50 Facts About Edward I

Edward I, known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307.

Edward I was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died.

Edward I spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law.

Simultaneously, Edward I found himself at war with France after King Philip IV of France had confiscated the Duchy of Gascony, which until then had been held in personal union with the Kingdom of England.

Edward I was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries.

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Edward I had already received Gascony as early as 1249, but Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, had been appointed as royal lieutenant the year before and, consequently, drew its income, so in practice Edward derived neither authority nor revenue from this province.

The grant he received in 1254 included most of Ireland, and much land in Wales and England, including the earldom of Chester, but King Henry retained much control over the land in question, particularly in Ireland, so Edward I's power was limited there as well, and the King derived most of the income from those lands.

From 1254 to 1257, Edward I was under the influence of his mother's relatives, known as the Savoyards, the most notable of whom was Peter II of Savoy, the Queen's uncle.

Edward I had shown independence in political matters as early as 1255, when he sided with the Soler family in Gascony, in the ongoing conflict between the Soler and Colomb families.

Edward I stood by his political allies and strongly opposed the Provisions.

Edward I made several appointments to advance the cause of the reformers, causing his father to believe that Edward was considering a coup d'etat.

Back in England, early in 1262, Edward I fell out with some of his former Lusignan allies over financial matters.

When Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edward I negotiated a truce with the Earl, the terms of which Edward I later broke.

Edward I then captured Northampton from Simon de Montfort the Younger before embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby's lands.

Edward I, commanding the right wing, performed well, and soon defeated the London contingent of Montfort's forces.

Montfort's support was now dwindling, and Edward I retook Worcester and Gloucester with relatively little effort.

Edward I managed to make a surprise attack at Kenilworth Castle, where the younger Montfort was quartered, before moving on to cut off the earl of Leicester.

Edward I was little involved in the settlement negotiations following the wars; at this point his main focus was on planning his forthcoming crusade.

Edward I was deeply saddened by this news, but rather than hurrying home at once, he made a leisurely journey northwards.

The political situation in England was stable after the mid-century upheavals, and Edward I was proclaimed king after his father's death, rather than at his own coronation, as had until then been customary.

For Edward I, it became a war of conquest rather than simply a punitive expedition, like the former campaign.

In 1284, King Edward I had his son Edward I born at Caernarfon Castle, probably to make a deliberate statement about the new political order in Wales.

In 1301 at Lincoln, the young Edward I became the first English prince to be invested with the title of Prince of Wales, when the King granted him the Earldom of Chester and lands across North Wales.

Edward I had long been deeply involved in the affairs of his own Duchy of Gascony.

In 1286, Edward I visited the region himself and stayed for almost three years.

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On his diplomatic mission in 1286, Edward I had paid homage to the new king, Philip IV, but in 1294 Philip declared Gascony forfeit when Edward I refused to appear before him in Paris to discuss the recent conflict between English, Gascon, and French sailors that had resulted in several French ships being captured, along with the sacking of the French port of La Rochelle.

The couple loved each other and like his father, Edward I was very devoted to his wife and was faithful to her throughout their married lives.

Edward I displayed his grief by erecting twelve so-called Eleanor crosses, one at each place where her funeral cortege stopped for the night.

Edward I made alliances with the German king, the counts of Flanders and Guelders, and the Burgundians, who would attack France from the north.

However, the alliances proved volatile and Edward I was facing trouble at home at the time, both in Wales and Scotland.

Edward I responded by invading Scotland in 1296 and taking the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in a particularly bloody attack.

Edward I had a reputation for a fierce temper, and he could be intimidating; one story tells of how the Dean of St Paul's, wishing to confront Edward I over the high level of taxation in 1295, fell down and died once he was in the King's presence.

Edward I met contemporary expectations of kingship in his role as an able, determined soldier and in his embodiment of shared chivalric ideals.

Edward I took a keen interest in the stories of King Arthur, which were highly popular in Europe during his reign.

Edward I held "Round Table" events in 1284 and 1302, involving tournaments and feasting, and chroniclers compared him and the events at his court to Arthur.

In some cases Edward I appears to have used his interest in the Arthurian myths to serve his own political interests, including legitimising his rule in Wales and discrediting the Welsh belief that Arthur might return as their political savior.

Edward I then replaced most local officials, such as the escheators and sheriffs.

Edward I had nevertheless won a significant victory, in clearly establishing the principle that all liberties essentially emanated from the Crown.

In 1275, Edward I had issued the Statute of the Jewry, which outlawed loan with interest and encouraged the Jews to take up other professions; in 1279, in the context of a crack-down on coin-clippers, he arrested all the heads of Jewish households in England and had around 300 of them executed.

Edward I held Parliament on a reasonably regular basis throughout his reign.

In 1294, Edward I made a demand of a grant of one half of all clerical revenues.

Edward I finally got his revenge on Winchelsey in 1305, when Clement V was elected pope.

Edward I had reason to believe 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.

Edward I was not able to take advantage of the momentum, and the next year the Scots managed to recapture Stirling Castle.

Edward I was suffering ill health by this time, and instead of leading an expedition himself, he gave different military commands to Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy, while the main royal army was led by the Prince of Wales.

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Edward I acted with unusual brutality against Bruce's family, allies, and supporters.

Edward I's tomb was an unusually plain sarcophagus of Purbeck marble, without the customary royal effigy, possibly the result of the shortage of royal funds after the King's death.

Later in the century, historians used the available record evidence to address the role of parliament and kingship under Edward I, drawing comparisons between his reign and the political strife of their own century.

Influential Victorian historian William Stubbs instead suggested that Edward I had actively shaped national history, forming English laws and institutions, and helping England to develop a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy.

Edward I was reportedly concerned with his son's failure to live up to the expectations of an heir to the crown, and at one point decided to exile the prince's favourite Piers Gaveston.