EDWARD
I (r. 1272-1307)Born in June 1239 at Westminster, Edward was named by his
father Henry III after the last Anglo Saxon king (and his father's favourite saint),
Edward the Confessor. Edward's parents were renowned for their patronage of the
arts (his mother, Eleanor of Provence, encouraged Henry III to spend money on
the arts, which included the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey and a still-extant
magnificent shrine to house the body of Edward the Confessor), and Edward received
a disciplined education - reading and writing in Latin and French, with training
in the arts, sciences and music.
In 1254, Edward travelled to Spain for
an arranged marriage at the age of 15 to 9-year-old Eleanor of Castile. Just before
Edward's marriage, Henry III gave him the duchy of Gascony, one of the few remnants
of the once vast French possessions of the English Angevin kings. Gascony was
part of a package which included parts of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the
King's lands in Wales to provide an income for Edward. Edward then spent a year
in Gascony, studying its administration.
Edward spent his young adulthood
learning harsh lessons from Henry III's failures as a king, culminating in a civil
war in which he fought to defend his father. Henry's ill-judged and expensive
intervention in Sicilian affairs (lured by the Pope's offer of the Sicilian crown
to Henry's younger son) failed, and aroused the anger of powerful barons including
Henry's brother-in-law Simon de Montfort. Bankrupt and threatened with excommunication,
Henry was forced to agree to the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, under which his
debts were paid in exchange for substantial reforms; a Great Council of 24, partly
nominated by the barons, assumed the functions of the King's Council.
Henry
repudiated the Provisions in 1261 and sought the help of the French king Louis
IX (later known as St Louis for his piety and other qualities). This was the only
time Edward was tempted to side with his charismatic and politically ruthless
godfather Simon de Montfort - he supported holding a Parliament in his father's
absence.
However, by the time Louis IX decided to side with Henry in the
dispute and civil war broke out in England in 1263, Edward had returned to his
father's side and became de Montfort's greatest enemy. After winning the battle
of Lewes in 1264 (after which Edward became a hostage to ensure his father abided
by the terms of the peace), de Montfort summoned the Great Parliament in 1265
- this was the first time cities and burghs sent representatives to the parliament.
(Historians differ as to whether de Montfort was an enlightened liberal reformer
or an unscrupulous opportunist using any means to advance himself.)
In May
1265, Edward escaped from tight supervision whilst hunting. On 4 August, Edward
and his allies outmanoeuvred de Montfort in a savage battle at Evesham; de Montfort
predicted his own defeat and death 'let us commend our souls to God, because our
bodies are theirs ... they are approaching wisely, they learned this from me.'
With the ending of the civil war, Edward worked hard at social and political reconciliation
between his father and the rebels, and by 1267 the realm had been pacified.
In
April 1270 Parliament agreed an unprecedented levy of one-twentieth of every citizen's
goods and possessions to finance Edward's Crusade to the Holy Lands. Edward left
England in August 1270 to join the highly respected French king Louis IX on Crusade.
At a time when popes were using the crusading ideal to further their own political
ends in Italy and elsewhere, Edward and King Louis were the last crusaders in
the medieval tradition of aiming to recover the Holy Lands. Louis died of the
plague in Tunis before Edward's arrival, and the French forces were bought off
from pursuing their campaign. Edward decided to continue regardless: 'by the blood
of God, though all my fellow soldiers and countrymen desert me, I will enter Acre
... and I will keep my word and my oath to the death'.
Edward arrived in
Acre in May 1271 with 1,000 knights; his crusade was to prove an anticlimax. Edward's
small force limited him to the relief of Acre and a handful of raids, and divisions
amongst the international force of Christian Crusaders led to Edward's compromise
truce with the Baibars. In June 1272, Edward survived a murder attempt by an Assassin
(an order of Shi'ite Muslims) and left for Sicily later in the year. He was never
to return on crusade.
Meanwhile, Henry III died on 16 November 1272. Edward
succeeded to the throne without opposition - given his track record in military
ability and his proven determination to give peace to the country, enhanced by
his magnified exploits on crusade. In Edward's absence, a proclamation in his
name delcared that he had succeeded by hereditary right, and the barons swore
allegeiance to him. Edward finally arrived in London in August 1274 and was crowned
at Westminster Abbey. Aged 35, he was a veteran warrior ('the best lance in all
the world', according to contemporaries), a leader with energy and vision, and
with a formidable temper.
Edward was determined to enforce English kings'
claims to primacy in the British Isles. The first part of his reign was dominated
by Wales. At that time, Wales consisted of a number of disunited small Welsh princedoms;
the South Welsh princes were in uneasy alliance with the Marcher lords (feudal
earldoms and baronies set up by the Norman kings to protect the English border
against Welsh raids) against the Northern Welsh based in the rocky wilds of Gwynedd,
under the strong leadership of Llywelyn ap Gruffyd, Prince of Gwynedd. In 1247,
under the Treaty of Woodstock, Llywelyn had agreed that he held North Wales in
fee to the English king. By 1272, Llywelyn had taken advantage of the English
civil wars to consolidate his position, and the Peace of Montgomery (1267) had
confirmed his title as Prince of Wales and recognised his conquests.
However,
Llywelyn maintained that the rights of his principality were 'entirely separate
from the rights' of England; he did not attend Edward's coronation and refused
to do homage. Finally, in 1277 Edward decided to fight Llywelyn 'as a rebel and
disturber of the peace', and quickly defeated him. War broke out again in 1282
when Llywelyn joined his brother David in rebellion. Edward's determination, military
experience and skilful use of ships brought from England for deployment along
the North Welsh coast, drove Llywelyn back into the mountains of North Wales.
The death of Llywelyn in a chance battle in 1282 and the subsequent execution
of his brother David effectively ended attempts at Welsh independence.
Under
the Statute of Wales of 1284, Wales was brought into the English legal framework
and the shire system was extended. In the same year, a son was born in Wales to
Edward and Queen Eleanor (also named Edward, this future king was proclaimed the
first English Prince of Wales in 1301). The Welsh campaign had produced one of
the largest armies ever assembled by an English king - some 15,000 infantry (including
9,000 Welsh and a Gascon contingent); the army was a formidable combination of
heavy Anglo-Norman cavalry and Welsh archers, whose longbow skills laid the foundations
of later military victories in France such as that at Agincourt. As symbols of
his military strength and political authority, Edward spent some ?80,000 on a
network of castles and lesser strongholds in North Wales, employing a work-force
of up to 3,500 men drawn from all over England. (Some castles, such as Conway
and Caernarvon, remain in their ruined layouts today, as examples of fortresses
integrated with fortified towns.)
Edward's campaign in Wales was based on
his determination to ensure peace and extend royal authority, and it had broad
support in England. Edward saw the need to widen support among lesser landowners
and the merchants and traders of the towns. The campaigns in Wales, France and
Scotland left Edward deeply in debt, and the taxation required to meet those debts
meant enrolling national support for his policies.
To raise money,
Edward summoned Parliament - up to 1286 he summoned Parliaments twice a year.
(The word 'Parliament' came from the 'parley' or talks which the King had with
larger groups of advisers.) In 1295, when money was needed to wage war against
Philip of France (who had confiscated the duchy of Gascony), Edward summoned the
most comprehensive assembly ever summoned in England. This became known as the
Model Parliament, for it represented various estates: barons, clergy, and knights
and townspeople. By the end of Edward's reign, Parliament usually contained representatives
of all these estates.
Edward used his royal authority to establish the rights
of the Crown at the expense of traditional feudal privileges, to promote the uniform
administration of justice, to raise income to meet the costs of war and government,
and to codify the legal system. In doing so, his methods emphasised the role of
Parliament and the common law. With the able help of his Chancellor, Robert Burnell,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, Edward introduced much new legislation. He began by
commissioning a thorough survey of local government (with the results entered
into documents known as the Hundred Rolls), which not only defined royal rights
and possessions but also revealed administrative abuses.
The First Statute
of Westminster (1275) codified 51 existing laws - many originating from Magna
Carta - covering areas ranging from extortion by royal officers, lawyers and bailiffs,
methods of procedure in civil and criminal cases to freedom of elections. Edward's
first Parliament also enacted legislation on wool, England's most important export
at the time. At the request of the merchants, Edward was given a customs grant
on wool and hides which amounted to nearly ?10,000 a year. Edward also obtained
income from the licence fees imposed by the Statute of Mortmain (1279), under
which gifts of land to the Church (often made to evade death duties) had to have
a royal licence.
The Statutes of Gloucester (1278) and Quo Warranto (1290)
attempted to define and regulate feudal jurisdictions, which were an obstacle
to royal authority and to a uniform system of justice for all; the Statute of
Winchester (1285) codified the policing system for preserving public order. Other
statutes had a long-term effect on land law and on the feudal framework in England.
The Second Statute of Westminster (1285) restricted the alienation of land and
kept entailed estates within families: tenants were only tenants for life and
not able to sell the property to others. The Third Statute of Westminster or Quia
Emptores (1290) stopped subinfeudation (in which tenants of land belonging to
the King or to barons subcontracted their properties and related feudal services).
Edward's
assertion that the King of Scotland owed feudal allegiance to him, and the embittered
Anglo-Scottish relations leading to war which followed, were to overshadow the
rest of Edward's reign in what was to become known as the 'Great Cause'. Under
a treaty of 1174, William the Lion of Scotland had become the vassal to Henry
II, but in 1189 Richard I had absolved William from his allegiance. Intermarriage
between the English and Scottish royal houses promoted peace between the two countries
until the premature death of Alexander III in 1286. In 1290, his granddaughter
and heiress, Margaret the 'Maid of Norway' (daughter of the King of Norway, she
was pledged to be married to Edward's then only surviving son, Edward of Caernarvon),
also died. For Edward, this dynastic blow was made worse by the death in the same
year of his much-loved wife Eleanor (her body was ceremonially carried from Lincoln
to Westminster for burial, and a memorial cross erected at every one of the twelve
resting places, including what became known as Charing Cross in London).
In
the absence of an obvious heir to the Scottish throne, the disunited Scottish
magnates invited Edward to determine the dispute. In order to gain acceptance
of his authority in reaching a verdict, Edward sought and obtained recognition
from the rival claimants that he had the 'sovereign lordship of Scotland and the
right to determine our several pretensions'. In November 1292, Edward and his
104 assessors gave the whole kingdom to John Balliol or Baliol as the claimant
closest to the royal line; Balliol duly swore loyalty to Edward and was crowned
at Scone.
John Balliol's position proved difficult. Edward insisted that
Scotland was not independent and he, as sovereign lord, had the right to hear
in England appeals against Balliol's judgements in Scotland. In 1294, Balliol
lost authority amongst Scottish magnates by going to Westminster after receiving
a summons from Edward; the magnates decided to seek allies in France and concluded
the 'Auld Alliance' with France (then at war with England over the duchy of Gascony)
- an alliance which was to influence Scottish history for the next 300 years.
In March 1296, having failed to negotiate a settlement, the English led by Edward
sacked the city of Berwick near the River Tweed. Balliol formally renounced his
homage to Edward in April 1296, speaking of 'grievous and intolerable injuries
... for instance by summoning us outside our realm ... as your own whim dictated
... and so ... we renounce the fealty and homage which we have done to you'. Pausing
to design and start the rebuilding of Berwick as the financial capital of the
country, Edward's forces overran remaining Scottish resistance. Scots leaders
were taken hostage, and Edinburgh Castle, amongst others, was seized. Balliol
surrendered his realm and spent the rest of his life in exile in England and Normandy.
Having
humiliated Balliol, Edward's insensitive policies in Scotland continued: he appointed
a trio of Englishmen to run the country. Edward had the Stone of Scone - also
known as the Stone of Destiny - on which Scottish sovereigns had been crowned
removed to London and subsequently placed in the Coronation Chair in Westminster
Abbey (where it remained until it was returned to Scotland in 1996). Edward never
built stone castles on strategic sites in Scotland, as he had done so successfully
in Wales - possibly because he did not have the funds for another ambitious castle-building
programme.
By 1297, Edward was facing the biggest crisis in his reign, and
his commitments outweighed his resources. Chronic debts were being incurred by
wars against France, in Flanders, Gascony and Wales as well as Scotland; the clergy
were refusing to pay their share of the costs, with the Archbishop of Canterbury
threatening excommunication; Parliament was reluctant to contribute to Edward's
expensive and unsuccessful military policies; the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk
refused to serve in Gascony, and the barons presented a formal statement of their
grievances. In the end, Edward was forced to reconfirm the Charters (including
Magna Carta) to obtain the money he required; the Archbishop was eventually suspended
in 1306 by the new Gascon Pope Clement V; a truce was declared with France in
1297, followed by a peace treaty in 1303 under which the French king restored
the duchy of Gascony to Edward.
In Scotland, Edward pursued a series of
campaigns from 1298 onwards. William Wallace had risen in Balliol's name and recovered
most of Scotland, before being defeated by Edward at the battle of Falkirk in
1298. (Wallace escaped, only to be captured in 1305, allegedly by the treachery
of a fellow Scot and taken to London, where he was executed.) In 1304, Edward
summoned a full Parliament (which elected Scottish representatives also attended),
in which arrangements for the settlement of Scotland were made. The new government
in Scotland featured a Council, which included Robert the Bruce. Bruce unexpectedly
rebelled in 1306 by killing a fellow counsellor and was crowned king of Scotland
at Scone. Despite his failing health, Edward was carried north to pursue another
campaign, but he died en route at Burgh on Sands on 7 July 1307 aged 68.
According
to chroniclers, Edward requested that his bones should be carried on Scottish
campaigns and that his heart be taken to the Holy Land. However, Edward was buried
at Westminster Abbey in a plain black marble tomb, which in later years was painted
with the words Scottorum malleus (Hammer of the Scots) and Pactum serva (Keep
troth). Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Exchequer paid
to keep candles burning 'round the body of the Lord Edward, formerly King of England,
of famous memory'.