From the best-selling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England comes the story of King Edward III, who — like Elizabeth and Victoria after him — embodied the values of his age, forged a nation out of war and remade England.
Edward’s life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father’s throne and he started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting himself as a new King Arthur, victorious across Europe. He was the architect of many English icons — from parliamentary rule to the adoption of English as the official language and even the building of a great clock tower at Westminster. Yet behind the strong warrior king was a compassionate, conscientious and often merciful man — resolute yet devoted to his wife, friends and family, and the father of both the English nation and the English people.