Edward I of England

Edward is credited with many accomplishments, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III and establishing Parliament as a permanent institution, which allowed for a functional system for raising taxes and reforming the law through statutes.

At the same time, he is often condemned for vindictiveness, opportunism and untrustworthiness in his dealings with Wales and Scotland, coupled with a colonialist approach to their governance and to Ireland, and for antisemitic policies leading to the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

[23] In Gascony, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, had been appointed as royal lieutenant in 1253 and drew its income, so Edward derived neither authority nor revenue from this province.

[42] He reunited with some of the men he had alienated the year before – including Henry of Almain and John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey – and retook Windsor Castle from the rebels.

[57][d] In April it seemed as if the Earl of Gloucester would take up the cause of the reform movement, and civil war would resume, but after a renegotiation of the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth, the parties came to an agreement.

[64] In May 1270, Parliament granted a tax of one-twentieth of all movable property; in exchange the King agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta, and to impose restrictions on Jewish money lending.

Edward's men were an important addition to the garrison, but they stood little chance against Baibars's superior forces, and an initial raid at nearby St Georges-de-Lebeyne in June was largely futile.

[105] On 6 November, while John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, was conducting peace negotiations, Edward's commander of Anglesey, Luke de Tany, carried out a surprise attack.

[113][l] An extensive project of castle building was also initiated, under the direction of James of Saint George,[115] a prestigious architect Edward had met in Savoy on his return from the crusade.

[151] He was deeply affected by her death,[152] and displayed his grief by ordering the construction of twelve so-called Eleanor crosses,[153] one at each place where her funeral cortège stopped for the night.

[178] A further provocation came in a case brought by Macduff, son of Malcolm II, Earl of Fife, in which Edward demanded that Balliol appear in person before the English Parliament to answer the charges.

[196] Historian Michael Prestwich believes Edward met contemporary expectations of kingship in his role as an able, determined soldier and in his embodiment of shared chivalric ideals.

[197] In religious observance he fulfilled the expectations of his age: he attended chapel regularly, gave alms generously and showed a fervent devotion to the Virgin Mary and Saint Thomas Becket.

[235] There were several ways through which the King could raise money for war, including customs duties, loans and lay subsidies, which were taxes collected at a certain fraction of the moveable property of all laymen who held such assets.

[252] Over-taxation of the Jews forced them to sell their debt bonds at cut prices, which was exploited by the crown to transfer vast land wealth from indebted landholders to courtiers and his wife, Eleanor of Provence, causing widespread resentment.

[270] He helped pay for the renovation of the tomb of Little Saint Hugh, a child falsely claimed to have been ritually crucified by Jews, in the same style as the Eleanor crosses, to take political credit for his actions.

[275] The funnelling of revenue to Edward's wars left Irish castles, bridges and roads in disrepair, and alongside the withdrawal of troops to be used against Wales and Scotland and elsewhere, helped induce lawless behaviour.

[281] Conflict was firmly entrenched by the time of the 1297 Irish Parliament, which attempted to create measures to counter disorder and the spread of Gaelic customs and law, while the results of the distress included many abandoned lands and villages.

[294] In July, Bigod and Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Constable of England, drew up a series of complaints known as the Remonstrances, in which objections to the high level of taxation were voiced.

[300] Edward signed the Confirmatio cartarum – a confirmation of Magna Carta and its accompanying Charter of the Forest – and the nobility agreed to serve with the King on a campaign in Scotland.

[307] Edward believed that he had completed the conquest of Scotland when he left the country in 1296, but resistance soon emerged under the leadership of Andrew de Moray in the north and William Wallace in the south.

[312] Even though Edward campaigned in Scotland in 1300, when he successfully besieged Caerlaverock Castle and in 1301, the Scots refused to engage in open battle again, preferring instead to raid the English countryside in smaller groups.

[325] His younger brother Neil was executed by being hanged, drawn, and quartered; he had been captured after he and his garrison held off Edward's forces who had been seeking his wife, daughter and sisters.

[350] The influential Victorian historian William Stubbs suggested that Edward had actively shaped national history, forming English laws and institutions, and helping England to develop a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy.

[353] Tout came to view Edward as a self-interested, conservative leader, using the parliamentary system as "the shrewd device of an autocrat, anxious to use the mass of the people as a check upon his hereditary foes among the greater baronage.

[358] F. M. Powicke's volumes, published in 1947 and 1953, forming the standard works on Edward for several decades, were largely positive in praising the achievements of his reign, and his focus on justice and the law.

[359] In 1988, Michael Prestwich produced an authoritative biography of the King, focusing on his political career, still portraying him in sympathetic terms, but highlighting some of the consequences of his failed policies.

[365] G. W. S. Barrow counters that Edward's contemporaries knew the "meaning of compassion, magnanimity, justice and generosity", that he rarely rose above minimum moral standards of his time, but rather showed a highly vindictive streak, and is among the "boldest opportunists of English political history".

"[367] In 2014, Andrew Spencer and Caroline Burt reassessed Edward's reign from an English constitutional perspective, asserting that he had a personal role in reform and a moral purpose in his leadership.

[379] They emphasise the growing power of the law, centralised state and crown across Europe, and see Edward as asserting his rights within England and the other nations of Britain and Ireland.

Inside an initial letter are drawn two heads with necks, a male over a female. They are both wearing coronets. The man's left eye is drawn differently both from his right and those of the woman.
Early 14th-century manuscript initial showing Edward and his first wife Eleanor of Castile . The artist has perhaps tried to depict Edward's blepharoptosis (drooping eyelid), a trait he inherited from his father. [ 2 ]
There are three sections. In the left, a group of knights in armour are holding a naked body, seemingly attacking it with their swords. In the middle, a naked body lies with severed arms, legs and head nest to a uniform, arms and another prone body. The right section seemingly depicts a pile of dead bodies in armour.
Medieval manuscript showing the Earl of Leicester 's mutilated body at the field of Evesham
Troop movements by the Franks, Mamluks and Mongols between Egypt, Cyprus and the Levant in 1271, as described in the corresponding article.
Map of the Holy Land depicting operations during Edward's Crusade:
Mamluks
Crusaders
Mongols
Coloured map depicting Wales (adjacent to the Kingdom of England, coloured dark orange) following the Treaty of Montgomery of 1267. Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's principality, is green; the territories conquered by Llywelyn are purple; the territories of Llywelyn's vassals are blue; the lordships of the Marcher barons are shown as light orange; and the lordships of the King of England are shown in yellow.
Wales after the Treaty of Montgomery of 1267:
Gwynedd , Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's principality
Territories conquered by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
Territories of Llywelyn's vassals
Lordships of the Marcher barons
Lordships of the King of England
Kingdom of England
View of the wards of Caernarfon Castle, erected during the reign of Edward I in Wales.
Caernarfon Castle , one of the castles erected in Wales during the reign of
Edward I
A miniature of Edward giving homage to Philip IV. Both men are wearing crowns and kneeling in front of one another.
Edward I (right) giving homage to Philip IV of France (left). As Duke of Aquitaine , Edward was a vassal of the French king.
Front-view of the Coronation Chair, a wooden chair in Westminster Abbey used for the coronation of the English (and later British) monarch. There is a compartment at the bottom that is able to house the Stone of Scone, which originates from Scotland.
The Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey was commissioned by Edward in 1296 to house the Stone of Scone and has been used for coronations for over 700 years. [ 163 ]
The Seal of Edward I, dating from 1290. It depicts the King in armour with a sword and a shield, and he is riding on a horse.
A 1290 seal of Edward I
Two sides of a long cross penny coin. The left image shows its obverse, with a portrait of King Edward wearing a coronet. The right image, showing the reverse, depicts a cross.
Long cross penny with portrait of Edward, struck in London
Two sides of a groat (coin) dating from the reign of Edward I. The left image shows its obverse, with a head with a coronet, representing King Edward. The surrounding text says, in abbreviated Latin, "Edward, by the grace of God King of England". The right image shows the reverse, which featured a cross and the text "Duke of Aquitaine and Lord of Ireland", and "Made in London".
Two groats of Edward I (4 pence coins). On the left the obverse shows a head with a coronet. The surrounding text says, in abbreviated Latin, "Edward, by the grace of God king of England". The reverse shows a cross and the text "Duke of Aquitaine and Lord of Ireland", and "Made in London".
Below a piece of text is seen a king on a throne on a podium. On either side is seen a king and a bishop in front of the podium and clerks behind it. In front of this sit several lay and ecclesiastical lords, and more clerks, in a square on a chequered floor.
16th-century illustration of Edward I presiding over Parliament. The scene shows Alexander III of Scotland and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Wales on either side of Edward; an episode that never occurred. [ 234 ]
Jews wearing Jewish badges and being beaten by English people as they are forced to leave.
A contemporary illustration showing the expulsion of the Jews. Image shows the white double tabula that Jews in England were mandated to wear by law.
Lordship of Ireland (pink) and Gaelic controlled areas (yellow), 1300
Front-view of a seated Edward, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, pointing to something with his left hand
Miniature depiction of Edward I dating from the reign of his son Edward II
An open tomb seen from the side in a 45-degree angle from the ground. The corpse, with his head to the left, is dressed in fine funeral attire, wears a coronet and holds a sceptre in each hand.
Remains of Edward I, from an illustration made when his tomb was opened in 1774
Front-view of a fenced memorial pillar located at Burgh Marsh, topped with a cross. The memorial is said to mark the exact spot where King Edward died.
The 19th-century memorial to Edward I at Burgh Marsh . This structure replaced an earlier one and is said to mark the exact spot where he died.
An old man in half-figure on a chair, with his right arm over the back, facing the viewer. His hair and large muttonchops are white, his attire is black and simple.
Bishop William Stubbs , in his Constitutional History , emphasised Edward I's contribution to the English constitution.