Edward "Longshanks" Plantagenet, I King of England

1239 - 1307  (68 years)  Submit Photo / Document    Has more than 100 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Edward Plantagenet
  Suffix	I King of England
  Nickname	Longshanks
  Birth	17 Jun 1239	Palace of Westminster, Westminster, Middlesex, England
  Christening	20 Jun 1239	Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	7 Jul 1307	Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England
  Burial	27 Oct 1307	Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England
  Initiatory (LDS)	12 Jul 1935	LOGAN
  FamilySearch ID	LYWX-CBR
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I10588	mytree
  Last Modified	25 Feb 2024

  
  

  Father	Henry Plantagenet, III, King of England,   b. 1 Oct 1206, Winchester, Hampshire, England d. 16 Nov 1272, Westminster, Middlesex, England (Age 66 years)
  Mother	Eleanor de Barcelona, Queen consort of England,   b. Abt 1223, Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, République française d. 25 Jun 1291, Amesbury, Wiltshire, England (Age 68 years)
  Marriage	14 Jan 1236	Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ, Canterbury, Kent, England
  Family ID	F2940	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Margaret Capet, Queen consort of England,   b. Abt 1279, Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, République française d. 14 Feb 1318, Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire, England (Age 39 years)
  Marriage	8 Sep 1299	Canterbury, Kent, England
  Children	+ 1. Thomas Plantagenet, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Earl Marshal,   b. 1 Jun 1300, Brotherton, Yorkshire, England d. Aug 1338 (Age 38 years) + 2. Edmund Plantagenet, 1st Earl of Kent,   b. 5 Aug 1301, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England d. 19 Mar 1330, Winchester Castle, Winchester, Hampshire, England (Age 28 years)   3. Margaret Plantagenet,   b. 4 May 1306, Winchester, Hampshire, England
  Family ID	F3056	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

  Family 2	Eleanor Burgundy, Countess of Ponthieu,   b. 1241, Castile, España d. 29 Nov 1290, Harby, Nottinghamshire, England (Age 49 years)
  Marriage	1 Nov 1254	Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castilla y León, España
  Children	1. Daughter Plantagenet,   b. 29 May 1255, Abbaye de St Andre, Bordeaux, Gironde, Aquitaine, République française d. 29 May 1255, Abbaye de St Andre, Bordeaux, Gironde, Aquitaine, République française (Age 0 years)   2. Katherine Plantagenet,   b. Bef 17 Jun 1264   d. 5 Sep 1264 (Age > 0 years)   3. Joan Plantagenet,   b. Jan 1265   d. Bef 7 Sep 1265 (Age < 0 years)   4. John Plantagenet,   b. 13 Jul 1266, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England d. 3 Aug 1271, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England (Age 5 years)   5. Henry Plantagenet,   b. 12 Jul 1267, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England d. 14 Oct 1274, Merton, Surrey, England (Age 7 years)   6. Eleanor Plantagenet,   b. 18 Jun 1269, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England d. 29 Aug 1298, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, België (Age 29 years)   7. Juliana Plantagenet,   b. 28 May 1271, Palestine d. 5 Sep 1271, Palestine (Age 0 years) + 8. Joan "Joan of Acre" Plantagenet,   b. Apr 1272, Acre, Filasṭīn d. 23 Apr 1307, Clare Castle, Clare, Suffolk, England (Age 35 years)   9. Alphonso Plantagenet, Earl of Chester,   b. 24 Nov 1273   d. 19 Aug 1284, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England (Age 10 years)   10. Margaret Plantagenet,   b. 15 Mar 1275, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England d. Aft 1333, België (Age > 59 years)   11. Berengaria Plantagenet,   b. 1 May 1276, Westminster, Middlesex, England d. 27 Jun 1278, Westminster, Middlesex, England (Age 2 years)   12. Daughter Plantagenet,   b. Abt 3 Jan 1278   d. Abt 3 Jan 1278 (Age 0 years)   13. Mary Plantagenet,   b. 12 Mar 1279, Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England d. Abt 1332 (Age 52 years)   14. Son Plantagenet,   b. Abt 1281   d. Abt 1281 (Age 0 years) + 15. Edward Plantagenet, II King of England,   b. 25 Apr 1284, Caernarfon Castle, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales d. 21 Sep 1327, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, England (Age 43 years) + 16. Elizabeth Plantagenet,   b. 7 Aug 1282, Rhuddlan Castle, Flintshire, Wales d. 5 May 1316, Quendon, Essex, England (Age 33 years)
  Family ID	F5852	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 17 Jun 1239 - Palace of Westminster, Westminster, Middlesex, England Christening - 20 Jun 1239 - Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England Marriage - 1 Nov 1254 - Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castilla y León, España Marriage - 8 Sep 1299 - Canterbury, Kent, England Death - 7 Jul 1307 - Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England Burial - 27 Oct 1307 - Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England Initiatory (LDS) - 12 Jul 1935 - LOGAN  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshan k s and the Hammer of the Scots Malleus Scotorum, was King of England fr o m 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III of England|Henry III, Edwar d w as involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, w hic h included an outright rebellion by the English barons. In 1259, he b rief ly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provision s of Ox ford. After reconciliation with his father, however, he remaine d loyal th roughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Second Ba rons' War . After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was hostage to the rebellio us barons , but escaped after a few months and joined the fight against S imon de Mo ntfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Montfort was defeated at the Ba ttle of Eve sham in 1265, and within two years the rebellion was extingui shed. With E ngland pacified, Edward joined the Ninth Crusade to the Hol y Land. The cr usade accomplished little, and Edward was on his way hom e in 1272 when h e was informed that his father had died. Making a slow r eturn, he reache d England in 1274 and was crowned at Westminster on 19 A ugust. He spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common la w . Through an extensive legal inquiry, Edward investigated the tenure of Portrait in Westminister Abbey, thought to be of Edward I various feudal liberties, while the law was reformed through a serie s o f statutes regulating criminal and property law. Increasingly, howeve r, E dward's attention was drawn towards military affairs. After suppress in g a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a secon d reb ellion in 1282–83 with a Conquest of Wales by Edward I. After a suc cessfu l campaign, Edward subjected Wales to English rule, built a serie s of cas tles and towns in the countryside and settled them with Englis h people. N ext, his efforts were directed towards Scotland. Initially in vited to arb itrate a succession dispute, Edward claimed feudal suzeraint y over the ki ngdom. In First Scottish War of Independence that followed , the Scots per severed, even though the English seemed victorious at sev eral points. A t the same time there were problems at home. In the mid-12 90s, extensiv e military campaigns required high levels of taxation, an d Edward met wit h both lay and ecclesiastical opposition. These crises w ere initially ave rted, but issues remained unsettled. When the King die d in 1307, he lef t to his son, Edward II of England, an ongoing war wit h Scotland and man y financial and political problems. Edward I was a tall man for his era, hence the nickname "Longshanks" . H e was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an int imid ating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries. Nevert heles s, he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied th e mediev al ideal of kingship, as a soldier, an administrator and a man o f faith . Modern historians are divided on their assessment of Edward I : while so me have praised him for his contribution to the law and admini stration, o thers have criticized him for his uncompromising attitude tow ards his nob ility. Currently, Edward I is credited with many accomplishm ents during h is reign, including restoring royal authority after the rei gn of Henry II I, establishing Parliament as a permanent institution an d thereby als o a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming th e law through st atutes. At the same time, he is also often criticized fo r other actions , such as his brutal conduct towards the Scots, and issui ng the Edict o f Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled fro m England. The Ed ict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages , and it was over 3 50 years until it was formally overturned under Olive r Cromwell in 1656. Early years, 1239–63 Childhood and marriage Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night of 17–18 Jun e 1 239, to King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence. Edward i s an A nglo-Saxon name, as was not commonly given among the aristocracy o f Engla nd after the Norman Conquest, but Henry was devoted to the venera tion o f Edward the Confessor, and decided to name his firstborn son afte r the s aint. Among his childhood friends was his cousin Henry of Almain , son o f King Henry's brother Richard of Cornwall. Henry of Almain woul d remai n a close companion of the prince, both through the civil war tha t follow ed, and later during the crusade. Edward was in the care of Hug h Giffar d – father of the future Chancellor Godfrey Giffard – until Bart holomew P ecche took over at Giffard's death in 1246. There were concerns about Edward's health as a child, and he fell il l i n 1246, 1247, and 1251. Nonetheless, he became an imposing man; a t 6 fee t 2 inches (1.88 m) he towered over most of his contemporaries, a nd henc e perhaps his epithet "Longshanks", meaning "long legs" or "lon g shins" . The historian Michael Prestwich states that his "long arms gav e him a n advantage as a swordsman, long thighs one as a horseman. In you th, hi s curly hair was blond; in maturity it darkened, and in old age i t turne d white. [His features were marred by a drooping left eyelid.] Hi s speech , despite a lisp, was said to be persuasive." In 1254, English fears of a Castilian invasion of the English provinc e o f Gascony induced Edward's father to arrange a politically expedien t marr iage between his fourteen-year-old son and thirteen-year-old Elean or, th e half-sister of King Alfonso X of Castile. Eleanor and Edward wer e marri ed on 1 November 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de La s Huelga s in Castile. As part of the marriage agreement, the young princ e receive d grants of land worth 15,000 [1] a year. Although the endowmen ts King He nry made were sizeable, they offered Edward little independenc e. He had a lready received Gascony as early as 1249, but Simon de Montfo rt, 6th Ear l of Leicester, had been appointed as royal lieutenant the ye ar before an d, consequently, drew its income, so in practice Edward deri ved neither a uthority nor revenue from this province. The grant he recei ved in 1254 in cluded most of Ireland, and much land in Wales and England , including th e earldom of Chester, but the King retained much control o ver the land i n question, particularly in Ireland, so Edward's power wa s limited ther e as well, and the King derived most of the income from th ose lands. From 1254 to 1257, Edward was under the influence of his mother's relati v es, known as the Savoyards, the most notable of whom was Peter of Savo y , the queen's uncle. After 1257, Edward increasingly fell in with the P oi tevin or Lusignan faction – the half-brothers of his father Henry II I – l ed by such men as William de Valence. This association was signific ant, b ecause the two groups of privileged foreigners were resented by th e estab lished English aristocracy, and they would be at the center of th e ensuin g years' baronial reform movement. There were tales of unruly an d violen t conduct by Edward and his Lusignan kinsmen, which raised quest ions abou t the royal heir's personal qualities. The next years would b e formativ e on Edward's character. Early ambitions Edward had shown independence in political matters as early as 1255, wh e n he sided with the Soler family in Gascony, in the ongoing conflict be tw een the Soler and Colomb families. This ran contrary to his father's p oli cy of mediation between the local factions. In May 1258, a group of m agna tes drew up a document for reform of the King’s government – the so- calle d Provisions of Oxford – largely directed against the Lusignans. Ed ward s tood by his political allies and strongly opposed the Provisions . The ref orm movement succeeded in limiting the Lusignan influence, howe ver, and g radually Edward's attitude started to change. In March 1259, h e entered i nto a formal alliance with one of the main reformers, Richar d de Clare, 5 th Earl of Hertford. Then, on 15 October 1259, he announce d that he suppo rted the barons' goals, and their leader, Simon de Montfo rt, 6th Earl o f Leicester. The motive behind Edward's change of heart could have been purely pragma t ic; Montfort was in a good position to support his cause in Gascony. Wh e n the King left for France in November, Edward's behaviour turned int o pu re insubordination. He made several appointments to advance the caus e o f the reformers, causing his father to believe that his son was consi deri ng a coup d'état. When the King returned from France, he initially r efuse d to see his son, but through the mediation of the Earl of Cornwal l and t he Archbishop of Canterbury, the two were eventually reconciled . Edward w as sent abroad, and in November 1260 he again united with th e Lusignans , who had been exiled to France. Back in England, early in 1262, Edward fell out with some of his forme r L usignan allies over financial matters. The next year, King Henry sen t hi m on a campaign in Wales against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, with only lim ite d results. Around the same time, Simon de Montfort, who had been ou t of t he country since 1261, returned to England and reignited the baron ial ref orm movement. It was at this pivotal moment, as the King seemed r eady t o resign to the barons' demands, that Edward began to take contro l of th e situation. Whereas he had so far been unpredictable and equivoc ating, f rom this point on he remained firmly devoted to protecting his f ather's r oyal rights. He reunited with some of the men he had alienate d the year b efore – among them his childhood friend, Henry of Almain, an d John de War enne, Earl of Surrey – and retook Windsor Castle from the r ebels. Throug h the arbitration of King Louis IX of France, an agreemen t was made betwe en the two parties. This so-called Mise of Amiens was la rgely favorable t o the royalist side, and laid the seeds for further con flict. Civil war and crusades, 1264–73 Second Barons' War The years 1264–1267 saw the conflict known as the Second Barons' War , i n which baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort fought against thos e wh o remained loyal to the King. The first scene of battle was the cit y of G loucester, which Edward managed to retake from the enemy. When Rob ert d e Ferrers, Earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edw ard ne gotiated a truce with the earl, the terms of which he later broke . Edwar d then captured Northampton from Montfort's son Simon VI de Montf ort, bef ore embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby's lands. T he baroni al and royalist forces finally met at the Battle of Lewes, on 1 4 May 1264 . Edward, commanding the right wing, performed well, and soo n defeated th e London contingent of Montfort's forces. Unwisely, however , he followe d the scattered enemy in pursuit, and on his return found th e rest of th e royal army defeated. By the agreement known as the Mise o f Lewes, Edwar d and his cousin Henry of Almain were given up as hostage s to Montfort. Edward remained in captivity until March, and even after his release h e w as kept under strict surveillance. Then, on 28 May, he managed to esc ap e his custodians and joined up with the Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl o f Her tford, who had recently defected to the King's side. Montfort's support was now dwindling, and Edward retook Worcester and Gl o ucester with relatively little effort. Meanwhile, Montfort had made a n al liance with Llywelyn and started moving east to join forces with hi s so n Simon. Edward managed to make a surprise attack at Kenilworth Cast le, w here the younger Montfort was quartered, before moving on to cut of f th e earl of Leicester. The two forces then met at the second great enc ounte r of the Barons' War, the Battle of Evesham, on 4 August 1265. Mont fort s tood little chance against the superior royal forces, and after hi s defea t he was killed and mutilated on the field. Through such episodes as the deception of Derby at Gloucester, Edward ac q uired a reputation as untrustworthy. During the summer campaign, thoug h , he began to learn from his mistakes, and acted in a way that gained t h e respect and admiration of his contemporaries. The war did not end wi t h Montfort's death, and Edward participated in the continued campaignin g . At Christmas, he came to terms with the younger Simon de Montfort an d h is associates at the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, and in March h e le d a successful assault on the Cinque Ports. A contingent of rebels h eld o ut in the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle and did not surre nder u ntil the drafting of the conciliatory Dictum of Kenilworth. |The D ictum r estored land to the disinherited rebels, in exchange for a fine d ecided b y their level of involvement in the wars. In April it seemed a s if Glouce ster would take up the cause of the reform movement, and civi l war woul d resume, but after a renegotiation of the terms of the Dictu m of Kenilwo rth, the parties came to an agreement. Edward, however, wa s little involv ed in the settlement negotiations following the wars; a t this point his m ain focus was on planning his forthcoming crusade. Crusade and accession Edward took the crusader's cross in an elaborate ceremony on 24 June 126 8 , with his brother Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster and cousi n He nry of Almain. Among others who committed themselves to the Ninth Cr usad e were Edward's former adversaries – like the Earl of Gloucester, th oug h de Clare did not ultimately participate. With the country pacified , th e greatest impediment to the project was providing sufficient financ es. K ing Louis IX of France, who was the leader of the crusade, provide d a loa n of about £17,500. This, however, was not enough; the rest had t o be rai sed through a tax on the laity, which had not been levied sinc e 1237. I n May 1270, Parliament granted a tax of a twentieth in exchang e for whic h the King agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta, and to impose rest rictions o n Jewish money lending. Historians have not determined the siz e of the fo rce with any certainty, but Edward probably brought with hi m around 225 k nights and altogether less than 1000 men. Originally, the Crusaders intended to relieve the beleaguered Christia n s tronghold of Acre, but Louis had been diverted to Tunis. The French K in g and his brother Charles of Anjou, who had made himself King of Sicil y , decided to attack the emirate to establish a stronghold in North Afri ca . The plans failed when the French forces were struck by an epidemic w hic h, on 25 August, took the life of King Louis himself. The disease i n ques tion was either dysentery or typhus. By the time Edward arrived a t Tunis , Charles had already signed a treaty with the emir, and there wa s littl e else to do but return to Sicily. The crusade was postponed unti l next s pring, but a devastating storm off the coast of Sicily dissuade d Charle s of Anjou and Louis's successor Philip III from any further cam paigning . Edward decided to continue alone, and on 9 May 1271 he finall y landed a t Acre. By then, the situation in the Holy Land was a precarious one. Jerusale m h ad fallen in 1244, and Acre was now the center of the Christian state . Th e Muslim states were on the offensive under the Mamluk leadership o f Baib ars, and were now threatening Acre itself. Though Edward's men wer e an im portant addition to the garrison, they stood little chance agains t Baibar s' superior forces, and an initial raid at nearby St Georges-de- Lebeyne i n June was largely futile. An embassy to the Ilkhan Abaqa. In N ovember, E dward led a raid on Qaqun, which could have served as a bridge head to Jer usalem, but both the Mongol invasion and the attack on Qaqu n failed. Thin gs now seemed increasingly desperate, and in May 1272 Hug h III of Cyprus , who was the nominal Kings of Jerusalem, signed a ten-ye ar truce with Ba ibars. Edward was initially defiant, but an attack b y a Muslim assassin i n June forced him to abandon any further campaignin g. Although he manage d to kill the assassin, he was struck in the arm b y a dagger feared to b e poisoned, and became severely weakened over th e following months. It was not until 24 September that Edward left Acre. Arriving in Sicil y , he was met with the news that his father had died on 16 November, 127 2 . Edward was deeply saddened by this news, but rather than hurrying ho m e at once, he made a leisurely journey northwards. This was partly du e t o his health still being poor, but also due to a lack of urgency. Th e pol itical situation in England was stable after the mid-century upheav als, a nd Edward was proclaimed king at his father's death, rather than a t his o wn coronation, as had until then been customary. In Edward's abse nce, th e country was governed by a royal council, led by Robert Burnell . The ne w king embarked on an overland journey through Italy and France , where am ong other things he visited Pope Gregory X Gregory X had accom panied Edwa rd on the Ninth Crusade. He had become a friend of Prince Edw ard when h e was in England with the Papal Legate, Cardinal Ottobono Fies chi, from 1 265 to 1268. Only on 2 August 1274 did he return to England , and was crow ned on 19 August. Early reign, 1274–96 Welsh wars Conquest Llywelyn ap Gruffudd enjoyed an advantageous situation in the aftermat h o f the Barons' War. Through the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, he official ly o btained land he had conquered in the Four Cantrefs of Perfeddwlad an d was Wales after the Treaty of Montgomery 1267 recognized in his title of Prince of Wales. Armed conflicts neverthele s s continued, in particular with certain dissatisfied Marcher Lords, su c h as >Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Roger Mortimer and Humphre y d e Bohun, Earl of Hereford.[68] Problems were exacerbated when Llywely n' s younger brother Dafydd and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys, after fa ili ng in an assassination attempt against Llywelyn, defected to the Engl is h in 1274. Citing ongoing hostilities and the English king's harbourin g o f his enemies, Llywelyn refused to do homage to Edward. For Edward , a fur ther provocation came from Llywelyn's planned marriage to Eleanor , daught er of Simon de Montfort. In November 1276, war was declared. Initial operations were launched und e r the captaincy of Mortimer, Lancaster (Edward's brother Edmund) and Wi ll iam de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Support for Llywelyn was weak amon g hi s own countrymen. In July 1277 Edward invaded with a force of 15,500 , o f whom 9,000 were Welshmen. The campaign never came to a major battle , an d Llywelyn soon realized he had no choice but to surrender. By the T reat y of Aberconwy in November 1277, he was left only with the land of G wyned d, though he was allowed to retain the title of Prince of Wales. When war broke out again in 1282, it was an entirely different undertaki n g. For the Welsh, this war was over national identity, enjoying wide su pp ort, provoked particularly by attempts to impose English law on Wels h sub jects. For Edward, it became a war of conquest rather than simpl y a punit ive expedition, like the former campaign. The war started wit h a rebellio n by Dafydd, who was discontented with the reward he had rec eived from Ed ward in 1277. Llywelyn and other Welsh chieftains soon join ed in, and ini tially the Welsh experienced military success. In June, Gl oucester was de feated at the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr. On 6 November, wh ile John Peckham , archbishop of Canterbury, was conducting peace negotia tions, Edward's c ommander of Anglesey, de Tany, decided to carry out a s urprise attack . A pontoon bridge had been built to the mainland, but sho rtly after Tan y and his men crossed over, they were ambushed by the Wels h and suffere d heavy losses at the Battle of Moel-y-don]. The Welsh adva nces ended o n 11 December, however, when Llywelyn was lured into a tra p and killed a t the Battle of Orewin Bridge. The conquest of Gwynedd wa s complete wit h the capture in June 1283 of Dafydd, who was taken to Shr ewsbury and exe cuted as a traitor the following autumn. Further rebellions occurred in 1287–88 and, more seriously, in 1294, und e r the leadership of Madog ap Llywelyn, a distant relative of Llywely n a p Gruffudd. This last conflict demanded the King's own attention, bu t i n both cases the rebellions were put down. Colonization By the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan, the Principality of Wales was incorpora t ed into England and was given an administrative system like the Englis h , with counties policed by sheriffs. English law was introduced in crim in al cases, though the Welsh were allowed to maintain their own customar y l aws in some cases of property disputes. After 1277, and increasingl y afte r 1283, Edward embarked on a full-scale project of English settlem ent o f Wales, creating new towns like Flint, Aberystwyth and Rhuddlan. T heir n ew residents were English migrants, with the local Welsh banned fr om livi ng inside them, and many were protected by extensive walls. An extensive project of castle-building was also initiated, under the di r ection of Master James of Saint George, a prestigious architect whom Ed wa rd had met in Savoy on his return from the crusade. These included th e ca stles of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech, intended to act b oth a s fortresses and royal palaces for the King. His programme of castl e buil ding in Wales heralded the introduction of the widespread use of a rrowsli ts in castle walls across Europe, drawing on Eastern influences . Also a p roduct of the Crusades was the introduction of the concentri c castle, an d four of the eight castles Edward founded in Wales followe d this design . The castles made a clear, imperial statement about Edward 's intention s to rule North Wales permanently, and drew on imagery assoc iated with th e Byzantine Roman Empire and King Arthur in an attempt to b uild legitimac y for his new regime. In 1284, King Edward had his son Edward (later Edward II] born at Caerna r fon Castle, probably to make a deliberate statement about the new polit ic al order in Wales. David Powel, a 16th-century clergyman, suggested th a t the baby was offered to the Welsh as a prince "that was borne in Wal e s and could speake never a word of English", but there is no evidenc e t o support this account. In 1301 at Lincoln, the young Edward became t he f irst English prince to be invested with the title of Prince of Wales , whe n King Edward granted him the Earldom of Chester and lands across N orth W ales. The King seems to have hoped that this would help in the pac ificati on of the region, and that it would give his son more financial i ndepende nce. Diplomacy and war on the Continent Edward never again went on crusade after his return to England in 1274 , b ut he maintained an intention to do so, and took the cross again in 1 287 . This intention guided much of his foreign policy, until at least 12 91 . To stage a European-wide crusade, it was essential to prevent confli c t between the greater princes on the continent. A major obstacle to th i s was represented by the conflict between the French House of Anjou rul in g southern Italy, and the kingdom of Aragon in Spain. In 1282, the cit ize ns of Palermo rose up against Charles of Anjou and turned for help t o Pet er of Aragon, in what has become known as the Sicilian Vespers. I n the wa r that followed, Charles of Anjou's son, Charles of Salerno, wa s taken pr isoner by the Aragonese. The French began planning an attack o n Aragon, r aising the prospect of a large-scale European war. To Edward , it was impe rative that such a war be avoided, and in Paris in 1286 h e brokered a tru ce between France and Aragon that helped secure Charles ' release. As fa r as the crusades were concerned, however, Edward's effo rts proved ineffe ctive. A devastating blow to his plans came in 1291, wh en the Mamluks cap tured Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Hol y Land. After the fall of Acre, Edward's international role changed from tha t o f a diplomat to an antagonist. He had long been deeply involved in th e af fairs of his own Duchy of Gascony. In 1278 he assigned an investigat ing c ommission to his trusted associates Otto de Grandson and the chance llor R obert Burnell, which caused the replacement of the seneschal Luk e de Tany . In 1286, Edward visited the region himself and stayed for alm ost thre e years. The perennial problem, however, was the status of Gasco ny withi n the kingdom of France, and Edward's role as the French king' s vassal. O n his diplomatic mission in 1286, Edward had paid homage to t he new king , Philip IV, but in 1294 Philip declared Gascony forfeit whe n Edward refu sed to appear before him in Paris to discuss the recent con flict betwee n English, Gascon, and French sailors (that had resulted i n several Frenc h ships being captured, along with the sacking of the Fre nch port of La R ochelle). Eleanor of Castile had died on 28 November 1290. Uncommon for such marri a ges of the period, the couple loved each other. Moreover, like his fath er , Edward was very devoted to his wife and was faithful to her througho u t their married lives — a rarity among monarchs of the time. He was dee pl y affected by her death. He displayed his grief by erecting twelve so- cal led Eleanor crosses, one at each place where her funeral cortège stop pe d for the night. As part of the peace accord between England and Franc e i n 1294, it was agreed that Edward should marry Philip IV half-siste r Marg aret of France (died 1318), but the marriage was delayed by the ou tbrea k of war. Edward made alliances with the German king, the Counts of Flanders and G u elders, and the Burgundians, who would attack France from the north. T h e alliances proved volatile, however, and Edward was facing trouble a t ho me at the time, both in Wales and Scotland. It was not until Augus t 129 7 that he was finally able to sail for Flanders, at which time hi s allie s there had already suffered defeat. The support from Germany nev er mater ialized, and Edward was forced to seek peace. His marriage to Ma rgaret i n 1299 ended the war, but the whole affair had proven both costl y and fru itless for the English. The Great Cause The relationship between the nations of England and Scotland by the 128 0 s was one of relatively harmonious coexistence. The issue of homage di d n ot reach the same level of controversy as it did in Wales; in 1278 Ki ng A lexander III of Scotland] paid homage to Edward I, but apparently on ly fo r the lands he held of Edward in England. Problems arose only wit h the Sc ottish succession crisis of the early 1290s. In the years from 1 281 to 12 84, Alexander's two sons and one daughter died in quick success ion. Then , in 1286, King Alexander died himself, leaving as heir to th e throne o f Scotland the three-year-old Margaret, the Maid of Norway, wh o was bor n in 1283 to Alexander's daughter Margaret of Scotland, Queen o f Norway a nd King Eric II of Norway. By the Treaty of Birgham, it was ag reed that M argaret should marry King Edward's then one-year-old son Edwa rd II of Eng land, though Scotland would remain free of English overlords hip. Margaret, by now seven years of age, sailed from Norway for Scotland i n t he autumn of 1290, but fell ill on the way and died in Orkney. This l ef t the country without an obvious heir, and led to the succession dispu t e known to history as the Great Cause. Even though as many as fourteen claimants put forward their claims to t h e title, the real contest was between John Balliol and Robert de Brus , 5t h Lord of Annandale. The Scottish magnates made a request to Edwar d to co nduct the proceedings and administer the outcome, but not to arbi trate i n the dispute. The actual decision would be made by 104 auditor s - 40 app ointed by Balliol, forty by Bruce and the remaining 24 selecte d by Edwar d I from senior members of the Scottish political community. A t Birgham , with the prospect of a personal union between the two realms , the quest ion of suzerainty had not been of great importance to Edward . Now he insi sted that, if he were to settle the contest, he had to be f ully recognize d as Scotland's feudal overlord. The Scots were reluctan t to make suc h a concession, and replied that since the country had no k ing, no one ha d the authority to make this decision. This problem was ci rcumvented whe n the competitors agreed that the realm would be handed ov er to Edward un til a rightful heir had been found. After a lengthy heari ng, a decision w as made in favour of John Balliol on 17 November 1292. Even after Balliol's accession, Edward still continued to assert his aut h ority over Scotland. Against the objections of the Scots, he agreed t o he ar appeals on cases ruled on by the court of guardians that had gove rne d Scotland during the interregnum. A further provocation came in a ca se b rought by Macduff, son of Maol Choluim II, Earl of Fife, in which Ed war d demanded that Balliol appear in person before the English Parliamen t t o answer the charges. This the Scottish King did, but the final stra w wa s Edward's demand that the Scottish magnates provide military servic e i n the war against France. This was unacceptable; the Scots instead fo rme d an alliance with France and launched an unsuccessful attack on Carl isle . Edward responded by invading Scotland in 1296 and taking the tow n of Be rwick in a particularly bloody attack. At the Battle of Dunbar, S cottis h resistance was effectively crushed. Edward confiscated the Ston e of Des tiny – the Scottish coronation stone and brought it to Westminst er placin g it in what became known as King Edward's Chair; he deposed Ba lliol an d placed him in the Tower of London, and installed Englishmen t o govern t he country. The campaign had been very successful, but the Eng lish triump h would only be temporary. Government and law Character as king Edward had a reputation for a fierce temper, and he could be intimidatin g ; one story tells of how the Dean of St Paul's, wishing to confront Edw ar d over the high level of taxation in 1295, fell down and died once h e wa s in the King's presence. When Edward of Caernarfon demanded an earl dom f or his favourite Gaveston, the King erupted in anger and supposedl y tor e out handfuls of his son's hair. Some of his contemporaries consid ered E dward frightening, particularly in his early days. The Song of Lew es in 1 264 described him as a leopard, an animal regarded as particularl y powerf ul and unpredictable. Despite these frightening character traits, however, Edward's contempora r ies considered him an able, even an ideal, king. Though not loved by h i s subjects, he was feared and respected. He met contemporary expectatio n s of kingship in his role as an able, determined soldier and in his emb od iment of shared chivalric ideals. In religious observance he also fulf ill ed the expectations of his age: he attended chapel regularly and gav e alm s generously. Edward took a keen interest in the stories of King Arthur, which were hi g hly popular in Europe during his reign. In 1278 he visited Glastonbur y Ab bey to open what was then believed to be the tomb of Arthur and Guin evere , recovering "Arthur's crown" from Llywelyn after the conquest of N orth W ales, while, as noted above, his new castles drew upon the Arthuri an myth s in their design and location. He held "Round Table" events in 1 284 an d 1302, involving tournaments and feasting, and chroniclers compar ed hi m and the events at his court to Arthur. In some cases Edward appea rs t o have used his interest in the Arthurian myths to serve his own pol itica l interests, including legitimizing his rule in Wales and discredit ing th e Welsh belief that Arthur might return as their political saviour . Administration and the Law Soon after assuming the throne, Edward set about restoring order and re- e stablishing royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father . T o accomplish this, he immediately ordered an extensive change of admi nist rative personnel. The most important of these was the appointment o f Robe rt Burnell as chancellor, a man who would remain in the post unti l 1292 a s one of the King's closest associates. Edward then replaced mos t local o fficials, such as the escheators and High Sheriff. This last me asure wa s done in preparation for an extensive inquest covering all of E ngland, t hat would hear complaints about abuse of power by royal officer s. The inq uest produced the set of so-called Hundred Rolls, from the adm inistrativ e subdivision of the hundred. The second purpose of the inquest was to establish what land and right s t he crown had lost during the reign of Henry III. The Hundred Rolls fo rme d the basis for the later legal inquiries called the Quo warranto pro ceed ings. The purpose of these inquiries was to establish by what warran t Lat in various liberties were held. Among those singled out in particul ar b y the royal justices was Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, wh o wa s seen to have encroached ruthlessly on royal rights over the preced ing y ears. If the defendant could not produce a royal license to prove t he gra nt of the liberty, then it was the crown's opinion based on the wr iting s of the influential thirteenth-century legal scholar Bracton tha t the li berty should revert to the king. By enacting the Statute of Gloucester in 1278 the King challenged baroni a l rights through a revival of the system of general eyres (royal justic e s to go on tour throughout the land) and through a significant increas e i n the number of pleas of quo warranto to be heard by such eyres. Thi s cau sed great consternation among the aristocracy, who insisted that lo ng us e in itself constituted license. A compromise was eventually reache d in 1 290, whereby a liberty was considered legitimate as long as it cou ld be s hown to have been exercised since the coronation of King Richar d I of Eng land, in 1189. Royal gains from the Quo warranto proceedings w ere insigni ficant; few liberties were returned to the King. Edward had n evertheles s won a significant victory, in clearly establishing the princ iple that a ll liberties essentially emanated from the crown. The 1290 statute of Quo warranto was only one part of a wider legislati v e effort, which was one of the most important contributions of Edward I ' s reign. This era of legislative action had started already at the tim e o f the baronial reform movement; the Statute of Marlborough (1267) con tain ed elements both of the Provisions of Oxford and the Dictum of Kenil worth . The compilation of the Hundred Rolls was followed shortly after b y th e issue of Westminster I (1275), which asserted the royal prerogativ e an d outlined restrictions on liberties. In the Mortmain (1279), the is sue w as grants of land to the church. The first clause of Westminster I I (1285 ), known as De donis conditionalibus], dealt with family settleme nt of la nd, and entails. Merchants (1285) established firm rules for th e recover y of debts, while Winchester (1285) dealt with peacekeeping o n a local le vel. Quia emptores (1290) issued along with Quo warranto se t out to remed y land ownership disputes resulting from alienation of lan d by subinfeuda tion. The age of the great statutes largely ended with th e death of Rober t Burnell in 1292. Finances, Parliament and the Expulsion of Jews Edward I's frequent military campaigns put a great financial strain on t h e nation. There were several ways through which the king could raise mo ne y for war, including customs duties, money lending and lay subsidies . I n 1275, Edward I negotiated an agreement with the domestic merchant c ommu nity that secured a permanent duty on wool. In 1303, a similar agree men t was reached with foreign merchants, in return for certain rights an d pr ivileges. The revenues from the customs duty were handled by the Ric cardi , a group of bankers from Lucca in Italy. This was in return for th eir se rvice as money lenders to the crown, which helped finance the Wels h Wars . When the war with France broke out, the French king confiscate d the Ric cardi's assets, and the bank went bankrupt. After this, the Fre scobaldi o f Florence took over the role as money lenders to the Englis h crown. Another source of crown income was represented by England's Jews. The Je w s were the king's personal property, and he was free to tax them at wil l . By 1280, the Jews had been exploited to a level at which they were n o l onger of much financial use to the crown, but they could still be use d i n political bargaining. Their usury business a practice forbidden t o Chri stians had made many people indebted to them and caused general po pular r esentment. In 1275, Edward had issued the Statute of the Jewry, w hich out lawed usury and encouraged the Jews to take up other professions ; in 1279 , in the context of a crack-down on coin-clippers, he arreste d all the he ads of Jewish households in England and had around 300 of th em executed . In 1280, he ordered all Jews to attend special sermons, pre ached by Dom inican friars, with the hope of persuading them to convert , but these exh ortations were not followed. The final attack on the Jew s in England cam e in the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, whereby Edward form ally expelled al l Jews from England. This not only generated revenues th rough royal appro priation of Jewish loans and property, but it also gav e Edward the politi cal capital to negotiate a substantial lay subsidy i n the 1290 Parliament . The expulsion, which was reversed in 1656, follow ed a precedent set b y other European territorial princes: Philip II of F rance had expelled al l Jews from his own lands in 1182; John I, Duke o f Brittany, drove them o ut of his duchy in 1239; and in the late 1240s L ouis IX of France had exp elled the Jews from the royal demesne before hi s first passage to the Eas t. Edward held Parliament on a reasonably regular basis throughout his reig n . In 1295, however, a significant change occurred. For this Parliament , i n addition to the secular and ecclesiastical lords, two knights fro m eac h county and two representatives from each borough were summoned. T he rep resentation of commons in Parliament was nothing new; what was ne w was th e authority under which these representatives were summoned. Whe reas prev iously the commons had been expected simply to assent to decisi ons alread y made by the magnates, it was now proclaimed that they shoul d meet wit h the full authority (plena potestas) of their communities, t o give assen t to decisions made in Parliament. The King now had full bac king for coll ecting lay subsidies from the entire population. Lay subsid ies were taxe s collected at a certain fraction of the moveable propert y of all laymen . Whereas Henry III had only collected four of these in h is reign, Edwar d I collected nine. This format eventually became the sta ndard for late r Parliaments, and historians have named the assembly th e "Model Parliame nt". Later reign, 1297–1307 Constitutional crisis The incessant warfare of the 1290s put a great financial demand on Edwar d 's subjects. Whereas the King had only levied three lay subsidies unti l 1 294, four such taxes were granted in the years 1294–97, raising ove r £200 ,000. Along with this came the burden of prizes (appropriation o f food) , seizure of wool and hides, and the unpopular additional duty o n wool, d ubbed the maltolt. The fiscal demands on the King's subjects ca used resen tment, and this resentment eventually led to serious politica l opposition . The initial resistance was not caused by the lay taxes, ho wever, but b y clerical subsidies. In 1294, Edward made a demand of a gra nt of one hal f of all clerical revenues. There was some resistance, bu t the King respo nded by threatening with outlawry, and the grant was eve ntually made. A t the time, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop _of_Canterbury A rchbishopric of Canterbury] was vacant, since Robert Win chelsey was in It aly to receive consecration. Winchelsey returned in Jan uary 1295 and ha d to consent to another grant in November of that year . In 1296, however , his position changed when he received the papal bul l Clericis laicos. T his bull prohibited the clergy from paying taxes t o lay authorities witho ut explicit consent from the Pope. When the clerg y, with reference to th e bull, refused to pay, Edward responded with out lawry. Winchelsey was pr esented with a dilemma between loyalty to the Ki ng and upholding the papa l bull, and he responded by leaving it to ever y individual clergyman to p ay as he saw fit. By the end of the year, a s olution was offered by the n ew papal bull Etsi de statu, which allowed c lerical taxation in cases o f pressing urgency. Opposition from the laity took longer to surface. This resistance focus e d on two things: the King's right to demand military service, and his r ig ht to levy taxes. At the Salisbury parliament of February 1297, Roge r Big od, 5th Earl of Norfolk, in his capacity as Marshal of England, obj ecte d to a royal summons of military service. Bigod argued that the mili tar y obligation only extended to service alongside the King; if the Kin g int ended to sail to Flanders, he could not send his subjects to Gascon y. I n July, Bigod and Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Consta ble o f England, drew up a series of complaints known as the Remonstrance s, i n which objections to the extortionate level of taxation were voiced . Und eterred, Edward requested another lay subsidy. This one was particu larl y provocative, because the King had sought consent only from a smal l grou p of magnates, rather than from representatives from the communiti es in p arliament. While Edward was in Winchelsea, preparing for the camp aign i n Flanders, Bigod and Bohun turned up at the Exchequer to preven t the col lection of the tax. As the King left the country with a greatl y reduced f orce, the kingdom seemed to be on the verge of civil war. Wha t resolved t he situation was the English defeat by the Scots at the Batt le of Stirlin g Bridge. The renewed threat to the homeland gave king an d magnates commo n cause. Edward signed the Confirmatio cartarum a confir mation of Magna C arta and its accompanying Charter of the Forest and th e nobility agreed t o serve with the King on a campaign in Scotland. Edward's problems with the opposition did not end with the Falkirk campa i gn. Over the following years he would be held up to the promises he ha d m ade, in particular that of upholding the Charter of the Forest. In th e pa rliament of 1301, the King was forced to order an assessment of th e roya l forests, but in 1305 he obtained a papal bull that freed him fro m thi s concession. Ultimately, it was a failure in personnel that spel t the en d of the opposition against Edward I. Bohun died late in 1298, a fter retu rning from the Falkirk campaign. As for Bigod, in 1302 he arriv ed at an a greement with the King that was beneficial for both: Bigod, wh o had no ch ildren, made Edward his heir, in return for a generous annua l grant. Edwa rd finally got his revenge on Winchelsey in 1305, when Clem ent V was elec ted pope. Clement was a Gascon sympathetic to the King, an d on Edward's i nstigation had Winchelsey suspended from office. Return to Scotland The situation in Scotland had seemed resolved when Edward left the count r y in 1296, but resistance soon emerged under the leadership of Willia m Wa llace. On 11 September 1297, a large English force under the leaders hip o f John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham wa s route d by a much smaller Scottish army led by Wallace and Andrew Mora y at Stir ling Bridge. The defeat sent shockwaves into England, and prepa rations fo r a retaliatory campaign started immediately. Soon after Edwar d returne d from Flanders, he headed north. On 22 July 1298, in the onl y major batt le he had fought since Evesham in 1265, Edward defeated Wall ace's force s at the Battle of Falkirk. Edward, however, was not able t o take advanta ge of the momentum, and the next year the Scots managed t o recapture Stir ling Castle. Even though Edward campaigned in Scotland b oth in 1300, whe n he successfully besieged Caerlaverock Castle and in 13 01, the Scots ref used to engage in open battle again, preferring instea d to raid the Engli sh countryside in smaller groups. The defeated Scots, secretly urged on by the French, appealed to the po p e to assert a claim of overlordship to Scotland in place of the Englis h . His papal bull addressed to King Edward in these terms was firmly rej ec ted on Edward's behalf by the Barons' Letter of 1301. The English mana ge d to subdue the country by other means, however. In 1303, a peace agre eme nt was reached between England and France, effectively breaking up th e Fr anco-Scottish alliance. Robert I the Bruce of Scotland, the grandso n of t he claimant to the crown in 1291, had sided with the English in th e winte r of 1301–02. By 1304, most of the other nobles of the country ha d also p ledged their allegiance to Edward, and this year the English als o manage d to re-take Stirling Castle. A great propaganda victory was ach ieved i n 1305 when Wallace was betrayed by Sir John de Menteith and turn ed ove r to the English, who had him taken to London where he was publicl y execu ted. With Scotland largely under English control, Edward installe d Englis hmen and collaborating Scots to govern the country. The situation changed again on 10 February 1306, when Robert the Bruce m u rdered his rival John Comyn and a few weeks later, on 25 March, had him se lf crowned King of Scotland by Isobel, sister of the Earl of Buchan. B ruc e now embarked on a campaign to restore Scottish independence, and th is c ampaign took the English by surprise. Edward was suffering ill healt h b y this time, and instead of leading an expedition himself, he gave di ffer ent military commands to Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke an d Henr y de Percy, 1st Baron Percy, while the main royal army was led b y the Pri nce of Wales. The English initially met with success; on 19 Jun e, Aymer d e Valence routed Bruce at the Battle of Methven. Bruce was for ced into hi ding, while the English forces recaptured their lost territor y and castle s. Edward responded with severe brutality against Bruce's allies and suppor t ers. Bruce's sister, Mary, was hung in a cage outside of Roxburgh for f ou r years. Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, who had crowned Bruce , wa s hung in a cage outside of Berwick Castle for four years. Bruce's y ounge r brother Nigel de Brus was executed by being hanged, drawn, and qu artere d; he had been captured after he and his garrison held off Edward' s force s who had been seeking Bruce's wife (Elizabeth), daughter M arjorie , sisters Mary and Christina, and Isabella. It was clear that Edward now regarded the struggle not as a war betwee n t wo nations, but as the suppression of a rebellion of disloyal subject s. T his brutality, though, rather than helping to subdue the Scots, ha d the o pposite effect, and rallied growing support for Bruce. Death and legacy Death, 1307 In February 1307, Bruce reappeared and started gathering men, and in M a y he defeated Aymer de Valence at the Battle of Loudoun Hill. Edward, w h o had rallied somewhat, now moved north himself. On the way, however , h e developed dysentery, and his condition deteriorated. On 6 July he e ncam ped at Burgh by Sands, just south of the Scottish border. When his s ervan ts came the next morning to lift him up so that he could eat, he di ed i n their arms. Various stories emerged about Edward’s deathbed wishes; according to o n e tradition, he requested that his heart be carried to the Holy Land, a lo ng with an army to fight the infidels. A more dubious story tells of h o w he wished for his bones to be carried along on future expeditions aga in st the Scots. Another account of his deathbed scene is more credible ; acc ording to one chronicle, Edward gathered around him the Earls of Li ncol n and Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick], Aymer de Valence, an d Robe rt de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, and charged them with looki ng afte r his son Edward. In particular they should make sure that Pier s Gavesto n was not allowed to return to the country. This wish, however , the son i gnored, and had his favourite recalled from exile almost imme diately. Th e new king, Edward II of England, remained in the north unti l August, bu t then abandoned the campaign and headed south. He was crown ed king on 2 5 February 1308. Edward I's body was brought south, lying in state at Waltham Abbey, befo r e being buried in Westminster Abbey on 27 October. There are few recor d s of the funeral, which cost £473. Edward's tomb was an unusually plai n s arcophagus of Purbeck marble, without the customary royal effigy, pos sibl y the result of the shortage of royal funds after the King's death . The s arcophagus may normally have been covered over with rich cloth, a nd origi nally might have been surrounded by carved busts and a devotiona l religio us image, all since lost. The Society of Antiquaries opened th e tomb in 1 774, finding that the body had been well preserved over the p receding 46 7 years, and took the opportunity to determine the King's ori ginal height . Traces of the Latin inscription Edwardus Primus Scottoru m Malleus hic e st, 1308. Pactum Serva ("Here is Edward I, Hammer of th e Scots, 1308. Kee p the Vow"), which can still be seen painted on the si de of the tomb, ref erring to his vow to avenge the rebellion of Robert B ruce. This resulte d in Edward being given the epithet the "Hammer of th e Scots" by historia ns, but is not contemporary in origin, having been a dded by the Abbot Joh n Feckenham in the 16th century. Historiography The first histories of Edward in the 16th and 17th centuries drew primar i ly on the works of the chroniclers, and made little use of the officia l r ecords of the period. They limited themselves to general comments o n Edwa rd's significance as a monarch, and echoed the chroniclers' prais e for hi s accomplishments. During the 17th century, the lawyer Edward Co ke wrot e extensively about Edward's legislation, terming the King the "E nglish J ustinian", after the renowned Byzantine law-maker, Justinian I . Later i n the century, historians used the available record evidence t o address t he role of parliament and kingship under Edward, drawing comp arisons betw een his reign and the political strife of their own century . 18th-centur y historians established a picture of Edward as an able, i f ruthless, mon arch, conditioned by the circumstances of his own time. The influential Victorian historian William Stubbs instead suggested th a t Edward had actively shaped national history, forming English laws an d i nstitutions, and helping England to develop parliamentary and constit utio nal government. His strengths and weaknesses as a ruler were conside red t o be emblematic of the English people as a whole. Stubbs' student , Thoma s Tout, initially adopted the same perspective, but after extensi ve resea rch into Edward's royal household, and backed by the research o f his cont emporaries into the early parliaments of the period, he change d his mind . Tout came to view Edward as a self-interested, conservativ e leader, usi ng the parliamentary system as "the shrewd device of an aut ocrat, anxiou s to use the mass of the people as a check upon his heredit ary foes amon g the greater baronage." Historians in the 20th and 21st century have conducted extensive resear c h on Edward and his reign. Most have concluded this was a highly signif ic ant period in English medieval history, some going further and describ in g Edward as one of the great medieval kings, although most also agre e tha t his final years were less successful than his early decades in po wer. G . Templeman argued in his 1950 historiographical essay that "it i s genera lly recognized that Edward I deserves a high place in the histor y of medi eval England". More recently, Michael Prestwich argues that "Ed ward wa s a formidable king; his reign, with both its successes and its d isappoin tments, a great one," and he was "without doubt one of the great est ruler s of his time", while John Gillingham suggests that "no king o f England h ad a greater impact on the peoples of Britain than Edward I " and that "mo dern historians of the English state... have always recogn ized Edward I’ s reign as pivotal." Fred Cazel similarly comments that "n o-one can doub t the greatness of the reign". Most recently, Andrew Spenc er has agreed w ith Prestwich, arguing that Edward's reign "was indeed.. . a great one", a nd Caroline Burt states that "Edward I was without a do ubt one of the gre atest kings to rule England" Three major academic narr atives of Edward ha ve been produced during this period. In 1988, Michae l Prestwich produce d an authoritative biography of the King, focusing o n his political caree r, still portraying him in sympathetic terms, but h ighlighting some of th e consequences of his failed policies. Marc Morris 's biography followed i n 2008, drawing out more of the detail of Edward' s personality, and gener ally taking a harsher view of the King's weaknes ses and less pleasant cha racteristics. Considerable academic debate ha s taken place around the cha racter of Edward's kingship, his political s kills, and in particular hi s management of his earls, and the degree t o which this was collaborativ e or repressive in nature. There is also a great difference between English and Scottish historiogr a phy on King Edward. G. W. S. Barrow, in his biography on Robert the Bru ce , accused Edward of ruthlessly exploiting the leaderless state of Scot lan d to obtain a feudal superiority over the kingdom. This view of Edwar d i s reflected in the popular perception of the King, as can be seen i n th e 1995 movie Braveheart's portrayal of the King as a hard-hearted ty rant. Family and children Edward married twice: First marriage Eleanor of Castille By his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward had at least fourteen child r en, perhaps as many as sixteen. Of these, five daughters survived int o ad ulthood, but only one son outlived his father, namely King Edward I I of E ngland] (1307–1327). He was reportedly concerned with his son's fa ilure t o live up to the expectations of an heir to the crown, and at on e point d ecided to exile the prince's favorite [Piers Gaveston. His chil dren by El eanor of Castile were as follows: Sons from first marriage John (13 July 1266 – 3 August 1271), predeceased his father and di e d at Wallingford while in the custody of his grand uncle Richard, Ear l o f Cornwall]], buried at Westminster Abbey. Henry, (6 May 1268 – 14 October 1274), predeceased his father, buri e d in Westminster Abbey. Alphonso, Earl of Chester (24 November 1273 – 19 August 1284), prede c eased his father, buried in Westminster Abbey. Son (1280/81 – 1280/81), predeceased his father; little evidence exi s ts for this child. King Edward II of England (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), elde s t surviving son and heir, succeeded his father as king of England. In 1 30 8 he married Isabella of France, with whom he had four children. Daughters from first marriage Katherine (before 17 June 1264 – 5 September 1264), buried at Westmi n ster Abbey. Joanna (Summer or January 1265 – before 7 September 1265), burie d i n Westminster Abbey. Eleanor of England (c. 18 June 1269 – 19 August 1298), in 1293 she m a rried Henry III, Count of Bar, by whom she had two children, buried i n We stminster Abbey. Juliana (after May 1271 – 5 September 1271), born and died while Edw a rd and Eleanor were in Acre. Joan of Acre (1272 – 23 April 1307), married (1) in 1290 Gilbert d e C lare, 6th Earl of Hertford, who died in 1295, and (2) in 1297 Ralph d e Mo nthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer. She had four children by Clare, an d thre e or four by Monthermer. Margaret of England (c.15 March 1275 – after 11 March 1333), marri e d John II of Brabant in 1290, with whom she had one son. Berengaria (May 1276 – between 7 June 1277 and 1278), buried in West m inster Abbey. Alice (December 1277 – January 1278), buried in Westminster Abbey. Mary of Woodstock (11/12 March 1279 – 29 May 1332), a Benedictine n u n in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amesbury Amesbury, Wiltshire, wher e s he was probably buried. Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (c. 7 August 1282 – 5 May 1316), married (1 ) i n 1297 John I, Count of Holland, (2) in 1302 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th E ar l of Hereford. The first marriage was childless; by Bohun Elizabeth ha d t en children. Second marriage By Margaret of France Edward had two sons, both of whom lived into adult h ood, and a daughter who died as a child. The [Hailes Abbey chronicle in di cates that John Botetourt may have been Edward's illegitimate son; how eve r, the claim is unsubstantiated. His progeny by Margaret of France wa s a s follows: Sons from second marriage Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1 June 1300 – 4 August 13 3 8), buried in Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Married (1) Alice Hales, with issu e ; (2) Mary Brewes, no issue. Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1 August 1301 – 19 March 1330 ) , married Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell with issue. Daughter from second marriage Eleanor (6 May 1306 – 1310) See GATES biographical sketch for continuation of that line. --Other Fields Ref Number: 452 (proved) John Claypoole RIN 2548 Doroth y W ingfield RIN 1484 to Robert Wingfield RIN 1499 to Robert Wingfield RI N 22 59 to Henry Wingfield RIN 2217 to Elizabeth Goushill RIN 21472 marri ed Ro bertus Wingfield RIN 21768 to Elizabeth De Bohun/Fitzalan RIN 240 9 to Hum phrey De Bohen RIN 2462 to Elizabeth Plantagenet RIN 2457 to Edw ard I Kin g of England RIN 13491 and Eleanor of Castile and Leon RIN 1333 04 descend ed through Fatimah RIN 33152 to Mohammad, the Prophet RIN 3313 7 our 41s t Great Grandfather to Ishmael RIN 31921 to Abraham RIN 32549 t o Adam an d Eve RIN 2564. ------------------------ Sources for all the Vi rginia Har ris Families: (Much of above supplied by J. McFarland William s who does g uarantee exactness.) Harris Descent From Norman and Englis h Royal Lines a s herein. Virginia Magazine Vol. IV Brown's Genesis of th e United States . Harris Chart by William G. Stanard. Boddie's Virginia H istorical Geneal ogies. Adventures of Purse and Person. Virginia Court Re cords. Family Rec ords and Memoirs. Americans of Royal Descent by Brownin gs. Virginia Histo rical Genealogies by John B. Boddie Harris Family Desc ent From Sovereig n Princes of Wales Royal Line of Succession, P. W. Mont ague-Smith, Associ ate Editor (The Family Tree of Elizabeth, Second, of E ngland). Other Sour ces. --------------------------- Descent From the Eng lish Crown - Edwar d I 1239-1307 King of England, 5th Plantagenet King, e ldest son of King H enry III and wife, Eleanor, called "Longshanks", wa s born at Westministe r on June 17, 1239. He was proclaimed King immediat ely following his fath er's death in 1272 even though he was not in the c ountry at the time. H e did not return until 1274 whereupon he was crowne d King Edward I. He up held the "Magna Charta" and proclaimed it anew i n 1297, established Court s of law as instigated by his great grandfather , King Henry II, and the r eforms of his Uncle, by marriage, Simon de Mon tfort. A large part of hi s reign was spent in trying to subdue Scotlan d and Wales to English Subje ction. In this he was only partly successful . He established the 'Princ e of Wales' in 1301, a custom followed today , making him heir to the thro ne of England. This was a tactful act to pl acate the Welch and succeede d very well Much progress was made during hi s reign in establishing law a nd order and uniform control of the country . General prosperity abounded . It was under his rule that representatio n of the House of Commons becam e regular. The Kingdom prospered in all f ields but the King died on Jul y 7, 1307, while on an armed expedition ag ain at Scotland, to combat a re volt. He was immediately replaced as Kin g by his son, Edward II. Edwar d I was married to Eleanor, a half siste r of King Alfonso X, of Castile ( now a part of Spain), Oct. 31, 1254. Sh e died in 1290 and 1299 he marrie d Margaret, sister of King Philip IV o f France. From these marriages ther e were six sons and nine daughters (a s shown herein). ------------------- ------ Harris Descent From Norman an d English Royal Lines- Edward I, 1239 -1307, married Eleanor, d. 1290, da u. of Ferdinand III, of Castile Princ e Edward, son of King Henry III, wa s given power to rule England in his f ather's stead and soon the countr y became quiet and peaceful. In 1270, th e young Prince left for a crusad e to Palestine and on Nov. 16, 1272, Henr y III died and Prince Edward wa s immediately proclaimed to be King Edwar d I, of England. As the countr y was peaceful and prosperous he did not re turn until 1274. Henry III wa s wedded to Eleaner, daughter of Raymondo Be renger, Count of Province , a sister of Margaret, wife of King Louis IX, o f France, on Jan 14, 123 6. (Children are herein.) Edward the First, Kin g of England: Born at Wes tminster, 15th Kal: July, anno 1239, and christe ned on the fourth day af ter. Knighted at his marriage, 1254, by Alfonso , King of Castile. Undert ook a crusade to the Holy Land 1269, captured Na zareth. Crowned in the A bbey Church of Westminster, 14th Kal: Sept (19t h Aug), 1274. Conquered S cotland in 1296 and captured the Stone of Scone . Died at Burgh-on-the-Sa nds, on the nones (7th July), 1307; buried in th e Abbey Church aforesaid ,18th Oct. following. Ref: From David Clarkson t o Edward the First, Kin g of England extracted from the Records of the Col lege of Arms, London b y William Courthope, Somerset and Registrar found b y Kristen Turley Bon e at the Pennsylvania Historical Society on 13th an d Locust, Philadelphi a September 1995 and copied by Christine Stewart FH L SLC 1995. Ephraim B lood Line. Charlemagne descends by fifteen generatio ns to Eleanor of Cas tile, who married Edward I, of England and to a direc t descendant on thi s line from Antenor, Chief Prince of Ephraim. Ref: Com plete Peerage 942. D21c Wurts Magna Charta The Battle Abbey Roll 942 D2b b Baker's Hist of N orthumberland Q942.55 H2ba Hereward, The Saxon Patrio t 929.242 H264h His tory and Antiquity of Beverly Oliver 942.77b5 h26 Plan tagenet Ancestry Q 942.D2t Nichols Hist and Antiquity of Lancasters Q942.5 4 H2nic Dictionar y of Nat'l Biography 920.042 D561n Searle's Anglo Saxo n Bishops, King s & Nobles 942.D22awy History of Yorkshire Preface Q942.7 4 D22ha Ormerod 's History of Cheshire 942.71.H2or British Families 942.D2 dh Edward I i s sometimes referred to as "the English Justinian." He ha d a love for ju stice, honor, and order in his affairs. At one point in hi s reign, he fa ced a declaration of war with France and rebellions from th e Welsh and S cots. He decided that the only way to overcome his difficult ies would b e to elicit the support of his people. In 1295 he called toget her a parl iament consisting of representives of the nobility, the church , and th e common people. This "Model Parliament" marked the beginning o f parliam entary government in England, a system which has continued to th e presen t day. "What touches all," Edward proclaimed, "should be met by m easure s agreed upon in common." He restricted the power of the king by ac cepti ng the rule that taxes could not be levied or laws made except by th e co nsent of parliament. Medieval London: A City of Palaces by Walter Bes an t Medieval London is well known for having been full of rich monasterie s , nunneries, colleges, and parish churches. So much so that it migh t b e compared to the 'Ile Sonnante 'of Rabelais. If it could be calle d a 'Ci ty of Churches', it was, in fact, much more a 'City of Palaces' . For ther e were, in London, more palaces than in Verona and Florence an d Venice an d Genoa all put together. There was not, it is true, a line o f marble 'pa lazzi 'along the banks of a Grande Canale; there was no Piaz za della Sign oria, no Piazza della Erbe to show these buildings. They we re scattered a bout all over the City. They were built without regard t o general effec t and with no idea of decoration or picturesqueness. The y lay hidden in n arrow winding labyrinthine streets. The warehouses stoo d beside and betwe en them. The common people dwelt in narrow courts arou nd them. They face d each other on opposite sides of the lanes. These pal aces belonged to th e great nobles and were their town houses. They