The Three Edwards

Here is all the magnificent color, the sweep, the rich romance of a brilliant era. Here are the three unforgettable men who dominated it—and the strong-willed women who destroyed one of them and sought to enslave another.


THE THREE EDWARDS, third in Thomas B. Costain's survey of Britain under the Plantagenets, covers the years between 1272 and 1377 when three Edwards ruled England. Edward I brought England out of the Middle Ages. Edward II had a tragic reign but gave his country Edward III, who ruled gloriously, if violently.


First published in 1958, The Three Edwards, written by "one of the great storytellers of our time," Thomas B. Costain, is the third volume in the brilliant series, including The Conquering Family, The Magnificent Century and The Last Plantagenets.


"Deals with turbulent human experience...a wonderful story."—New York Herald Tribune


"So colorful and gusty is his style, so filled with phrases that grip and hold, no fiction he ever wrote holds the breathless interest of the reader more tightly...Here is an historical tapestry, filled with Color and movement...with kings and nobles, their wives and their doxies...with sound and fury unknown in our age of science without chivalry"—Miami Herald


"DRAMATIC...THE FIGURES OF HISTORY COME MAGICALLY TO LIFE"—Ladies Home Journal


"Under the touch of Mr. Costain's brilliant pen, the era comes alive...fills his pages with a lively combination of biography, history, anecdote—yet seldom does he miss the mark of historical accuracy...not only exciting reading, but also stimulating and rewarding."—Christian Science Monitor


"Fascinating...Costain writes history with the pen of a novelist...This century yields inspiration in its richly narrative patterns."—Virginia Kirkus


"No events that Mr. Costain enlivens with his magic pen can fail to gain some luster from the contact."—Saturday Review