Edward I of England

Edward I Longshanks
Portrait in Westminster Abbey, thought to be of Edward I
King of England (more...)
Reign	16 November 1272 – 7 July 1307
Coronation	19 August 1274
Predecessor	Henry III of Winchester
Successor	Edward II of Carnarvon
Consort	Eleanor of Castile m. 1254; dec. 1290 Margaret of France m. 1299; wid. 1307
among others Issue
Eleanor, Countess of Bar Joan, Countess of Hertford and Gloucester Alphonso, Earl of Chester Margaret, Duchess of Brabant Mary of Woodstock Elizabeth, Countess of Hereford Edward II of Carnarvon Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent
House	House of Plantagenet
Father	Henry III of Winchester
Mother	Eleanor of Provence
Born	17/18 June 1239 Palace of Westminster, London, England
Died	7 July 1307 (aged 68) Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England
Burial	Westminster Abbey, London, England

Edward I (17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provisions of Oxford. After reconciliation with his father, however, he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Barons' War. After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was hostage to the rebellious barons, but escaped after a few months and joined the fight against Simon de Montfort. Montfort was defeated at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and within two years the rebellion was extinguished. With England pacified, Edward left on crusade to the Holy Land. The crusade accomplished little, and Edward was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died. Making a slow return, he reached England in 1274 and he was crowned king at Westminster on 19 August.

Edward's reign had two main phases. He spent the first years reforming royal administration. Through an extensive legal inquiry Edward investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties, while the law was reformed through a series of statutes regulating criminal and property law. Increasingly, however, Edward's attention was drawn towards military affairs. After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a second rebellion in 1282–83 with a full-scale war of conquest. After a successful campaign, Edward subjected Wales to English rule, built a series of castles and towns in the countryside and settled them with Englishmen. Next, his efforts were directed towards Scotland. Initially invited to arbitrate a succession dispute, Edward claimed feudal suzerainty over the kingdom. In the war that followed, the Scots persevered, even though the English seemed victorious at several points. At the same time there were problems at home. In the mid-1290s, extensive military campaigns led to unbearable levels of taxation, and Edward met with both lay and ecclesiastical opposition. These crises were initially averted, but issues remained unsettled. When the king died in 1307, he left behind a number of financial and political problems to his son Edward II, as well as an ongoing war with Scotland.

Edward I was a tall man for his age, hence the nickname "Longshanks". He was also temperamental and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he held the respect of his subjects for the way in which he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship, both as a soldier, administrator and a man of faith. Modern historians have been more divided on their assessment of the king; while some have praised him for his contribution to the law and administration, others have criticised him for his uncompromising attitude to his nobility. Currently, Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III, establishing parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming the law through statutes. At the same time, he is also often criticised for other actions, such as his brutal conduct towards the Scots, and the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

[edit] Early years

[edit] Childhood and marriage

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night between the 17th and 18th of June 1239, to King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence.^[1] Although the young prince was seriously ill on several occasions, in 1246, 1247, and 1251, he grew up to be strong and healthy.^[2] Edward was in the care of Hugh Giffard – father of the future Chancellor Godfrey Giffard – until Bartholomew Pecche took over at Giffard's death in 1246.^[3] Among his childhood friends was his cousin Henry of Almain, son of King Henry's brother Richard of Cornwall.^[2] Henry of Almain would remain a close companion of the prince, both through the civil war that followed, and later on the crusade.^[4]

Early fourteenth-century manuscript initial showing Edward and Eleanor. The artist has perhaps tried to depict Edward's drooping eyelid, a trait he inherited from his father.^[5]

In 1254 English fears of a Castilian invasion of the English province of Gascony induced Edward's father to arrange a politically expedient marriage between his fourteen year old son and Eleanor, the half-sister of King Alfonso X of Castile.^[6] Eleanor and Edward were married on 1 November 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile.^[7] As part of the marriage agreement, the young prince received grants of land worth 15,000 marks a year.^[8] Though the endowments King Henry made were sizable, they offered Edward little independence. He had already received Gascony as early as 1249, but Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester had been appointed as royal lieutenant the year before and, consequently, drew its income, so in practice Edward derived neither authority nor revenue from this province.^[9] The grant he received in 1254 included most of Ireland, and much land in Wales and England, including the earldom of Chester, but the king retained much control over the land in question, particularly in Ireland, so Edward's power was limited there as well, and the king derived most of the income from those lands as well.^[10]

From 1254 to 1257, Edward was under the influence his mother's relatives, known as the Savoyards,^[11] the most notable of whom was Peter of Savoy, the queen's uncle.^[12] After 1257, he increasingly fell in with the Poitevin, or Lusignan faction – the half-brothers of his father Henry III – led by such men as William de Valence.^[13] This association was significant, because the two groups of privileged foreigners were resented by the established English aristocracy, and would be at the centre of the ensuing years' baronial reform movement.^[14] There were tales of unruly and violent conduct by Edward and his Lusignan kinsmen, which raised questions about the royal heir's personal qualities. The next years would be formative on Edward's character.^[15]

[edit] Early ambitions

Edward had shown independence in political matters as early as 1255, when he sided with the Soler family in Gascony, in the ongoing conflict between the Soler and Colomb families. This ran contrary to his father's policy of mediation between the local factions.^[16] In May 1258, a group of magnates drew up a document for reform of the king’s government – the so-called Provisions of Oxford – largely directed against the Lusignans. Edward stood by his political allies, and strongly opposed the Provisions. The reform movement succeeded in limiting the Lusignan influence, however, and gradually Edward’s attitude started to change. In March 1259, he entered into a formal alliance with one of the main reformers Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. Then, on 15 October, 1259 he announced that he supported the barons' goals, and their leader, Simon de Montfort.^[17]

The motive behind Edward's change of heart could have been purely pragmatic; Montfort was in a good position to support his cause in Gascony.^[18] When the king left for France in November, Edward's behaviour turned into pure insubordination. He made several appointments to advance the cause of the reformers, causing his father to believe that his son was considering a coup d'état.^[19] When the king returned from France, he initially refused to see his son, but through the mediation of the Earl of Cornwall and the archbishop of Canterbury, the two were eventually reconciled.^[20] Edward was sent abroad, and in November 1260 he once more united with the Lusignans, who had been exiled to France.^[21]

Back in England, early in 1262, Edward fell out with some of his former Lusignan allies over financial matters. The next year King Henry sent him on a campaign in Wales against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, with only limited results.^[22] Around the same time, Simon de Montfort, who had been out of the country since 1261, returned to England and re-ignited the baronial reform movement.^[23] It was at this pivotal moment, as the king seemed ready to resign to the barons' demands, that Edward began to take control of the situation. Whereas he had so far been unpredictable and equivocating, from this point on he remained firmly devoted to protecting his father's royal rights.^[24] He reunited with some of the men he had alienated the year before – among them his childhood friend, Henry of Almain, and John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey – and retook Windsor Castle from the rebels.^[25] Through the arbitration of King Louis IX of France, an agreement was made between the two parties. This so-called Mise of Amiens was largely favourable to the royalist side, and laid the seeds for further conflict.^[26]

[edit] Civil war

The years 1264–1267 saw the conflict known as the Barons' War, where baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort fought against those who remained loyal to the king.^[27] The first scene of battle was the city of Gloucester, which Edward managed to retake from the enemy. When Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edward negotiated a truce with the earl, the terms of which he later broke. Edward then proceeded to capture Northampton from Montfort's son Simon, before embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby's lands.^[28] The baronial and royalist forces finally met at the Battle of Lewes, on 14 May 1264. Edward, commanding the right wing, performed well, and soon defeated the London contingent of Montfort's forces. Unwisely, however, he followed the scattered enemy in pursuit, and on his return found the rest of the royal army defeated.^[29] By the agreement known as the Mise of Lewes, Edward and his cousin Henry of Almain were given up as a prisoners to Montfort.^[30]

Medieval manuscript showing Simon de Montfort's mutilated body at the field of Evesham

Edward remained in captivity until March and even after his release he was kept under strict surveillance.^[31] Then, on 28 May, he managed to escape his custodians, and joined up with the earl of Gloucester, who had recently defected to the king's side.^[32] Montfort's support was now dwindling, and Edward retook Worcester and Gloucester with relatively little effort.^[33] In the meanwhile, Montfort had made an alliance with Llywelyn, and started moving east to join forces with his son Simon. Edward managed to make a surprise attack at Kenilworth Castle, where the younger Montfort was quartered, before moving on to cut off the earl of Leicester.^[34] The two forces then met at the second great encounter of the Barons' War – the Battle of Evesham, on 4 August 1265. Montfort stood little chance against the superior royal forces, and after his defeat he was killed and mutilated on the field.^[35]

Through such episodes as the deception of Derby at Gloucester, Edward acquired a reputation as untrustworthy. During the summer campaign though, he began to learn from his mistakes, and acted in a way that gained the respect and admiration of his contemporaries.^[36] The war did not end with Montfort's death, and Edward participated in the continued campaigning. At Christmas he came to terms with the younger Simon de Montfort and his associates at the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, and in March he led a successful assault on the Cinque Ports.^[37] A contingent of rebels held out in the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle, and did not surrender until the drafting of the conciliatory Dictum of Kenilworth.^[38] In April it seemed as if Gloucester would take up the cause of the reform movement, and civil war would resume, but after a renegotiation of the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth the parties came to an agreement.^[39] Edward, however, was little involved in the settlement negotiations following the wars; at this point his main focus was on planning his upcoming crusade.^[40]

[edit] Crusade and accession

Edward took the crusader's cross in an elaborate ceremony on 24 June 1268, with his brother Edmund and cousin Henry of Almain. Among others who committed themselves to the ninth Crusade were Edward's former adversaries—like the earl of Gloucester, though the earl did not end up going.^[41] With the country pacified, the greatest impediment to the project was providing sufficient finances.^[42] King Louis IX of France, who was the leader of the crusade, provided a loan of about £17,500.^[43] This, however, was not enough; the rest had to be raised through a tax on the laity, which had not been levied since 1237.^[43] In May 1270, Parliament granted a tax of a twentieth,^[44] in exchange for which the king agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta, and to impose restrictions on Jewish money lending.^[45] On 20 August Edward sailed from Dover for France.^[46] Historians have been unable to determine the size of the force with any certainty, but Edward probably brought with him around 225 knights and all together less than 1000 men.^[42]

Originally, the Crusaders intended to relieve the beleaguered Christian stronghold of Acre, but Louis had been diverted to Tunis. The French king and his brother Charles of Anjou, who had made himself king of Sicily, decided to attack the emirate in order to establish a stronghold in North Africa.^[47] The plans failed when the French forces were struck by an epidemic which, on 25 August, took the life of King Louis himself.^[48] By the time Edward arrived at Tunis, Charles had already signed a treaty with the emir, and there was little else to do but return to Sicily. The crusade was postponed until next spring, but a devastating storm off the coast of Sicily dissuaded Charles of Anjou and Louis's successor Philip III from any further campaigning.^[49] Edward decided to continue alone, and on 9 May 1271 he finally landed at Acre.^[50]

Operations during the Crusade of Edward I

By then, the situation in the Holy Land was a precarious one. Jerusalem had fallen in 1244, and Acre was now the centre of the Christian state.^[51] The Muslim states were on the offensive under the Mamluk leadership of Baibars, and were now threatening Acre itself. Though Edward's men were an important addition to the garrison, they stood little chance against Baibars' superior forces, and an initial raid at nearby St Georges-de-Lebeyne in June was largely futile.^[52] An embassy to the Mongols helped bring about an attack on Aleppo in the north, which helped to distract Baibar's forces.^[53] In November, Edward led a raid on Qaqun, which could have served as a bridgehead to Jerusalem, but both the Mongol invasion and the attack on Qaqun failed. Things now seemed increasingly desperate, and in May 1272 Hugh III of Cyprus, who was the nominal king of Jerusalem, signed a ten–year truce with Baibars.^[54] Edward was initially defiant, but an attack by a Muslim assassin in June forced him to abandon any further campaigning. Even though he managed to kill the assassin, he was struck in the arm by a dagger feared to be poisoned, and became severely weakened over the next months.^[55][56]

It was not until 24 September that Edward left Acre. Arriving in Sicily, he was met with the news that his father had died on 16 November.^[57] Edward was deeply saddened by this news, but rather than hurrying home at once, he made a leisurely journey northwards. This was partly due to his health still being poor, but also due to a lack of urgency.^[58] The political situation in England was stable after the mid-century upheavals, and Edward was proclaimed king at his father's death, rather than at his own coronation, as had up until then been customary.^[59] In Edward's absence, the country was governed by a royal council, led by Robert Burnell.^[60] The new king embarked on an overland journey through Italy and France, where among other things he visited the pope in Rome and suppressed a rebellion in Gascony.^[61] Only on 2 August 1274 did he return to England, and was crowned on 19 August.^[62]

[edit] Reign

[edit] Administration and the law

Upon returning home, Edward immediately embarked on the administrative business of the nation, and his major concern was restoring order and re-establishing royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father.^[63] In order to accomplish this he immediately ordered an extensive change of administrative personnel. The most important of these was the appointment of Robert Burnell as chancellor; a man who would remain in the post until 1292, as one of the king's closest associates.^[64] Edward then proceeded to replace most local officials, such as the escheators and sheriffs.^[65] This last measure was done in preparation for an extensive inquest covering all of England, that would hear complaints about abuse of power by royal officers. The inquest produced the a set of so-called Hundred Rolls, from the administrative sub-division of the hundred.^[66]

Groat of Edward I (4 pence)

The second purpose of the inquest was to establish what land and rights the crown had lost during the reign of Henry III.^[67] The Hundred Rolls formed the basis for the later legal inquiries called the Quo warranto proceedings. The purpose of these inquiries was to establish by what warrant (Latin: Quo warranto) various liberties were held.^[68] If the defendant could not produce a royal licence to prove the grant of the liberty, then it was the crown's opinion – based on the writings of the influential thirteenth-century legal scholar Bracton – that the liberty should revert to the king. This caused great consternation among the aristocracy, who insisted that long use in itself constituted license.^[69] A compromise was eventually reached in 1290, whereby a liberty was considered legitimate as long as it could be shown to have been exercised since the coronation of King Richard I, in 1189.^[70] Royal gains from the Quo warranto proceedings were insignificant; few liberties were returned to the king.^[71] Edward had nevertheless won a significant victory, in clearly establishing the principle that all liberties essentially emanated from the crown.^[72]

The 1290 Statute of Quo warranto was only one part of a wider legislative effort, which was one of the most important contributions of Edward I's reign.^[2] This era of legislative action had started already at the time of the baronial reform movement; the Statute of Marlborough (1267) contained elements both of the Provisions of Oxford and the Dictum of Kenilworth.^[73] The compilation of the Hundred Rolls was followed shortly after by the issue of Westminster I (1275), which asserted the royal prerogative and outlined restrictions on liberties.^[74] In Mortmain (1279), the issue was grants of land to the church.^[75] The first clause of Westminster II (1285), known as De donis conditionalibus, dealt with family settlement of land, and entails.^[76] Merchants (1285) established firm rules for the recovery of debts,^[77] while Winchester (1285) dealt with peacekeeping on a local level.^[78] Quia emptores (1290) – issued along with Quo warranto – set out to remedy land ownership disputes resulting from alienation of land by subinfeudation.^[79] The age of the great statutes largely ended with the death of Robert Burnell in 1292.^[80]

[edit] Welsh wars

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd enjoyed an advantageous situation in the aftermath of the Barons' War. Through the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery he officially obtained land he had conquered in the Four Cantrefs of Perfeddwlad, and was recognised in his title of Prince of Wales.^[81][82] Armed conflicts nevertheless continued, in particular with certain dissatisfied Marcher Lords, such as the earl of Gloucester, Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.^[83] Problems were exacerbated when Llywelyn's younger brother Dafydd and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys, after failing in an assassination attempt against Llywelyn, defected to the English in 1274.^[84] Citing ongoing hostilities and the English king harbouring his enemies, Llywelyn refused to do homage to Edward.^[85] For Edward, a further provocation came in the form of Llywelyn's planned marriage to Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort.^[86] In November 1276 war was declared.^[87] Initial operations were launched under the captaincy of Mortimer, Lancaster (Edward's brother Edmund) and William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.^[88] Support for Llywelyn was weak among his own countrymen.^[89] In July 1277 Edward invaded with a force of 15,500 – of whom 9,000 were Welshmen.^[90] The campaign never came to a major battle, and Llywelyn soon realised he had no choice but to surrender.^[90] By the Treaty of Aberconwy in November 1277, he was left only with the land of Gwynedd, though he was allowed to retain the title of Prince of Wales.^[91]

When war broke out again in 1282, it was an entirely different undertaking. For the Welsh this war was over national identity, enjoying wide support, provoked particularly by attempts to impose English law on Welsh subjects.^[92] For Edward it became a war of conquest rather than simply a punitive expedition, like the former campaign.^[93] The war started with a rebellion by Dafydd, who was discontented with the reward he had received from Edward in 1277.^[94] Llywelyn and other Welsh chieftains soon joined in, and initially the Welsh experienced military success. In June, Gloucester was defeated at the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr.^[95] On 6 November, while John Peckham, Posted by Michelle Mae.