however, were
ultimately dashed by struggles closer to home. Edward returned from the East
determined to assert his authority on all fronts. One of his initial projects,
for example, was to rebuild the Tower
of London – the massive
scale of the site that exists today is largely Edward’s achievement. A grander
architectural legacy still arose as a consequence of the king’s intervention in
Wales,
which prior to this point was essentially an independent country. When the
native Welsh princes met Edward’s demands for submission with defiance, the
king responded by terminating their power forever. In 1277 and 1283 Wales was
conquered in two devastating campaigns, and conquest was cemented with the most
spectacular string of castles ever created. The mighty fortresses at Harlech , Conwy, Beaumaris and
Caernarfon (to name just the four most famous) are all World Heritage Sites,
and testimony to the awesome power that the English medieval state achieved
with Edward I at the helm.
For the first half of his reign Edward
enjoyed almost unqualified success. As well as victory in Wales, there were
triumphs on the domestic front. The Crown’s finances were righted by the
creation of a national customs system; new laws were promulgated and the peace
well kept. Parliament, a novel but hitherto malfunctioning institution, was
transformed into a forum in which the nation could come together and devise
common remedies. In 1290, for example, the knights of the shires assembled in Westminster to solve the
pressing problems associated with Jewish credit. In a profoundly anti-Semitic
age, the solution was a simple one, and Edward ordered the total expulsion of
all Jews from his kingdom – the first European monarch to take such a measure.
From that moment on, however, Edward’s
success started to unravel. Just a few weeks after the Expulsion, he lost his
beloved queen, Eleanor of Castile. Around the same time, news arrived of the
death of Margaret, the so-called ‘Maid of Norway’, heiress to the Scottish
throne and fiancée of Edward’s namesake son. The collapse of this matrimonial
alliance – a scheme that would have seen England
and Scotland
united in 1290 rather than 1603 – persuaded Edward to impose himself on the
Scots by force. They responded by allying themselves with the French, and the
English king soon found himself at war with two formerly friendly neighbours.
Edward spent his final years, not fighting in the Holy
Land as he had hoped, but engaged in a ceaseless round of
campaigns north of the Border. It was en route towards the Border that he
eventually died, trying but failing to stamp out the rebellion of Robert Bruce.
A king both great and terrible, he left England far stronger and more
united than he found it at the time of his accession. But he left a legacy of
division between the peoples of the British Isles
that has lasted from his day to our own.
9. Encapsulating
Edward I
For the past four years or so, I have
been writing a biography of King Edward I, the working title for which was
Edward I. As it happens, all of my publications to date have been labelled in
this does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin fashion. My last book, for example, a
serial biography of the thirteenth-century earls of Norfolk,
was entitled The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century. Similarly,
my first foray in the field of popular history was a television series and a
book about castles, both of which, after numerous agonised production meetings,
were eventually called Castle.
It therefore presented a novel
challenge when, some six months ago, my publishers informed me that, in today’s
competitive marketplace, Edward I would simply not pass muster. How, they
reasoned, would the book-buying public, historically curious but not
necessarily historically aware, distinguish him from the numerous other
monarchs who have shared the same name? This, I should say immediately, was a
suggestion I readily embraced, having
ultimately dashed by struggles closer to home. Edward returned from the East
determined to assert his authority on all fronts. One of his initial projects,
for example, was to rebuild the Tower
of London – the massive
scale of the site that exists today is largely Edward’s achievement. A grander
architectural legacy still arose as a consequence of the king’s intervention in
Wales,
which prior to this point was essentially an independent country. When the
native Welsh princes met Edward’s demands for submission with defiance, the
king responded by terminating their power forever. In 1277 and 1283 Wales was
conquered in two devastating campaigns, and conquest was cemented with the most
spectacular string of castles ever created. The mighty fortresses at Harlech , Conwy, Beaumaris and
Caernarfon (to name just the four most famous) are all World Heritage Sites,
and testimony to the awesome power that the English medieval state achieved
with Edward I at the helm.
For the first half of his reign Edward
enjoyed almost unqualified success. As well as victory in Wales, there were
triumphs on the domestic front. The Crown’s finances were righted by the
creation of a national customs system; new laws were promulgated and the peace
well kept. Parliament, a novel but hitherto malfunctioning institution, was
transformed into a forum in which the nation could come together and devise
common remedies. In 1290, for example, the knights of the shires assembled in Westminster to solve the
pressing problems associated with Jewish credit. In a profoundly anti-Semitic
age, the solution was a simple one, and Edward ordered the total expulsion of
all Jews from his kingdom – the first European monarch to take such a measure.
From that moment on, however, Edward’s
success started to unravel. Just a few weeks after the Expulsion, he lost his
beloved queen, Eleanor of Castile. Around the same time, news arrived of the
death of Margaret, the so-called ‘Maid of Norway’, heiress to the Scottish
throne and fiancée of Edward’s namesake son. The collapse of this matrimonial
alliance – a scheme that would have seen England
and Scotland
united in 1290 rather than 1603 – persuaded Edward to impose himself on the
Scots by force. They responded by allying themselves with the French, and the
English king soon found himself at war with two formerly friendly neighbours.
Edward spent his final years, not fighting in the Holy
Land as he had hoped, but engaged in a ceaseless round of
campaigns north of the Border. It was en route towards the Border that he
eventually died, trying but failing to stamp out the rebellion of Robert Bruce.
A king both great and terrible, he left England far stronger and more
united than he found it at the time of his accession. But he left a legacy of
division between the peoples of the British Isles
that has lasted from his day to our own.
9. Encapsulating
Edward I
For the past four years or so, I have
been writing a biography of King Edward I, the working title for which was
Edward I. As it happens, all of my publications to date have been labelled in
this does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin fashion. My last book, for example, a
serial biography of the thirteenth-century earls of Norfolk,
was entitled The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century. Similarly,
my first foray in the field of popular history was a television series and a
book about castles, both of which, after numerous agonised production meetings,
were eventually called Castle.
It therefore presented a novel
challenge when, some six months ago, my publishers informed me that, in today’s
competitive marketplace, Edward I would simply not pass muster. How, they
reasoned, would the book-buying public, historically curious but not
necessarily historically aware, distinguish him from the numerous other
monarchs who have shared the same name? This, I should say immediately, was a
suggestion I readily embraced, having
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