesome; a red-hot poker was inserted through the rectum to dismember the body to conveniently leave no mark upon the corpse. The King was widely rumoured to be homosexual, and at the time this was the prescribed method of execution.
Despite the problems faced by the King personally, Edward left behind a stable and prosperous England.
Edward III (1327-1377)
In 1330 Edward seized power from his mother, retired her from public life and tried and executed Mortimer.
During the reign English fortunes in France were once again reversed, and English archers achieved stunning victories over French knights, notably at Créçy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), along with a naval victory at Sluys in 1340.
Victories were also had against the Scots, at Halidon Hill in 1333 and Neville’s Cross in 1346 when the Scottish King, David II was captured and taken to London as a prisoner.
Constitutional advances were also features of Edward’s rule; Parliament was split to two Houses (The Lords and The Commons), a feature which remains to this day, while in Parliament and the legal courts English replaced French as the official language.
In 1348 the Order of the Garter was founded on the chivalrous principals of the legendary King Arthur, which too still exists today.
Richard II (1377-1399)
The grandson of Edward III, Richard came to the throne as a minor as his father, the famous Black Prince had died in 1376.
Until 1389 Regents ruled the country, although the young king was at the forefront in dealing with the widespread Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The peasantry, having emerged slightly more prosperous and self-assured after recovering from the devastating Black Death of 1349-1350, had begun demanding an end to serfdom and the abolishment of the hated Poll Tax, and on their way to London had burned tax records and later killed the Archbishop of Canterbury. The revolt fizzled out however, after the death of its leader, Wat Tyler, and Richard later reneged on his promises to the peasants.
Increasingly despotic during the latter period of his rule, the seizure of Richard’s throne by his disinherited cousin, Henry Bolingbroke of Lancaster (later Henry IV) while Richard was in Ireland, was not opposed by Parliament and he was later deposed and imprisoned in Pontefract Castle where he died in 1399.
See Also The First Plantagenets
"The Kings and Queens of England and Scotland" ,Plantagenet Somerset Fry
"A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" Vol 1, Winston Churchill
