Edward I

Ariadna Choulet, Camila Britez and Nahuel Ghiglione

Edward I was an impatient, well-educated and ambitious man known as ‘Longshanks’. He inherited black hair
from his mother and the fiery Plantagenet temper from his father. As a king he wanted the whole control of
England. (3)

Period
Edward I, eldest son of King Henry III and Eleanor of Provedence, was born on 17 June, 1239, at Westminster
Palace. Longshanks married to Eleanor of Castile and they had 16 children. Their first two died in infancy so,
their third son, Edward, became the heir to the throne. (3)
Edward I was crowned at Westminster Palace in 1272 at the age of 35, after his father died.
Queen Eleanor died from a fever in 1290 while she was accompanying Edward to Harby in Nottinghamshire.
He was so affected by the death of her wife that he ordered her organs to be buried in Lincoln Cathedral and
the rest of her body in Westminster Abbey, where on top of her grave there is a bronze gilt effigy designed
by William Torel. Also, he put crosses into the places where her body had rested during the journey to
London.(3)(7)
At the age of 60, the king married to Margaret of France, the 17-year-old daughter of King Phillip III from
France and Maria of Brabant. Their marriage was celebrated in Canterbury on the 8th September 1299. The
couple got on well and grew close. They had two sons and a daughter, who was named Eleanor in honor to
his first wife.(3)

Personality
When Edward was a child he had a strict education prompted by his mother. He was trained in art, science
and music, and he also learnt English, French and Latin. (2)
He was known as Longshanks because he grew up to become a man of six feet two inches with long arms
and legs. Another of his characteristics was that he spoke with a pronounced lisp. (3)

House
The House of Plantagenet reigned from 1216 to 1485 and provided 14 kings, including Edward I.
Later, The House of Plantagenet became divided into the Houses of Lancaster and York, both were
descendants of Edward III. The Yorkists wanted the throne that the Lancastrians had. So, on 1455 a series of
battles fought between them had started, called The War of the Roses. The war ended when Richard III, the
last Yorkist, was defeated by Henry Tudor, the founder of the House of Tudor.(1)
The name of the war referred to the badges they had used, a red rose for the Lancastrians, a white rose for
the Yorkists and finally the House of Tudor which badge was a red and white rose. (1)

Background
Edward was a really religious man, he had a great devotion for Christianity’s moral. So, he could not stand
the Jews because they used to work as moneylenders and for the Christians this job was a sin, and because
of that he tortured and humiliated them. During the time he conquered Wales, he also expelled the Jews
from the country.(3)(7)
In these times, the English barons had Frenchness of manners and names but then, prompted by Edward,
they became increasingly conscious of their Englishness so there were anti-foreign attitudes focused on
immigrant courtiers.(7)
Main contributions
Edward I spent much of his reign reforming and reorganizing several laws. One of them was the Royal
Administration, its purpose was clear: Edward wanted to change the administration of the country. To do
that, he divided England into counties and sent Sheriffs to each borough replacing the nobles that were in
that moment, by doing that, he reduced the benefits and profits they used to have previous to Edward’s
reign.
Edward reformed the Common Law to meet temporary problems; he made the first reformation in 1275. (7)
In 1290, Edward called a meeting with the Great Council which was an assembly of all the major barons,
churchmen and government officials. Those people were the only ones that had to pay taxes, so Edward I
replaced the Great Council for the Model Parliament to make all the citizens pay taxes and to increase the
feudal incomes. (4)(7)
Through an extensive legal inquiry, Edward investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties while the law
was reformed, regulating criminal and property law.
The Property Law referred to a series of statutes that Edward applied over the church and landholders. In
those times, the church had many lands and was free to pay feudal services, and this was affecting Edward’s
feudal incomes. To change that, he applied a law called “Statute of Mortmain” that stated that the church
wouldn’t continue obtaining lands without the king’s permission. (4)(5)
Regarding to the statute “Quia Emptors”, also called Third Statute of Westminster, it was dictated by Edward
in 1290. This statute prevented the landholders to climb the feudal pyramid, the intermediate lords were
excluded from the right of the lands and throughout time the crown started to hold those lands. (4)(5)

Events
The first part of Edward’s reign was dominated by his campaigns in Wales. In 1277, he invaded Wales and
built a ring of castles to enforce his authority; those castles were Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech. Edward I
wanted to rule Wales but the citizens of that country did not want to be ruled by an English man, so there
was a rebellion leaded by Llywelyn ap Gruffyd. Later, Edward invaded again and when Gruffyd was killed in
battle and his brother David executed. The line of Welsh heirs died out so Wales was brought into the
English legal and administrative framework.(5)
In 1292, Edward was asked to arbitrate in a succession’s dispute in Scotland and he nominated John Balliol as
king. Balliol swore loyalty to Edward, but Edward's demands pushed the Scots into an alliance with France.
The Scottish felt that they had been tricked by Edward when he demanded them to do feudal service in
France. Due to the Scottish revolt, Edward called a meeting with the Great Council for support but Edward
could not conquer Scotland.(5)(6)(7)
Edward I also tried to conquer Ireland, but his efforts were not enough in this country.(6)

Death and successor

Edward I was travelling to the north of Scotland when he got ill. He died from dysentery in Burgh by Sands
and was buried at Westminster on 27 October, 1307. After his death, his son Edward II became the new king
of England.(4)(5)(7)

To know more about Edward´s life, go to this link https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1060560094179098627

where there is our Thinglink.

References
(1) This source tells the story of the House of Plantagenet.
http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet

(2) This source is about the life of Edward I.

https://www.royal.uk/edward-i-longshanks-r-1272-1307

(3) In this link there is the biography of Edward I.

https://www.history.co.uk/biographies/edward-i

(4) This link gives information about the personal life and the reign of Edward.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-I-king-of-England#ref2022

(5) This link tells the campaigns of Edward and a little about his wives.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_i_king.shtml

(6) In this source there is information about the wars he participated.

https://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20142%20ediwars.htm

(7) This book tells the whole aspects of Edward´s life.

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=C_vRAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Edward+I+robert
+seeley&hl=es-
419&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQi4DpttfbAhUMlpAKHZeYBG4Q6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q&f=false