Edward I of England

Edward I
By the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine
File:Edw1.JPG
Reign	20 November 1272 – 7 July 1307
Coronation	19 August 1274
Predecessor	Henry III
Successor	Edward II
Burial	Westminster
Consort	Eleanor of Castile (1241–90) Marguerite of France (1282–1317)
Issue	Joan of Acre (1271–1307) Alphonso, Earl of Chester (1273–84) Edward II (1284–1327) Thomas, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1300–38) Edmund, 1st Earl of Kent (1301–30)
House	Plantagenet
Father	Henry III (1207–72)
Mother	Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223–91)

Edward I (17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), popularly known as Longshanks, also as "Edward the Lawgiver" because of his legal reforms, and as "Hammer of the Scots", achieved fame as the monarch who conquered Wales and who tried to do the same to Scotland. He reigned from 1272 to 1307, ascending the throne of England on 21 November 1272 after the death of his father, King Henry III of England. His mother was queen consort Eleanor of Provence. He was voted the 94th greatest Briton in the 2002 poll of 100 Greatest Britons.

Childhood and marriage to Eleanor

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the evening of 17 June 1239. He was an older brother of Beatrice of England and Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster. He is said to have been named after Edward the Confessor. From 1239 to 1246 Edward was in the care of Hugh Giffard (the son of Godfrey Giffard) and his wife, Sybil, who had been one of the midwives at Edward's birth. On Giffard's death in 1246, Bartholomew Pecche took over. Early grants of land to Edward included Gascony, but Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester had been appointed by Henry to seven years as royal lieutenant in Gascony in 1248, a year before the grant to Edward, so in practice Edward derived neither authority nor revenue from the province.

Edward's first marriage (age 15) was arranged in 1254 by his father and Alfonso X of Castile. Alphonso had insisted that Edward receive grants of land worth 15,000 marks a year and also asked to knight him; Henry had already planned a knighthood ceremony for Edward but conceded. Edward crossed the Channel in June, and was knighted by Alfonso and married to Eleanor of Castile (age 13) on 1 November 1254 in the monastery of Las Huelgas.

Eleanor and Edward would go on to have sixteen children, and her death in 1290 affected Edward deeply. He displayed his grief by erecting the Eleanor crosses, one at each place where her funeral cortège stopped for the night. His second marriage, (age 60) at Canterbury on September 10 1299, to Marguerite of France, (age 20) (known as the "Pearl of France" by her English subjects), the daughter of King Philip III of France (Phillip the Bold) and Maria of Brabant, produced three children.

Early ambitions

In 1255, Edward and Eleanor both returned to England. The chronicler Matthew Paris tells of a row between Edward and his father over Gascon affairs; Edward and Henry's policies continued to diverge, and on 9 September 1256, without his father's knowledge, Edward signed a treaty with Gaillard de Soler, the ruler of one of the Bordeaux factions. Edward's freedom to maneuver was limited, however, since the seneschal of Gascony, Stephen Longespée, held Henry's authority in Gascony. Edward had been granted much other land, including Wales and Ireland, but for various reasons had less involvement in their administration.

In 1258, Henry was forced by his barons to accede to the Provisions of Oxford. This, in turn, led to Edward becoming more aligned with the barons and their promised reforms, and on 15 October 1259, he announced that he supported the goals of the barons. Shortly afterwards, Henry crossed to France for peace negotiations, and Edward took the opportunity to make appointments favouring his allies. An account in Thomas Wykes's chronicle claims that Henry learned that Edward was plotting against the throne; and, in the spring of 1260, Henry returned to London and eventually were reconciled by Richard of Cornwall's efforts. Henry then forced Edward's allies to give up the castles they had received, and Edward's independence was sharply reduced.

Edward's character greatly contrasted with that of his father, who reigned over England throughout Edward's childhood and consistently tended to favour compromise with his opponents. Edward had already shown himself as an ambitious and impatient man, displaying considerable military prowess in defeating Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, having previously been imprisoned by de Montfort at Wallingford Castle and Kenilworth Castle. He gained a reputation for treating rebels and other foes with great savagery. He relentlessly pursued the surviving members of the de Montfort family, his cousins.

Military campaigns

Crusades

In 1269, Cardinal Ottobono, the Papal Legate, arrived in England and appealed to Prince Edward and his brother Edmund to participate in the Eighth Crusade alongside Louis IX of France. In order to fund the crusade, Edward had to borrow heavily from Louis IX and the French. It is estimated by scholars such as P.R. Coss that Edward raised and spent close to half a million livres.

The number of knights and retainers that accompanied Edward on the crusade was quite small, possibly around 230 knights. Many of the members of Edward's expedition were close friends and family including his wife Eleanor of Castile, his brother Edmund, and his first cousin Henry of Almain.

The original goal of the crusade was to relieve the beleaguered Christian stronghold of Acre, but Louis had been diverted to Tunis. By the time Edward arrived at Tunis, Louis had died of disease. The majority of the French forces at Tunis thus returned home, but a small number joined Edward who continued to Acre to participate in the Ninth Crusade. After a short stop in Cyprus, Edward arrived in Acre with thirteen ships. Then, in 1271, Hugh III of Cyprus arrived with a contingent of knights. The arrival of these additional forces emboldened Edward, who engaged in a raid on the town of Ququn and, within a short space of time, a ten year peace treaty had been signed. Upon hearing of the death of Henry III, Edward left the Holy Land and returned to England in 1274.

Overall, Edward's crusade was insignificant and only gave the city of Acre a reprieve of ten years. However, Edward's reputation was greatly enhanced by his participation in the crusade and was hailed by some contemporary commentators as a new Richard the Lionheart. Furthermore, some historians believe Edward was inspired by the design of the castles he saw while on crusade and incorporated similar features into the castles he built to secure portions of Wales, such as Caernarfon Castle.

Welsh Wars

One of Edward's early achievements was the conquest of Wales. Under the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd had extended Welsh territories southwards into what had been the lands of the English Marcher lords, and gained the title of Prince of Wales although he still owed homage to the English monarch as overlord. Edward refused to recognize this Treaty - which had been concluded by his father - and in 1275, pirates in Edward's pay intercepted a ship carrying Eleanor de Montfort, Simon de Montfort's only daughter, from France to Wales, where she expected to marry Llywelyn. Edward then mprisoned her at Windsor. After Llywelyn repeatedly refused to pay homage to Edward in 1274–75, Edward raised an army and launched his first campaign against the Welsh prince in 1276–77. After this campaign, Llywelyn was forced to pay homage to Edward and was stripped of all but a rump of territory in Gwynedd. But Edward allowed Llywelyn to retain the title of Prince of Wales, and the marriage with Eleanor de Montfort went ahead.

Llywelyn's younger brother, Dafydd (who had briefly been an ally of the English) started another rebellion in 1282. But Edward quickly destroyed the remnants of resistance, capturing, brutally torturing, and executing Dafydd in the following year. To consolidate his conquest, he commenced the construction of a string of massive stone castles encircling the principality, of which Caernarfon Castle provides a notable surviving example.

Wales became incorporated into England under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, and in 1301, Edward dubbed his eldest son Edward Prince of Wales, since which time the eldest son of most English monarchs have borne the same title, the only exceptions being Edward III and Edward VII.

Scottish Wars

Edward then turned his attentions to Scotland. He had planned to marry off his son and heir Edward, to the heiress Margaret, the Maid of Norway, but when Margaret died with no clear successor, the Scottish Guardians invited Edward's arbitration, to prevent the country from descending into dynastic war. Before the process got underway Edward insisted that he be recognized as Lord Paramount of Scotland, the feudal superior of the realm and, after some initial resistance, this precondition was finally accepted.

Edward presided over a feudal court held at the castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed in November 1292, where judgment was given in favour of John Balliol over other candidates. Balliol was chosen as the candidate with the strongest claim in feudal law, but Edward subsequently used the concessions he had gained to undermine the authority of the new king even summoning Balliol to do homage to him in Westminster in 1293. Edward also made it clear he expected John's military and financial support against France. But this was too much for Balliol, who concluded a pact with France and prepared an army to invade England.

Edward I depicted in Cassell's History of England (1902)

In response Edward gathered his largest army yet (25,000) and razed Berwick, massacring almost the whole population of 11,000 inhabitants. He then proceeded to Dunbar and Edinburgh from where the Stone of Destiny was removed and taken to Westminster Abbey. Balliol renounced the crown and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for three years before withdrawing to his estates in France. All freeholders in Scotland were required to swear an oath of homage to Edward, and he ruled Scotland like a province through English viceroys.

Opposition sprang up (see Wars of Scottish Independence), and Edward executed the focus of discontent, William Wallace, on 23 August 1305, having earlier defeated him at the Battle of Falkirk (1298).

Death

Edward's plan to conquer Scotland never came to fruition during his lifetime, however, as he died in 1307 at Burgh-by-Sands, Cumberland on the Scottish border, while on his way to wage another campaign against the Scots under the leadership of Robert the Bruce. Against his wishes, Edward was then buried in Westminster Abbey. He was buried in a lead casket wishing to be moved to the usual regal gold casket only when Scotland was fully conquered and part of the Kingdom of England.

To this day he still lies in the lead casket — although the thrones of Scotland and England were united in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne, and the Kingdom of Great Britain was created in 1707 by the Acts of Union 1707, uniting Scotland and England in an incorporating union, the conquest Edward envisaged was never completed. His son, King Edward II of England, succeeded him.

Government and law under Edward I

File:Edward house.jpg

A portrait of Edward I hangs in the United States House of Representatives chamber. It was Edward who founded the parliamentary system in England and eliminated the divisive political effects of the feudal system.

See also List of Parliaments of Edward I

Unlike his father, Henry III, Edward I took great interest in the workings of his government and undertook a number of reforms to regain royal control in government and administration. It was during Edward's reign that Parliament began to meet regularly. And though still extremely limited to matters of taxation, it enabled Edward I to obtain a number of taxation grants which had been impossible for Henry III.

After returning from the crusade in 1274, a major inquiry into local malpractice and alienation of royal rights took place. The result was the Hundred Rolls of 1275, a detailed document reflecting the waning power of the Crown. It was also the allegations that emerged from the inquiry which led to the first of the series of codes of law issued during the reign of Edward I. In 1275, the first Statute of Westminster was issued correcting many specific problems in the Hundred Rolls. Similar codes of law continued to be issued until the death of Edward's close adviser Robert Burnell in 1292.

Persecution of the Jews

In 1290, by the Edict of Expulsion, Edward formally expelled all Jews from England. In the course of his persecution, he arrested all the heads of Jewish households. The authorities took over 300 of them to the Tower of London and executed them, while killing others in their homes. All money and property was confiscated.

The exact reason behind this expulsion has been a subject of some speculation. It has been claimed, for example, that the persecution was for financial gain. But despite the fact that the Jewish community was thought to deal exclusively in moneylending, it is evident that by the time of Edward's reign, there was little left of the community to be made useful for the Crown financially. (Jews had been harshly squeezed by King John and Henry III). Furthermore, Edward I had adequate financial resources from the Italian banking company of Riccadi before 1292, therefore there was virtually no financial motive behind Edward's persecution of the Jews.

The expulsion can also be viewed in the context of the 13th century's growing movement of anti-Jewish feeling; France, for example, had expelled all Jews from its cities. Edward's mother, Eleanor of Provence had expelled Jews from her estates in 1275. And it was Edward who introduced to England the practice of forcing Jews to wear denotive yellow patches on the outer garments, a practice to be taken up by Adolf Hitler over six centuries later.

Trivia

File:Braveheart McGoohan.as.Edward1.jpg

Patrick McGoohan as "Longshanks" King Edward I of England in Braveheart

]]

• He was known to be fond of falconry and horse riding. The names of his horses have survived: Lyard, his war horse; Ferrault his hunting horse; and his favourite, Bayard. At the Siege of Berwick, Edward is said to have led the assault personally, using Bayard to leap over the earthen defences of the city.
• He was largely responsible for the Tower of London in the form we see today, including notably the concentric defences, elaborate entranceways, and the Traitor's Gate.
• He initially intended to call himself Edward IV, recognising the three Saxon kings of England of that name. However, for unknown reasons, this designation does not appear to have been formally used, the King instead being known as 'King Edward' not only by custom (for a King would generally not be known by his regal designation in ordinary conversation), but in all known formal documentation. Upon the accession of his son, also named Edward, the custom of the old reign was taken as rule — the new King was named Edward II, and the old Edward I. Technically, then, this established the custom of numbering English monarchs only from the Norman Conquest (although Edward is the only name that has been shared by pre- and post-Conquest monarchs).
• He made extensive use of a large trebuchet called the Warwolf to besiege Scottish castles.
• His Royal motto was pactum serva, 'Keep faith'.
• His life was dramatized in a Renaissance play by George Peele, The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First.
• His personal treasure, valued at over a year's worth of the kingdom's tax revenue, was stolen by Richard of Pudlicott in 1306, leading to one of the largest criminal trials of the period.

Issue

Children of Edward and Eleanor:

1. Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in Bordeaux, France.
2. Katherine, living June 17 1264, died September 5 1264 and buried at Westminster Abbey.
3. Joan, born January 1265, buried at Westminster Abbey before September 7 1265.
4. John, born July 13 1266, died August 3 1271 at Wallingford, in the custody of his granduncle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Buried at Westminster Abbey.
5. Henry, born before May 6 1268, died October 16, 1274.
6. Eleanor, born ca. 18 June 1269 and died 29 August 1298. She was long betrothed to Alfonso III of Aragon, who died in 1291 before the marriage could take place, and in 1293 she married Count Henry III of Bar.
7. Daughter, born after May 1271 in Palestine and died before September 1272.
8. Joan of Acre. born at Acre 1272 and died April 7 1307. She married (1) Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, (2) Ralph Morthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer.
9. Alphonso, Earl of Chester, born 24 November 1273, died 19 August 1284, buried in Westminster Abbey.
10. Margaret Plantagenet, born March 15 1275 and died after 1333. She married John II of Brabant.
11. Berengaria, born 1 May 1276 and died before June 27 1278, buried in Westminster Abbey.
12. Daughter, died shortly after birth, January 1278.
13. Mary, born 11 March 1279 and died 29 May 1332, a nun in Amesbury, Wiltshire (England).
14. A son, born in 1280 or 1281, who died very shortly after birth.
15. Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, born August 1282 at Rhuddlan, died 5 May 1316. She married (1) John I, Count of Holland, (2) Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford & 3rd Earl of Essex.
16. Edward II of England, also known as Edward of Caernarvon, born 25 April 1284 at Caernarvon, died 21 September 1327. He married Isabella of France.

Children of Edward and Marguerite:

1. Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1300–38), married (1) Alice Hayles, with issue; (2) Mary Brewes, with issue.
2. Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, (1301–30), married Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell with issue. Executed by Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer following the overthrow of Edward II.
3. Eleanor (1306–11), died young.

References

• Michael Prestwich, Edward I (London: Methuen, 1988, updated edition Yale University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-300-07209-0)
• Thomas B. Costain, The Three Edwards (Popular Library, 1958, 1962, ISBN 0-445-08513-4)
• The Times Kings & Queens of The British Isles, by Thomas Cussans (page 84, 86, 87) ISBN 0-0071-4195-5