ABSTRACT
Edward III had a good one. This was because of the successes of his Scottish and French campaigns. The chroniclers approved of his wars and stressed his hereditary right to supremacy over Scotland and to the crown of France. All the chroniclers, but especially the secular clerks and laymen, accepted chivalric values. Besides the chroniclers’ taste for writing dramatic descriptions of battles, they loved to describe any colourful spectacle, such as a tournament or a procession. All these chronicles are bellicose in flavour, and some are little more than histories of Edward’s wars, with detailed and graphic descriptions of sieges, battles and soldiers on the march. In Edward III’s reign there was a remarkable increase in the proportionate number of chronicles by secular clerks. For Edward III’s campaigns Geoffrey le Baker must have questioned returned soldiers, and he certainly used official documents, newsletters, casualty lists, and itineraries.
