(Redirected from Edward Longshanks)
'Edward I' (
17 June 1239 –
7 July 1307), popularly known as 'Longshanks'
[1], also as "Edward the Lawgiver" or "the English Justinian" because of his legal reforms, and as "Hammer of the Scots",
[2] 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 92
nd 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.
[3] He was an older brother of
Beatrice of England and
Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster. He was named after
Edward the Confessor.
[4] 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. Alfonso 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, other sources stating 1,000.
[5] 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.
Alliance with the Mongols
As soon as Edward arrived in Acre, he sent an embassy to the
Mongol ruler of
Persia Abagha, an enemy of the Muslims. The embassy was led by Reginald Rossel, Godefroi of Waus and John of Parker, and its mission was to obtain military support from the Mongols.
[6] In an answer dated September 4th, 1271, Abagha agreed for cooperation and asked at what date the concerted attack on the Mamluks should take place:
The arrival of the additional forces of Hugh III of Cyprus further emboldened Edward, who engaged in a raid on the town of Ququn. At the end of October 1271, the Mongol troops requested by Edward arriveds in Syria and ravaged the land from
Aleppo southward. Abagha, occupied by other conflicts in
Turkestan could only send 10,000 Mongol horsemen under general
Samagar from the occupation army in
Seljuk Anatolia, plus auxiliary Seljukid troops, but they trigerred an exodus of Muslim populations (who remembered the previous campaigns of
Kithuqa) as far south as
Cairo.
[7]
When Baibars mounted a counter-offensive from Egypt on November 12th, the Mongols had already retreated beyond the
Euphrates, but these unsettling events allowed Edward to negotiate a ten year peace treaty with the Mamluks. Upon hearing of the death of Henry III, Edward left the Holy Land and returned to England in 1274.
Overall, Edward's crusade was rather 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 imprisoned 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.
The subdual of Wales and its people and their staunch resistance was commemorated in a famous poem ''The Bards of Wales'' by the Hungarian poet
János Arany in 1857 as a way of encoded resistance to the suppressive politics of
Alexander von Bach in Hungary and the planned visit of
Franz Joseph I, instead of a poem of praise.
[1]
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.
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. According to chroniclers, Edward desired to have his bones carried on Scottish military campaigns, and that his heart be taken to the Holy Land. Against his wishes, Edward was buried in
Westminster Abbey in a plain black marble tomb, which in later years was painted with the words ''Scottorum malleus'', Latin for ''Hammer of the Scots''.
[8] 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
:''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 this 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, ritual murder being one such assertion in reference to the Jew, Isaac de Pulet, who was contained for the murder of a young Christian boy in Oxford. It has been also 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.
Later contacts with the Mongols
The Mongol ruler
Arghun sent several embassies to European rulers from
1287, in an attempt to mount combined operations against the
Mamluks in the
Holy Land. In 1287, he sent the Nestorian
Rabban Bar Sauma, with the objective of contracting a military alliance to fight the Muslims in the Middle-East, and take the city of
Jerusalem. Sauma returned in 1288 with positive letters from Pope
Nicholas IV, Edward I of England, and
Philip IV the Fair of France whom he had all visited. He met with Edward in the city of
Bordeaux:
[9].
In 1289, Arghun sent a third mission to Europe, in the person of
Buscarel of Gisolfe, a Genoese who had settled in Persia. The objective of the mission was to determine at what date concerted Christian and Mongol efforts could start. Arghun commited to march his troops as soon as the Crusaders had disambarked at
Saint-Jean-d'Acre. Buscarel was in Rome between July 15th and September 30th 1289. He was in Paris in November-December 1289. Buscarel then went to England to bring Arghun's message to Edward I. He arrived in London January 5, 1290. Edward, whose answer has been preserved, answered enthousiastically to the project but remained evasive and failed to make a clear commitment, probably due the difficult internal situation with the Welsh and the Scots.
[10] Edward sent a prominent English notable,
Sir Geoffrey de Langley, to accompany Buscarel back to Persia.
[11]
Arghun then sent a fourth mission to European courts in 1290, led by a certain Chagan or Khagan, who was accompanied by Buscarel of Gisolfe and a Christian named Sabadin.
All these attempts to mount a combined offensive failed, mainly due the internal conflicts European monarchs had to deal with. On March 1291,
Saint-Jean-d'Acre was conquered by the Mamluks in the
Siege of Acre, and furthermore Arghun died on March 10th.
Ancestors
Trivia
★ 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.
★ Was a very tall man, standing at over 6' 2" against an average male height of 5' 7" at the time.
Issue
Children of Edward and Eleanor:
#Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in
Bordeaux, France.
#Katherine, living
June 17 1264, died
September 5 1264 and buried at
Westminster Abbey.
#Joan, born January 1265, buried at
Westminster Abbey before
September 7 1265.
#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.
#Henry, born before
May 6 1268, died
October 16,
1274.
#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.
#Daughter, born after May 1271 in
Palestine and died before September 1272.
#
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.
#
Alphonso, Earl of Chester, born
24 November 1273, died
19 August 1284, buried in
Westminster Abbey.
#
Margaret Plantagenet, born
March 15 1275 and died after
1333. She married
John II of Brabant.
#Berengaria, born
1 May 1276 and died before
June 27 1278, buried in
Westminster Abbey.
#Daughter, died shortly after birth, January 1278.
#Mary, born
11 March 1279 and died
29 May 1332, a
nun in
Amesbury,
Wiltshire (England).
#A son, born in 1280 or 1281, who died very shortly after birth.
#
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.
#
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:
#
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (
1300–
38), married (1) Alice Hayles, with issue; (2) Mary Brewes, with issue.
#
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.
# Eleanor of England (
4 May 1306–
1311)
Notes
1. Because of his 6 foot 2 inch (1.88 m) frame
2. His tombstone, reads ''Edwardus Primus Scotorum Malleus hic est, 1308. Pactum Serva'', Latin for "Here is Edward I, Hammer of the Scots"; though this inscription was probably added in the 16th century.
3. Prestwich, ''Edward I'', 4.
4. ''Oxford National Dictionary of Biography'' "Edward I of England"
5. "Histoire des Croisades III", Rene Grousset, p.656
6. "Histoire des Croisades III", Rene Grousset, p.653. Grousset quote a contemporary source ("Eracles", p.461) explaining that Edward contacted the Mongols "por querre secors" ("To ask for help")
7. "Histoire des Croisades III", Rene Grousset, p.653.
8. EDWARD I (r. 1272-1307)
9. Boyle, in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 370-71; Budge, pp. 165-97. Source
10. "Histoire des Croisades III", Rene Grousset.
11. Iranica Encyclopedia [2]
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
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