pickEdward III is usually either lionized or denigrated, but Ormrod seeks (and I would say succeeds) to show him as fully human. At times amusing, but always readable, the biography is cradle-to-grave, not just the fighting. I have a greater appreciation for how much we have in common with medieval people, and how complex their lives were. Highly recommended!
Edward III is dying, and I‘m only at 69%? #slowdeath
“The whole affair had served to confirm the contemporary belief that closed political systems had a tendency to implode, and that the ultimate effect of faction was simply to produce a paralysis of the state.” (Painting of Alice Perrers with Edward III) So, we have learned nothing politically since 1373, apparently. 🙄
“Nothing, it seemed, quite became Queen Isabella's performance of queenship like the leaving of it.”
“And in 1336, on a campaign in the north, Edward managed to break a nacker (the shallow kettledrum used by mounted musicians in medieval armies) belonging to one John Pot, presumably in an over-enthusiastic display of his percussion skills.”
It‘s sentences like this that make this an enjoyable read. @GingerAntics @Graywacke
A rainy Saturday seems like as good a time as any to start a biography of a monarch who just may be an ancestor. #currentlyreading
Edward III | 
