King Edward III of England | Biography, Children & Family Tree

Edward III and Phillippa seemed to live a harmonious domestic life when they were together. Edward trusted Phillippa as regent while he was away during the Hundred Years' War and took her advice on the expansion of English commercial interests in textiles and even coal mining. She was a popular figure in England and abroad.

Edward and Phillippa had a dozen or more children. Exact numbers, as with Edward's grandfather, are difficult to verify as documents have been destroyed. Edward, furthermore, likely had three to five illegitimate children; this number is uncertain because scandals were likely kept secret.

Of the known children, five legitimate sons and four legitimate daughters lived to adulthood.

Conflict Between Edward III's Children: The War of the Roses

Edward III seemed to have prepared his family well for his death and the succession of his son Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince. However, following a campaign on the Iberian Peninsula, the Black Prince fell ill and died in 1376. The following year, Edward himself died, leaving the young Richard of Bordeaux, Edward III's grandson and the Black Prince's son, as the new king of England, Richard II.

Richard II was ten years old at the time of his coronation. The peace and stability of England had been shattered by both the deaths of his father and grandfather, as well as the Black Death, which had been ravaging the country on and off for the past 50 years, killing 33% of the population. Richard soon found his subjects eager to take advantage of the social upheaval caused by the widespread death, and at age 14 the young king was forced to face down the Peasant's Revolt in 1381.

As Richard II grew, his ego, sense of self-importance, and paranoia grew as well. He quickly fell out of favor with the English nobility. The greatest conflict would come between Richard and his uncle, John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III. Richard exiled John of Gaunt's eldest son, Henry Bolingbroke, for ten years following a quarrel with the Duke of Norfolk. John of Gaunt died the following year, and Richard extended Henry's exile for life, claiming the lands of John of Gaunt for himself.

John of Gaunt had been made Duke of Lancaster through marriage. Lancaster was one of the wealthiest land holdings in England, and as Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt rivaled the king in the value of his land and collections. Eliminating this rival had been Richard's purpose in taking Lancaster following John of Gaunt's death. However, Henry Bolingbroke landed in the north of England at Ravenspur, and the English nobility quickly rallied to his cause, fearing that Richard would be coming for their lands next.

John of Gaunt, seated, listens to the newly translated English version of the Bible. English language use spread during the reign of Edward III.

Henry Bolingbroke deposed Richard II and became Henry IV, ending the rule of the House of Plantagenets and becoming the first Lancastrian king of England. The House of Lancaster would reign through Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.

Henry VI proved an ineffective and weak king, falling into a catatonic state upon learning of the English loss at Castillon that ended the Hundred Years' War in France. Infighting and political power plays led to armed conflict, with Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou, and Richard Duke of York vying for control over the realm. At the town of St. Albans in 1455, Yorkist forces overcame royal forces and captured Henry VI. With the King in captivity in the Tower of London, Richard of York became the Lord Protector of England.

The conflicts that followed between the Houses of Lancaster and York are now known as the Wars of the Roses.

With Henry VI in captivity, Margaret rallied support for the House of Lancaster throughout the realm and across the border in Scotland. Lancastrian and Yorkist forces would meet again at the Battle of Wakefield, where Richard of York was either killed in the fighting or executed shortly after capture.

Following Richard of York's death, his son Edward took up the Yorkist cause, defeating Lancastrian forces at the snowy Battle of Towton. Edward became the first king of the House of York, Edward IV. Edward, however, could not completely stop the internal conflicts and did himself no favors by marrying Elizabeth Woodville, a match that many of the English nobility looked down upon.

The Lancastrians gathered strength and were able to force Edward to flee, restoring Henry VI to the throne. Henry was no more capable of ruling than he had been before, and Edward returned the following year, retaking the throne and decisively defeating Lancastrian forces at Tewkesbury, where Henry's son was killed. Henry himself died a few days later, being either overwhelmed by the news or at Edward's orders.

Following Edward's death, his brother Richard became Lord Protector of the Realm for Edward's heir, his 12-year-old son Edward V. Edward V and his brother Richard were subsequently arrested by their uncle, the Lord Protector, who claimed the throne as Richard III. The two princes were taken to the Tower of London and never seen again.

The Princes in the Tower, Edward V and his brother Richard, who may have been killed by their uncle, Richard III.

Richard III alienated his Yorkist allies, emboldening his rivals. English nobles soon opposed his reign, looking to Henry Tudor as an alternative.

Henry Tudor was descended from Edward III through John of Gaunt, who had had illegitimate children with Katherine Swynford. The two later married, and the children were made legitimate by Richard II. One of those children was John Beaufort, who would be the great-grandfather of Henry Tudor through Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort. Henry Tudor was likewise directly descended from Edward I through Edward's sixth son, the younger half-brother of Edward II.

Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV, uniting the Houses of Lancaster and York and ending the Wars of the Roses.

The Tudor Rose symbolically combines the white rose of York with the red rose of Lancaster.

The Wars of the Roses, a 30-year dynastic struggle and one of England's bloodiest chapters, still capture the imagination of people today. The conflicts, both armed and political, are full of intrigue and even mystery. The battles, such as at Towton, St. Albans, and Bosworth Field, are well-known and have been depicted in various media, perhaps most famously in Shakespeare's plays Henry VI, parts 1 and 2, and Richard III. It is a moment in these plays, in fact, from which the name the Wars of the Roses derives, as nobles choose either a red rose to support Lancaster or a white rose to support York in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1.

The family tree of Edward III and the houses that fought in the Wars of the Roses.

Edward III was one of the greatest kings of England and of all medieval Europe. He won important battles, such as at Crecy, against the dynastic rivals in France at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. In addition, he brought welcome reforms and a period of peace to England, establishing the Order of the Garter, even as the Black Death ravaged the kingdom. Edward ruled for a long time and sired more than a dozen children. Despite his efforts to prepare his kingdom and his family for succession upon his death, the untimely death of his eldest son and heir, Edward, the Black Prince, threw the kingdom into chaos under the rule of Edward III's grandson, Richard II, who would prove to be the last of the senior line of Plantagenet kings.

Edward's sons John of Gaunt and Edmund Langley would be the patriarchs of the Houses of Lancaster and York, respectively. Over the course of 30 years in the mid-fifteenth century, these two houses would tear England apart in a series of conflicts now called the Wars of the Roses. It would not be until these two houses united in the marriage of Elizabeth of York and Henry Tudor that England would see peace again and the rise of the Tudor dynasty.