Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (11 of 12)edward the Third, Who Came to the Crowne by the Resignation of His Father Edward the Second

The Chronicles that gave Shakespeare his history plays. This is the raw material that became Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V - the vast Tudor-era chronicle that shaped how we imagine medieval England. Raphael Holinshed and his collaborators compiled this monumental work in the 1570s, drawing on medieval sources to create a sweeping narrative of British history from the mythical ages through Elizabeth I's reign. This particular volume covers Edward III's early reign - a fourteen-year-old king dominated by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, while discontented nobles plotted and towns rose against their abbots. Here is the world that made Shakespeare's kings: the texture of medieval governance, the raw machinery of succession, and the violent birth of the Hundred Years' War. For anyone who has ever wondered where the Bard found his material, here it is - the original chronicle that fired his imagination.