Hello everyone and welcome to the history of England, episode 101, the King of France and England.

So, last week Edward had finally managed to leave the shores of Old Blighty and Cell for the continent in July 1338.

Today we're going to take that story up to the political crisis of 1340 to 41.

Our overall story is that despite one cast iron honest to goodness copper bottom victory, this is an enormously difficult period for Edward.

Like pretty much every medieval king we've come across so far, especially the Plantageness, Edward has a very high view of his dignity and the dignity of his office.

In 1338, one often the first flush of youth, at 26 years of age, Edward has not troubled to look under the bonnet and studied engine of government.

Essentially, he expected his officials to revive the resources he needed and when he needed them, end a story.

Between 1338 and 41, Edward learns the lesson that life is a bit more complicated than that.

In 1338, there are two clear planks to Edward's strategy if you can have clear planks, one of which will stay constant throughout the Hundred Years' War and the other which will be pretty quickly abandoned.

The first was expressed nice and clearly in a letter to the Pope and the College of Cardinals. Here are Edward's own words.

According to the theory of war, which teaches that the best way to avoid the inconveniences of war is to pursue it away from one's own country, it is more sensible for us to fight our notorious enemy in his own realm.

Throughout the glory days and the dark days this never changes, a means of the impacts of the Hundred Years' War are always more terrible for the French than for the English.

The other plank we've mentioned a couple of times, it's the plank to fight with enemies around the northern borders of France.

The strategy seems pretty sensible, but in fact, very quickly leads Edward into choppy waters.

Which is odd, because on the face of it in 1338 when Edward arrived at Antwerp, things were looking good for Edward and his grand alliance.

His main diplomats had built an impressive coalition, delivering an army of 7,000 men from various lords large and small.

There's a list on the website, interestingly enough, but they range from the Chica Brabant and the Holy Roman Emperor, pretty important folk, to the Margrave of Brandenburg.

And surely you would think it's got to be easier and cheaper to get other people to provide an army than it is to do it yourself, wouldn't you?

Well, that would be a no. In fact, the cost was absolutely stonking, £160,000 for those 7,000 troops alone.

Meanwhile, Edward had to maintain a household and an army on the continent in Brabant himself.

By 1341 the strategy had cost over £400,000. Edward simply didn't understand that these were sums,

the poor little Old England simply couldn't afford at this time, or at least didn't had the machinery to raise.

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