EDWARD III., king of England (1327-1377), son of the preceding, married Philippa of Hainault; during his boyhood the government was carried on by a council of regency; in 1328 the independence of Scotland was recognised, and nine years later began the Hundred Years’ War with France, memorable in this reign for the heroic achievements of EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE (q. v.), the king’s eldest son; associated with this reign are the glorious victories of Crecy and Poitiers, and the great naval battle at Sluys, one of the earliest victories of English arms at sea; these successes were not maintained in the later stages of the war, and the treaty of Bretigny involved the withdrawal of Edward’s claim to the French crown; in 1376 the Black Prince died.

EDWARD IV., king of England (1461-1483), son of Richard, Duke of York, and successor to the Lancastrian Henry VI., whom he defeated at Towton; throughout his reign the country was torn by the Wars of the Roses, in which victory rested with the Yorkists at Hedgeley Moor, Hexham, Barnet, and Tewkesbury; in this reign little social progress was made, but a great step towards it was made by the introduction of printing by Caxton (1442-1483)

EDWARD V., king of England for three months in 1483, son of the preceding; deposed by his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester; was ultimately murdered in the Tower, along with his young brother (1470-1483).

EDWARD VI., king of England (1547-1553), son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour; his reign, which was a brief one, was marked by a victory over the Scots at Pinkie (1547), Catholic and agrarian risings, and certain ecclesiastical reforms (1537-1553).

EDWARD VII., king of Great Britain and Ireland and “all the British Dominions beyond the Seas,” born 9th November 1841, succeeded his mother, Queen Victoria, 22nd Jan. 1901.  On 10th March 1863 he married Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX. of Denmark, and has four surviving children:  George, Prince of Wales, b. 1865; Louise, Duchess of Fife, b. 1867; Victoria, b. 1868; and Maud, b. 1869, who married Prince Charles of Denmark.  The king’s eldest son, Albert Victor, b. 1864, died January 14, 1892.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, king of England, married Edith, daughter of the great EARL GODWIN (q. v.); was a feeble monarch of ascetic proclivities; his appeal to the Duke of Normandy precipitated the Norman invasion, and in him perished the royal Saxon line; was canonised for his piety (1004-1066).

EDWARD THE ELDER, king of the Anglo-Saxons from 901 to 925; was the son and successor of Alfred the Great; extended the Anglo-Saxon dominions.

EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN, soldier and administrator in India, born at Frodesley, Shropshire; was actively engaged in the first Sikh War and in the Mutiny; served under Sir Henry Lawrence, whose Life he partly wrote (1819-1868).

EDWARDS, BRYAN, historian, born at Westbury; traded in Jamaica; wrote a “History of British Colonies in the West Indies” (1743-1800).