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The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III

The Life of Edward III

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The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
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Edward’s life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father’s throne, and started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting himself as a new King Arthur, victorious across Europe. He was the architect of many English icons – from parliamentary rule to the adoption of English as the official language and even the building of a great clocktower at Westminster. Yet behind the strong warrior king was a compassionate, conscientious and often merciful man - resolute yet devoted to his wife, friends and family, and the father of both the English nation and the English people.©2014 Ian Mortimer Europe Great Britain Medieval Royalty England Middle Ages War Tudor
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I've listened to several of the the author's books pitched more as popular history giving designed to give an insight into life of ordinary folk in the past. The present book is more a work of scholarship, using where possible original source material, nevertheless the author manages to make the story of Edward III's life an engaging and pacey biography. There is plenty of material for not only did the King reign for 50 years but also lived through turbulent times in European history much of the latter owing to his determination to invade France on many occasions and repeated conflicts between England and Scotland exacerbated by Scotland being more friendly with France than with England.

The author draws attention to how historical reputations ebb and flow across the centuries and certainly to modern sensibilities Edward's repeated incursions into France in pursuit of more land and his ruthlessness towards inhabitants of French and Scottish towns smack of war-crimes but in earlier times were deemed heroic. However, for his time he was a fine King who had many good qualities and he certainly improved the governance of England. His life had many successes but he also was not immune to the vicissitudes of medieval life with disease and injuries taking a toll on his family and friends with at least lest 8 of his children dying before him, including his first three sons.

Though a long book I felt engaged throughout and learned a lot about the history of the period helped by excellent narration.

Scholarly, interesting and engaging blography

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I have learned so much from this book. Well written and well read. It seems most of its are related to this man.

An epic tale about a king we hear too little about

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Great history of a king who should figure much more highly in popular culture and the national psyche

Great history

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I love a good historical biography & this one is up there with the best 👍

Gripping

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This is obviously an old reading of the book as half way through we are told that it is the end of cd 1. Interesting book and quite well read although I was a little irritated by some mis-pronunciations - such as Beauchamp, Alnwick and Bamburgh and a couple of errors such as "On March November 13...." but on the whole a riveting dash through the life of Edward III.

Interesting book

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