Born in Windsor, 1312 - Died in Sheen, Richmond, 1377.
King of England from 1327 to 1377.
Son and successor of Edward II, he got rid of his mother's guardianship in 1330. In 1337, he asserted his rights to the crown of France, thus triggering the Hundred Years' War. He destroyed part of the French fleet, then defeated the French at Crécy (1346), Calais (1347) and Poitiers (1356). The Treaty of Brétigny (1360) gave him, in exchange for his renunciation of the crown of France, all the south-west of this country. But the end of his long reign was marked by the setbacks suffered before Du Guesclin, by the death of his eldest son, by internal divisions and by the Black Death.