The New Murrey and Blue blog

The death mask of Edward III….

, ,
, , , ,
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is edward-iii-tomb-westminster.jpg
Edward III, Westminster Abbey

King Edward III of England reigned for fifty years. He was born on 13 November 1312, at Windsor, became a great and successful warrior king, and died at Sheen, a shadow of his former self on 21 June 1377. His decline was sad, because he’d been a truly able and shrewd monarch who’d steadied the realm after the chaos of his father’s reign. Between them all Edward II (and his favourites), his queen, Isabella of France, and her (probable) lover, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, had wrought havoc. The accession of Edward III, and his swift rise to rule in his own right saw a new age for England.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is edward-iii-young.png
King Edward III – from https://world4.eu/edward-iii/

We all picture Edward, first as a young warrior, then as an old man, as depictred on his tomb effigy in Westminster Abbey, but do we all know his actual death mask? I confess I didn’t.

I also confess that I find it incredibly sad that after such illustriousness, he was reduced to being a frail old man whose mind wandered.

To read more of Edward, I would recommend his biography The Perfect King, by Ian Mortimer. An eminently readable book!

Subscribe to my newsletter

  1. Was the 3rd Duke of York like his youngest son in appearance….? | murreyandblue

    […] be blond. The 3rd Duke of York’s father was Richard of Conisburgh, who descended from the blond Edward III (maybe!) and from Pedro the Cruel of Castile, who was very definitely blond. I say maybe for Edward […]

    Like

    Reply
  2. The runaway nun who married four—or five?—times….! – murreyandblue

    […] of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III, wasn’t such a fox, I hasten to point out, but he managed to have a house built at the Minories, […]

    Like

    Reply
  3. What really happened with Princess Cecily’s first two marriages….? – murreyandblue

    […] of the Scrope cousins, just that when the respective baronies of Masham and Bolton were created by Edward III, the then two barons were first cousins. Ralph was the second of the three younger brothers of […]

    Like

    Reply
  4. Leaks, thistles and crosses of all kinds…. – murreyandblue

    […] wasn’t the patron saint of England in the 13th century. He was chosen in the 14th century by Edward III to replace St Edward the Confessor. The decision was made when the Order of the Garter was formed […]

    Like

    Reply
  5. Spreading propaganda works both ways, as John of Gaunt discovered…. – murreyandblue

    […] he worked on his aging father, Edward III, to omit the Mortimers from the succession. Edward, it seemed, complied, which makes him a […]

    Like

    Reply
  6. The true significance of posy rings…. – murreyandblue

    […] tells an interesting anecdote about King Edward III and the Countess of Salisbury. No, not the story of the garter, or indeed which Countess of […]

    Like

    Reply
  7. Did Edward III, Richard II and Henry VII look like this….? – murreyandblue

    […] this one is probably spot on. To me he looks like Merlin pretending to be King Arthur, but then, Edward III did look like this (judging by his tomb […]

    Like

    Reply
  8. The Kingmaker’s Anger – murreyandblue

    […] families in the realm. Ralph’s children married a Mowbray, a Percy, a Stafford descendant of Edward III, and, in York, a more senior descendant of Edward III who would be considered heir to the throne […]

    Like

    Reply
  9. The imposition of ransom…. – murreyandblue

    […] all he could from the system was Sir William Windsor, who married Alice Perrers, the mistress of Edward III. As Deputy of Ireland (King’s Lieutenant of Ireland) he also twisted the Irish all he could and […]

    Like

    Reply
  10. Where did the Black Prince come ashore when he crossed the Thames to his favourite palace at Kennington….? – murreyandblue

    […] developments have changed everything, so that it’s hard to imagine that back in the time of Edward III, the Black Prince and Richard II there would have been fields and trees, as you can see on the 1785 […]

    Like

    Reply
  11. Lorrie Ann MOFFATT (Keith) Avatar
    Lorrie Ann MOFFATT (Keith)

    Mask related to KING EDWARD THE THIRD.
    Iook just like him / his death mask. I don’t know. How. To send send pictures yet..

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. The appointment of women to the Garter. (Medieval era). – murreyandblue

    […] more or less automatically. No, sorry. Not so. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, was appointed by Edward III as far back as 1375 or 76. He was, of course, Richard II’s half-brother, so highly placed. His […]

    Like

    Reply
  13. Hanley Castle – murreyandblue

    […] was by some way the most impoverished of Edward III‘s sons, the only one not to marry an heiress. The Despenser marriage was manna from heaven […]

    Like

    Reply
  14. The story of Winchester College….and of a lost quiz…. – murreyandblue

    […] Clerk of Works responsible for the transformation, enlarging and improving of Windsor Castle for Edward III. His rise to prominence took him across the path of none other than Richard II’s powerful […]

    Like

    Reply
  15. There are front doors….and there are FRONT DOORS….!!!!! – murreyandblue

    […] property dates from 1350, when it was probably used as a hunting box by John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III, who held the hunting rights to Ashdown […]

    Like

    Reply
  16. Guy Ritchie’s inheritance blooper on Netflix…. – murreyandblue

    […] Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, died before his father, Edward III, he left a small boy, the eventual Richard II, as the new heir to the throne. Children were always […]

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Spreading propaganda works both ways, as John of Gaunt discovered…. – murreyandblue Cancel reply