Edward I

Edward I (1239–1307), king of England (1272–1307). When Edward came to the throne he was already an experienced general and politician. He had played the major role in the defeat of Simon de Montfort in 1265, the battle of Evesham being very much his own personal triumph; he was in control of the mopping-up operations that lasted into 1267; and he had taken a leading role in the deliberations of his father's council before departing on crusade in 1270. He returned with a considerable reputation, and for the rest of his life was widely considered as the expected saviour of the Holy Land. His experience of the traumas and the issues of the civil war of the 1260s informed his approach to English affairs when he became king. He appreciated that reform was needed and that Parliament was a necessary institution. The first 20 years of the reign were remarkably successful in this regard, the period marked especially by a great series of statutes which had an enduring significance, and which largely proceeded in response to the grievances of his subjects. These same years also saw Edward's successful scotching of Welsh independence, following his two campaigns of 1277 and 1282–3, symbolically marked by the ten great castles, including Caernarfon, Conwy, and Beaumaris, that he constructed.

The early 1290s proved to be the turning-point in the reign and in Edward's fortunes. Increasing financial problems and domestic political tension, associated with the wars against the French and the Scots, replaced the more relaxed atmosphere of the 1270s and 1280s. It culminated in the crisis of 1297, but it is a measure of Edward's power and authority that although rebellion threatened, none actually rose in revolt—then, or at any other time—something that cannot be said of any of his predecessors since 1066, or of many of his successors.

On his tomb in Westminster abbey Edward is described famously as the ‘hammer of the Scots’. But this is far from the truth. He acted as arbitrator between the claimants to the Scottish throne (the Great Cause of 1291–2), but on the understanding that he be accepted as feudal overlord of the kingdom. The throne was adjudged to John Balliol, rather than his chief rival, Robert Bruce, and Edward's attempts to secure Balliol and exercise his overlordship proved to be the beginning of the long-drawn-out Scottish War of Independence. The campaign of 1296 was intended to be as decisive as the conquest of Wales. Edward was victorious, symbolically removed the ‘stone of destiny’ from Scone to Westminster abbey, and established his own administration. But it was only a temporary settlement and Edward soon found himself in something of a medieval Vietnam from which he could not withdraw. He lived to see Robert Bruce crowned king in 1306, and it is highly indicative of his dogged determination that he should die leading yet another expedition to Scotland in 1307.

Edward ‘Longshanks’ was physically impressive and even in old age retained his physical presence. He stood head and shoulders above most men: when his tomb was opened in 1774, the body was measured at 6 feet 2 inches. He met most of the contemporary expectations of a king. He was a very able soldier and general, who possessed considerable courage. He was also a very competent organizer who, like his great-uncle Richard I, appreciated the importance of supply and transport. His military career was notable, although his victories against the Montfortians and the Welsh need to be balanced against defeats by the Scots and French. In most ways he lived up to the chivalric ideals of his age. As a young man, in particular, he was conspicuous for his enthusiasm for tournaments and other chivalric pursuits, and his devotion to the crusading cause is especially notable. (He took the cross again in 1287, but the matter of the Scottish succession and the outbreak of war with France unhinged all plans for departure.) But he could be cruel, as when he imprisoned Bruce's sister Mary, the countess of Buchan, in apparently inhuman conditions in 1306. He may well have sought to make a public example of them, and by then the Scottish war had become extremely savage. His violent temper, shared with his Angevin predecessors, may also have contributed. An account book records the cost of repairs to his daughter Elizabeth's coronet in 1297 after Edward had hurled it into the fire. And on one occasion he even assaulted his eldest son and heir, the future Edward II, tearing out his hair.

Yet, his eldest son apart—at least in Edward I's later years—he was devoted to his family. In particular, his love and fondness for his first queen, Eleanor of Castile, is legendary and the marriage was plainly both happy and fruitful. (There were probably fourteen children in all.) Indeed, it is possible that the marked change in character of the reign following her death in 1290 owed not a little to Edward's sense of personal loss. He grieved her deeply, and in the famous Eleanor crosses, twelve in all, one constructed at each stopping-point of the funeral cortège between Harby (Notts.), where she died, and Westminster abbey, where she lies buried, Edward constructed the most elaborate series of monuments ever created for an English queen (or king).

In his considerable achievements, especially in legislation and government, Edward was one of the most notable of English medieval kings, but those achievements have to be set against equally considerable failures, and the poisoned chalice of Anglo-Scottish relations, combined with chronic financial difficulties, which he bequeathed to his son.

S. D. Lloyd

Bibliography

Prestwich, M. C. , Edward I (1988);
—— The Three Edwards (1980);
Salzman, L. F. , Edward I (1968).