Background
Born in June 1239 at Westminster, Edward was named by his father Henry III after the last Anglo Saxon king (and his father's favorite saint), Edward the Confessor.
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I of England with his brother-in-law, Alexander III, on his right-hand side. The Royal Arms of Scotland can be seen above Alexander's head.
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I of England with his brother-in-law, Alexander III, on his right-hand side. The Royal Arms of Scotland can be seen above Alexander's head.
Born in June 1239 at Westminster, Edward was named by his father Henry III after the last Anglo Saxon king (and his father's favorite 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). As a result, Edward received a disciplined education - reading and writing in Latin and French, with training in the arts, sciences, and music.
In 1254, Edward traveled 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 second son, Edmund) 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 outmaneuvered 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 end 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 declared that he had succeeded by hereditary right, and the barons swore allegiance 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 an 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 recognized 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 skillful 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 has 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. 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 emphasized 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.
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 ex-communication; 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 counselor 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, succeeded by his son, Edward II.
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 Lord Edward, formerly King of England, of famous memory."
Edward I strengthened the crown and Parliament against the old feudal nobility. He subdued Wales, destroying its autonomy; and he sought (unsuccessfully) the conquest of Scotland. His reign is particularly noted for administrative efficiency and legal reform. He introduced a series of statutes that did much to strengthen the crown in the feudal hierarchy. His definition and emendation of English common law has earned him the name of the "English Justinian."
Shrewdly realistic, Edward understood the value of the "parliaments," which since 1254 had distinguished English government and which Montfort had deliberately employed to publicize government policy and to enlist widespread, active support by summoning representatives of shires and boroughs to the council to decide important matters. Edward developed this practice swiftly, not to share royal power with his subjects but to strengthen royal authority with the support of rising national consciousness. From 1275 to 1307 he summoned knights and burgesses to his parliaments in varying manners. The Parliament of 1295, which included representatives of shires, boroughs, and the lesser clergy, is usually styled the Model Parliament, but the pattern varied from assembly to assembly, as Edward decided. By 1307, Parliament, thus broadly constituted, had become the distinctive feature of English politics, though its powers were still undefined and its organization embryonic.
Edward used these parliaments and other councils to enact measures of consolidation and reform in legal, procedural, and administrative matters of many kinds. The great statutes promulgated between 1275 and 1290 are the glory of his reign. Conservative and definitory rather than original, they owed much to Burnell, Edward’s chancellor. With the vast developments and reorganization of the administrative machine that Burnell coordinated, they created a new era in the English government. The quo warranto inquiry, begun in 1275, the statutes of Gloucester (1278) and of Quo Warranto (1290) sought with much success to bring existing franchises under control and to prevent the unauthorized assumption of new ones. Tenants were required to show "by what warrant" or right they held their franchises. Edward strove, unsuccessfully, to restore the feudal army and strengthen local government institutions by compelling minor landowners to assume the duties of knighthood. His land legislation, especially the clause de donis conditionalibus in the miscellaneous Second Statute of Westminster (1285) and the statute Quia Emptores (Third Statute of Westminster, 1290), eventually helped to undermine feudalism, quite contrary to his purpose. By the Statute of Mortmain (1279) the crown gained control of the acquisition of land by ecclesiastical bodies. The Statute of Winchester (1285) codified and strengthened the police system for preserving public order. The Statute of Acton Burnell (1283) and the Statute of Merchants (1285) showed practical concern for trade and merchants. These are but the most famous of many statutes aimed at efficiency and sound administration.
In 1275, Edward issued the Statute of the Jewry prohibiting usury and forced the Jewish to pursue other professions. Later he issued the Edict of Expulsion, forcing the Jewish to leave the Kingdom of England.
Edward was in many ways the ideal medieval king. He went through a difficult apprenticeship, was a good fighter, and was a man who enjoyed both war and statecraft. His crusading reputation gave him prestige, and his chivalric qualities were admired. Although he had a gift for leadership, he lacked sympathy for others and had an obstinacy that led to inflexibility.
Edward was a staunch supporter of the medieval tournament, an event he often took part in personally, once famously unseating the Count of Chalon in a tournament held in Chalon. Destined to be king, the young prince would still have to battle hard to ensure his father's and his own throne remained secure from usurpers.
He had been arrogant, lawless, violent, treacherous, revengeful, and cruel; his Angevin rages matched those of Henry II. Loving his own way and intolerant of opposition, he had still proved susceptible to influence by strong-minded associates. He had shown intense family affection, loyalty to friends, courage, brilliant military capacity, and a gift for leadership; handsome, tall, powerful, and tough, he had the qualities men admired. He loved efficient, strong government, enjoyed power, and had learned to admire justice, though in his own affairs it was often the letter, not the spirit of the law that he observed. Having mastered his anger, he had shown himself capable of patient negotiation, generosity, and even idealism; and he preferred the society and advice of strong counselors with good minds. As long as Burnell and Queen Eleanor lived, the better side of Edward triumphed, and the years until about 1294 were years of great achievement. Thereafter, his character deteriorated for a lack of domestic comfort and independent advice. He allowed his autocratic temper full rein and devoted his failing energies to the prosecution of the wars in France and against Scotland.
Physical Characteristics: Known for his fiery temper and self-confidence, Edward was nicknamed "Longshanks" because of his height - 1.9 meters (6 ft. 2 inches), an unusually impressive stature for medieval times. He was strong, athletic, and as good a horseman as he was a swordsman.
Edward married Eleanor of Castile in October 1254 when she was 12 and he was just 15 years old but the match worked out well. Eleanor even accompanied her husband on his crusade and when she died in 1290, Edward suffered her loss greatly. The passage of her coffin from Lincoln to London was commemorated by the setting up of 12 monumental crosses, and one of these, the last on the route, would give London’s Charing Cross its name. Edward, already with a family of 11 daughters and four sons, did marry again, on 10 September 1299, to Margaret, the daughter of Philip III of France. Margaret was more than 40 years younger than Edward, but the marriage was another success.
Henry III, (born October 1, 1207, Winchester, Hampshire, England - died November 16, 1272, London), king of England from 1216 to 1272. In the 24 years (1234-58) during which he had effective control of the government, he displayed such indifference to tradition that the barons finally forced him to agree to a series of major reforms, the Provisions of Oxford (1258).
Eleanor Of Provence, French Éléonore De Provence, (born 1223 - died June 25, 1291, Amesbury, Wiltshire, Eng.), queen consort of King Henry III of England (ruled 1216 - 72); her widespread unpopularity intensified the severe conflicts between the King and his barons.
Eleanor's devotion to Edward helped bring out his better qualities; after her death, his rule became somewhat arbitrary. Eleanor was the daughter of King Ferdinand III of Castile and his wife, Joan of Ponthieu.
Eleanor accompanied Edward on a crusade from 1270 to 1273. The story that she saved his life at Acre (now in Israel) by sucking poison from a dagger wound is evidently apocryphal. After Edward ascended the throne, Eleanor was criticized for allegedly mistreating the tenants on her lands.
Despite the discrepancy in their ages, the marriage appears to have been a happy one, Edward referred to Margaret as "a pearl of great price." However, as Margaret often accompanied her husband on campaigns, she fell pregnant quickly. She apparently continued to hunt until late in her pregnancy.
Margaret, who was fond of music, hired musicians to entertain her sons with various instruments.
Like most royal mothers, Margaret was often away from her sons, but she remained in close contact. She was kept informed of their wellbeing and diet. The close relationship between Margaret and Edward shows itself in the intercessions she made, like between her husband and his heir - the future Edward II. The younger Edward wrote to her frequently, asking her to intercede with his father. Margaret’s only apparent vice appears to have been her extravagance.
She was not with her husband when he died on 7 July 1307 at Burgh-by-Sands on his way to Scotland. She never considered remarrying, even though she was still quite young.
(before 17 June 1264 - 5 September 1264), buried at Westminster Abbey.
(Summer or January 1265 - before 7 September 1265), buried in Westminster Abbey.
(13 July 1266 - 3 August 1271), predeceased his father and died at Wallingford while in the custody of his granduncle Richard, Earl of Cornwall, buried at Westminster Abbey.
(6 May 1268 - 14 October 1274), predeceased his father, buried in Westminster Abbey.
(18 June 1269 - 29 August 1298), she was the eldest of surviving daughters of Edward and Eleanor of Castile, buried in Westminster Abbey but the location of her grave in the Abbey is unknown.
(after May 1271 - 5 September 1271), born and died while Edward and Eleanor were in Acre.
(1272 - 23 April 1307), buried at Clare Priory, Suffolk.
(24 November 1273 - 19 August 1284), predeceased his father, buried in Westminster Abbey.
(15 March 1275 - after 1333), she was married to John II, Duke of Brabant, buried at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels.
(15 March 1275 - after 1333), she was a nun at Amesbury Priory.
(7 August 1282 - 5 May 1316)
Edward II, byname Edward of Caernarvon, (April 25, 1284, Caernarvon, Caernarvonshire, Wales - September 1327, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England), king of England from 1307 to 1327. Although he was a man of limited capability, he waged a long, hopeless campaign to assert his authority over powerful barons.
(1 June 1300 - 4 August 1338), the first son of Edward I and his second wife Margaret of France.
(5 August 1301 - 19 March 1330), the second son of Edward I and his second wife Margaret of France.
(4 May 1306 - August 1311)
