Offspring: Edward, the Black Prince; Isabella; Joan; William of Hatfield; Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; Blanche; Mary; Margaret; William of Windsor; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; (Illegitimate) at least three by mistress Alice Perrers.
The fifty-year reign of Edward III was a time of enormous change in England, and is a study in contrast. Great strides were made in government, affirming the power of the emerging middle class in Parliament. The power of the nobility became concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer peers. Chivalry reached an apex in English society, but the Code only masked the greed and ambition of Edward and his barons. The export of wool (and later, the wool cloth industry) prospered and spread wealth across the nation. The Black Death repeatedly devastated the country. Edward was a happily married king with many children. The 75% survival rate of those offspring (nine out of twelve survived through adulthood) sowed the seeds of the bitter conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, and led to the ultimate demise of the House of Plantagenet.
Early success in war ultimately failed to produce lasting results. French cooperation with the traditional enemy, Scotland; French aggression in Gascony; Edward's claim to the disputed throne of France (through his mother, Isabella) led to the first phase of the Hundred Years' war. As his successors continued the conflict, parts of France became a wasteland. His great great grandson, Henry VI, would actually wear the crown of France for a time - until the appearance of the Maid of Orleans (St. Joan of Arc). The resurgence of French arms eventually pushed the English out of every part of France but Calais.
Edward's youth was spent in his mother's court and he was crowned at age fourteen after his father was deposed (and eventually murdered). After three years, Isabella's regency (and her lover, Roger Mortimer) became so obnoxious that Edward led a palace revolt and assumed control of the government. Mortimer was executed and Isabella was exiled from court.
The young king proved able, and he was a respected and popular monarch throughout most of his reign. During the fifty years of his rule, the world as a whole, and England in small, changed drastically. His reputation helped the monarchy ride out the worst of the upheavals relatively unscathed - but it only delayed the inevitable. Within the next generation, Edward's successor would be deposed and murdered (as was his own father), and the rivalry between the Houses of Lancaster (descended from John of Gaunt) and York (descended from Edmund Langley) would tear the family, and the country apart.
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