1239 And was in his 30s before he came to the throne in 1272. By this time,

Edward I already had a reputation for being a man of action who was used to

playing a key role in the affairs of the nation.

Edward had sided with the barons, led by Simon de Montfort, who wanted to

reform the monarchy and limit the power of his father, but he turned against

de Montfort when the rebellious baron seemed to be posing too great a

threat to royal power. Edward even led the royal forces when they defeated

de Montfort in 1265 at the Battle of Evesham.

Edward I must have cut an impressive figure on the battlefield. He was tall – a

head taller than most other men at the royal court – and his stature earned

him the nickname Longshanks. His arms were long, too, which meant he usually

had the advantage over his opponent in a sword fight. The king’s awesome

stature, combined with bravery and a quick temper, made him a

fearsome figure.

When Edward was away from the battlefield, his family sometimes had to

bear the brunt of his temper. He once had a row with his daughter Elizabeth

and threw her coronet into the fire, and on another occasion he is said to

have grabbed his son Edward and started to tear out his hair in rage.

But Edward had a more peaceful side, too. He loved chess and falconry, was

an enthusiast for the courtly virtues of chivalry, and was a pious Christian.

The religious and soldierly sides of his character came together in 1270 when

Edward went off to the Holy Land to join one of the numerous Crusades, ostensibly

to win back territory in the eastern Mediterranean for the Christians.

It didn’t work out that way. Edward didn’t do a lot of fighting in the East, the

Crusade’s leader, Louis IX of France, died, and the expedition fizzled out.

Travelling across France on his way home in 1272, Edward heard that his

father, Henry III, had died, too, and he was now king of England.

A devoted couple

Edward is famous as one of the most devoted husbands in the history of

the English monarchy. He married his wife, the Spanish princess Eleanor

of Castile, in 1254, and the handsome prince and dark-haired princess, one

of the beauties of her age, seem to have been deeply in love. Eleanor bore

Edward 16 children, many of whom died young, and she even went with him

on Crusade.

According to one chronicle, Eleanor once saved Edward’s life. The prince was

stabbed during an assassination attempt while he was in the East. The assassin

had dipped his dagger in poison, and Eleanor is said to have sucked the poison

from the prince’s wound. The story is almost certainly a chronicler’s myth, but

It points to the closeness of the couple and how their fates were intertwined.

The queen was an educated young woman who employed her own scribes to

copy books for her. She also liked making tapestries and longed for the exotic

fruits of her native Spain. When a Spanish ship docked in England, she sent

her staff straight to the quay to buy up any oranges, figs, or pomegranates on

board. Sadly, Eleanor was only in her mid-50s when she died, at a village

called Harby in Nottinghamshire, and the king was heartbroken. Edward did

eventually find a new wife, Margaret of France. But there was a gap of nine

years between Eleanor’s death and Edward’s second marriage.

At two villages in the English Midlands, Geddington and Hardingstone, stand

beautiful carved memorials called Eleanor Crosses. Edward I ordered that

these stunning stone crosses should be erected at each of the stopping places

of the queen’s funeral procession as it made its way from Harby to London.

The Eleanor Crosses, encrusted with intricate carving and statues, were

erected at all 12 stops and were among the wonders of the age. As well as the

original survivors, a reproduction also exists: London’s famous Charing Cross.

Moving in on Wales

When Edward I got back home from the Crusade, the new king soon made it

clear that he meant business. For generations, the kings of England had had

their eye on Wales, and Edward’s gaze was fixed there more firmly than most.

In the 13th century, Wales was ruled by a number of Welsh princes. By the

time Edward came to the throne, one of these princes, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd

(see Chapter 21), the ruler of Gwynedd, had taken the overall title of Prince of

Wales. Henry III had recognised Llewelyn, but when the Welshman refused to

pay homage to the new English king, Edward acted.

The English king launched a military campaign in 1277 to bring Wales to heel.

To begin with, Edward didn’t want to conquer Wales, just to force Llewelyn

into submission so that it was clear who was boss at the top of the British

feudal pecking order. When Edward beat the Welsh in battle, it seemed as if

he had succeeded. Edward took over a chunk of northwest Wales but let the

Welshman keep his title, and an uneasy peace followed.

But there was a problem: Llewelyn’s brother, Daffydd. In 1282, Daffydd staged

a rebellion against the English, and Edward was furious. The Englishman

began a campaign to conquer Wales outright. The campaign lasted for years:

_ After a series of struggles, Llewelyn was ambushed and killed near Builth

in November 1282.

_ In June 1283, the English captured Daffydd and executed him as a traitor.

_ In 1284, a law called the Statute of Wales was passed, putting the principality

under the direct rule of the English king.

_ The Welsh rebelled again in 1287 and 1294, and Edward crushed these

uprisings.

_ Throughout this period, Edward built a series of castles in North Wales

as English bases; castles such as Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, and

Harlech remain some of the most impressive built in the Middle Ages.

In addition to all his military measures, Edward made one still more farreaching

move. In 1301, he made his eldest son Prince of Wales, beginning

a tradition of English Princes of Wales that has lasted to this day.

An old story speculates that the king was playing a cunning trick on the

Welsh by giving this title to his young son Edward. He is supposed to have

held the baby boy up as a kind of offering to a bunch of Welsh nobles, saying,

‘Here is your new prince of Wales,’ and pointing out that the tiny child could

speak no English. The idea was meant to suggest that the king was pretending

to offer them a prince who, knowing no English, could grow up a Welshman.

The story is a myth, though. Young Edward was born in 1284, so he was

already 7 years old and presumably very talkative when he was made Prince

of Wales. And although the boy had been born in his father’s Welsh castle at

Caernarfon, he was English through and through.

The Hammer of the Scots

Before he conquered Wales, Edward was launching a still grander scheme of

conquest – he wanted to take over Scotland and bring the whole of Britain

under English rule. In 1286, he saw a golden opportunity to increase his influence

in Scotland. The Scottish king, Alexander III, died, leaving a little girl,

Princess Margaret, as his heir. Edward did a deal with the Scots in which they

planned that Edward’s son would marry Margaret and become ruler of Scotland.

In 1290, however, all these plans fell apart because little Margaret died.

Edward found himself drawn into the political wrangle over who should be

her successor and then into a military campaign north of the border. The

consequences were very different from those in Wales. The Scots objected to

Edward meddling in their succession crisis, and Edward marched north with

an army, hoping to bring them to their knees:

_ Edward marched through Scotland in 1297 and stole the famed Stone

of Destiny, symbol of Scots royal power, from the town of Scone.

_ He made the new king, John Balliol, resign, making Scotland a dependency

(in other words, a subordinate country) of the English crown.

_ The Scots, under William Wallace, fought back, defeating the English

under the Earl of Surrey in 1298. A series of battles followed.

_ In 1305, Wallace was caught and put to death, and Edward claimed

sovereignty over Scotland.

_ The next year, a new Scottish claimant, Robert Bruce, came to the

fore to question Edward’s power (see Chapter 11).