[Son of Edward II of England and Isabella of France, born 1312, crowned 1327, died 1377. Edward achieved the highest renown by his Scotch and French wars, the latter of which he undertook as claimant of the French throne through his mother. Though the latter part of his life was marked by many misfortunes, the achievements of his reign stamp it as among the most important in the earlier English annals. It was not until this period that the English language became universally recognized as the national speech, and the various race elements were thoroughly welded and made homogeneous.] The English are apt to consider with peculiar fondness the history of Edward III, and to esteem his reign, as it was one of the longest, the most glorious, also, that occurs in the annals of their nation. The ascendant which they then began to acquire over France, their rival and supposed national enemy, makes them cast their eyes on this period with great complacency, and sanctifies every measure which Edward embraced for that end. But the domestic government of this prince is really more admirable than his foreign victories; and England enjoyed, by the prudence and vigor of his administration, a longer interval of domestic peace and tranquillity than she had been blessed with in any former period, or than she experienced for many ages after. He gained the affections of the great, yet curbed their licentiousness; he made them feel his power, without their daring, or even being inclined, to murmur at it; his affable and obliging behavior, his munificence and generosity, made them submit with pleasure to his dominion; his valor and conduct made them successful in most of their enterprises; and their unquiet spirits, directed against a public enemy, had no leisure to breed those disturbances to which they were naturally so much inclined, and which the frame of the government seemed so much to authorize.