ABSTRACT
Edward III was one of the greatest of English war leaders and his fame rests on the achievements of the armies he deployed in his struggle with the Valois kings of France. Edward was in fact much more than a heroic soldier; he was politically adept, and showed himself to be a man of some cultural sensitivity. It is not possible, however, to make sense of the domestic history of his reign without establishing an understanding of the king’s main enterprise; the war with France.
