Edward Iii - Blog Posts
Wait a minute...
Edward the Third was an Arthuriana nerd who named his son after Sir Lionel, and...
...made up a title for him, which....
...had previously existed in Arthuriana and didn't refer to a place. Coincidence?
Probably.
Well, darn. That would've been very interesting. Then again, maybe the knowledge that Edward III was such a nerd he named his son after Sir Lionel is enough to ask.
Wait a minute...
Edward the Third was an Arthuriana nerd who named his son after Sir Lionel, and...
...made up a title for him, which....
...had previously existed in Arthuriana and didn't refer to a place. Coincidence?
Probably.
Well, darn. That would've been very interesting. Then again, maybe the knowledge that Edward III was such a nerd he named his son after Sir Lionel is enough to ask.
Edward’s consort, Queen Isabella, is an enthusiastic book collector. She has many volumes of religious devotion, including a spectacular apocalypse; a two-volume Bible in French; a book of sermons in French; two books of Hours of the Virgin; and various antiphonals, graduals, and missals for use in her chapel. She also owns an encyclopedia (Brunetto Latini’s Tresor, in French) and at least two history books: Brut (bound with the Tresor) and a book about the genealogy of the royal family. She also owns at least ten romances. Among them are The Deeds of Arthur (bound in white leather), Tristan and Isolda, Aimeric de Narbonne, Perceval and Gawain, and The Trojan War.
Ten romances suggest that Isabella is keen on reading. But this is not the full story. Not only does she borrow books from her friends, she takes books from the royal lending library. This contains at least 340 titles and is housed in the Tower of London. As a younger woman, she borrows romances for herself and titles such as The History of Normandy and Vegetius’ text on warfare for her sons.
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, Ian Mortimer