"Success is admirable in a king, but failure is compelling and usually better recorded."

"England, however, was endowed with a precociously advanced system of government which made its kings powerful beyond …"

"It is one of the paradoxes of England’s medieval history that in spite of its strong central institutions it was know…"

"The Tuscan poet Dante Alighieri had a simple explanation for England’s problematic status in fourteenth-century Europ…"

"The government of Mortimer and Isabella was intensely hated. It proved to be just as vindictive, despotic and unstabl…"

"Finance was always Edwards III’s weak point. He had little understanding of the problems of taxation or credit and wa…"

"Some of the troops had been conscripted, the last occasion when compulsion played a significant part in the recruitme…"

"Edward’s chief asset was his personality. He was uncomplicated and likable. He was flamboyant, extrovert and generous…"

"Edward III’s claim to the crown of France was a bargaining counter, to be surrendered as part of a permanent territor…"

"Edward III had always greatly overestimated the help that conspirators and malcontents could bring him."