Were there really any decent male members of the English royal family in the middle ages?
Historians have long considered Edward III (1312-1377), the father of “the Black Prince”, Edward of Woodstock (who never succeeded to the English throne but was a first-rate military leader), the most popular English king during the Middle Ages because of the military successes early in his reign. Furthermore, in 1341 the House of Commons forced the King to accept severe limitations that briefly expanded its financial and administrative prerogatives. Again, in 1377, “the Good Parliament” also required Royalty to address its grievances. Accordingly, Parliament gained political influence throughout Edward’s reign. Even so, it probably wasn’t an especially good time to be an English peasant. In 1351 on the heels of the Black Death, the Statue of Laborers fixed the wages of serfs at pre-plague levels and enacted laws to continue to tie them to the land. Discontent among the serfs would lead to the Peasants Revolt in 1381. Obviously, a great gulf between the royal family and the peasantry e
