ABSTRACT
Edward was an unusual name in thirteenth-century England. In a country where the aristocracy was largely French-speaking, English names were not fashionable. Henry III, however, was devoted to the cult of Edward the Confessor, a king who had displayed some of his own qualities of piety and incompetence. This explains his choice of name for his eldest son, and the accession of Edward I to the throne in 1272 marked the beginning of just over a hundred years of rule by kings called Edward. The name was not Edward I’s immediate choice for his heir: the future Edward II had elder brothers, John, Henry and Alphonso, but all three died young. Edward II came under pressure from the French to call his eldest son Philip after his father-in-law Philip IV, but the memory of his own masterful father was too strong and the boy was duly christened Edward. The line of Edwards looked as if it might continue indefinitely; Edward III’s eldest son, the Black Prince, and his eldest grandson bore the name in turn. This was an age of high mortality, however, and Edward III outlived them both. In 1377 it was the Black Prince’s surviving son, Richard of Bordeaux, who inherited the throne.
