Theses and Dissertations Collection

Civil war and military incompetence were a mainstay in England for nearly two decades by the start of Edward III’s majority reign in 1330. Moreover, money contracts were beginning to replace the feudal oath, and the gentry and merchants were gaining more economic power. England faced crucial domestic challenges and fundamental societal evolution at a time when Scotland and France remained troubling matters of national concern. I argue that the idea of a national cause – a belief that the kingdom writ large was united in pursuing a common objective – emerged out of a fusion of political harmony, chivalric cultural revival, and national victory. The policy of political harmony undertaken in the 1330s demanded a forgiving, generous policy of royal patronage and cooperation with the gentry and merchants of England. It was fundamental for the Crown to harness the support of the entire political community for a cause in which they all took part. That the triumphalism in the wake of Edward III’s great victories would ultimately be undercut and confronted by the events of the 1360s and 1370s was a testament to the fundamental role that national unity played in creating an environment that could facilitate the emergence of a national cause. A national cause meant that, in mid-fourteenth-century England, a bond was forged between ruler and realm that united royal and national interest.