Edward III and England

Edward III and England
	A wooden effigy made from Edward III's death mask

Edward and Parliament

The great expense of war in Scotland and France soon led to complaints from Parliament. By 1339, Edward III was already in debt to the tune of about ₤300,000 despite being granted much of the revenue from the sale of wool in 1338.

In 1339, parliament agreed to further taxation only on condition that it be for one year only and not renewed without parliamentary consent.

To the principle of control of the purse strings, the Parliaments of 1340 and 1341 added that of accountability of ministers. Parliament met with great regularity at Westminster and the Commons were always summoned.

For much of the 14th Century, the Papacy was under the control of the kings of France - in fact the pope actually lived not at Rome but Avignon in southern France.
The close association of the institutional Church with England's enemy caused increasing anticlericalism.

Edward III had appointed a cleric, John Stratford (Archbishop of Canterbury from 1333) to be Treasurer and then Chancellor, only to enter a furious dispute with him. They were later reconciled and Edward appointed other clerics to key posts; in particular, John Thoresby (Bishop of Worcester and then Archbishop of York) who served as Chancellor from 1349.

From the 1360s onwards, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester was Edward III's chief minister. But parliamentary anti-clericalism led to his removal from office in 1371. The Treasurer, Thomas Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter was also dismissed.

Parliament's self-assertion peaked in the "Good Parliament" (1376.) The combination of high taxation and military failure in France produced a parliament determined to reform government. It attacked many of Edward III's ministers for corruption and demanded the imprisonment of the king's acquisitive mistress, Alice Perrers.

Prince Edward

Edward III was growing old, and Prince Edward died during the Parliament. This left the management of Parliament in the hands of John of Gaunt (Edward III's second son.)
The Common's determination to punish "corrupt" ministers - especially Lord Latimer, one of the king's councilors - produced the procedure of impeachment, by which he commons brought accusations against officials and the Lords passed judgment on them.

John of Gaunt later attempted to undo many of the "reforms" instituted by the Good Parliament, but it nevertheless marked a new high-watermark of parliamentary power.

National consciousness and the English language

Like the increasing importance of parliament, the growth in English national consciousness was another side-effect of the wars with France. Parliament in turn compounded this effect, for as a national institution it tended to bind the different regions of the country together.

The English became increasingly aware of themselves as a separate nation, and to dislike the intervention of "foreigners" in their affairs. So, for example, Henry III's promotion of his Poitevin relations was resented. Dislike of papal intervention - especially during the Avignon "captivity" was another sign of these views.

English noblemen, too, began to regard themselves as English. Before the 14th Century, English was spoken by commoners - not aristocrats.

The government itself encouraged the use of English. A Statute of 1362 decreed that English should be used in legal proceedings. The Chancellor gave his opening speech to the parliament of 1363 in English. Property deeds and wills were being recorded in English by the last quarter of the 14th Century.

Spoken French became rare even among aristocrats by the later 1300s - by 1395 a chronicler thought it worthy of comment that Richard II spoke French well.

Chaucer reading out his works (Note the high social status of his audience).	During the 1300s, especially because of the Hundred Years War, English became not simply acceptable, but fashionable. Its use as a literary language found its greatest expression in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1342/3 - 1400). Chaucer's influence also helped in the increasing standardization of English. Before this period, many different dialects were spoken, but gradually an East Midland dialect came to be accepted as standard English.

Chaucer The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages."
When April with sweet showers Has pierced the drought of March to the root, And bathed every vein in a liquor That has the virtue of generating flowers, When Zephyr with his sweet breath Has inspired in every wood and heath The tender crops, and the young sun Has run half of his course in the [sign of the] Ram And small birds make melodies And sleep all night with one eye open (So Nature tickles them to excitement) Then folk long to go on pilgrimages.

French had, of course, left a significant mark on English. The educated classes imported many words from French into English. Their survival is especially evident in twin phrases that combine a purely English word with its adapted French counterpart - for example, "aid and abet," "will and testament," "acknowledge and confess," "humble and lowly."