Released 4th November 2002 Run To The Hills (Harris) The Number Of The Beast (Harris) Flight Of Icarus (Smith, Dickinson) The Trooper (Harris) 2 Minutes to Midnight (Smith, Dickinson) Wasted Years (Smith) Can I Play With Madness (Smith, Dickinson, Harris) The Evil That Men Do (Smith, Dickinson, Harris) The Clairvoyant (Harris) Infinite Dreams (Harris) Holy Smoke (Harris, Dickinson) Bring Your Daughter... ...To The Slaughter (Dickinson) Man On The Edge (Bayley, Gers) Futureal (Harris, Bayley) The Wicker Man (Smith, Harris, Dickinson) Fear Of The Dark (live) (Harris) Total playing timeВ В  01:14:19 *"Fear of the Dark (Live)" is taken from Rock In Rio Live-Album

Edward the Great was Iron Maiden's third "best-of album" (counting their 1999 video game Ed Hunter which came with a 20 track best of CD with songs chosen by the fans), and was released on November 5, 2002 along with the massive Eddie's Archive box set, as a way to introduce new fans to Maiden. However, many older fans complained about the lack of exclusive or rare material on it. Another complaint of many was that the album lacked material from the first two Iron Maiden albums, Iron Maiden and Killers which featured Paul Di'Anno on vocals.

In 2005, a revised edition was released in Europe, Asia and South-America, with a slightly different tracklist. This "updated" version was to coincide with the release of The Essential Iron Maiden compilation that was released in North America. The revised edition features some songs from the Dance of Death album, and a different live version of "Fear of the Dark". The new version also adds the song "Brave New World" from the album of the same name. The booklet includes a new foreword by Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood, whereas the original version has a foreword by founding member Steve Harris. The album cover does not differentiate between the two other than the tracklisting - some shops still sell old stock of the original. In some cases, record distributors accidentally released the revised 2005 version CD with the old track list still on the album sleeve, although this mistake has since been corrected.

The album cover was done by a guy named Tom Adams. Although it's quite different from all the other album covers, it does fit the theme quite well. It shows Eddie as a ruler of some sorts, living up to the title of Edward The Great. He's on a throne, surrounded by wolves. Eddie's face is more or less the same as it has been sinceВ  The Wicker Man video, with a huge evil grin, and a big chin. I must say that I prefer the older ones, but let's leave it at that.