The Vow on the Heron

HOW TRAGIC IT WAS TO BE A KING AND ONLY FIFTEEN.

Edward the Third had come to the throne through the conniving of his mother. He was but a boy. Even so, the Queen did not want him inquiring too deeply into the death of his father, who had been brutally murdered because of her and her lover, Roger de Mortimer.

To distract Edward she allowed him to marry the lovely and gracious Phillipa of Hainault, with whom he had fallen in love at first sight.

When it began to be said that Edward had a claim to the French throne, he allowed himself to be goaded into challenging the King of France. It was Robert of Artois, a consummate troublemaker, who urged Edward on, likening him to a heron, a cowardly bird.

Edward then swore on the heron that he would attack France. This vow changed the course of history, for it heralded the beginning of the Hundred Years' War.