Edward III and the English Peerage

A study of Edward III's astute use of patronage to reposition the monarchy after the vicissitudes of his father's reign and his own problematic minority. Patronage was central to medieval kingship, and a crucial facet of royal power. This book, the first in-depth examination of this crucial facet of royal power, offers a detailed analysis of how Edward III, one of the most successful and, to use a modern term, charismatic of medieval English monarchs, used royal favour to create a "new nobility"