Boswell, E., ed., Edmond Ironside; or, War Hath made All
Friends (London: Oxford University Press, 1928).
Edward I (1239–1307) English king
Edward I, the eldest son of King Henry III (1207–72)
and Eleanor of Provence, was born at Westminster, Lon-
don, on 17 June 1239. It is said that when presented with
this heir to the throne, Henry named him Edward “after
the glorious king and confessor [Edward the Confessor],
whose body rests in the Church of St. Peter.” In 1254,
when Edward was 15, his father gave him grants of land
and numerous titles, paving the way for his ascension to
the English throne. That same year, he was sent by ar-
rangement to Castile, Spain, where he married Eleanor,
the half sister of King Alfonso X of Spain. Edward was
close to his maternal uncle, Simon de montfort, earl
of Leicester, who argued with Henry about the Provi-
sions of Westminster (1259), a piece of legislation that,
like the Provisions of Oxford the year before, reduced
the king’s control over government appointments. When
Edward sided not with his father but with de Montfort,
there ensued a period of estrangement that ended with
Henry’s forgiveness of Edward in May 1260. Foresee-
ing a possible fight between the Crown and England’s
barons, Henry then sent Edward to Gascony, where he
stayed for three years.
In 1262, after Henry had renounced the Provisions
of Oxford and Westminster, a war broke out between
the king and the barons under de Montfort. Edward re-
turned from Gascony and took up arms for his father
and the Crown. At Lewes on 14 May 1264, Henry was
captured; Edward surrendered to de Montfort, but he
escaped in May 1265. Leading the Royalist forces, Ed-
ward defeated de Montfort at Newport on 8 July 1265,
driving the barons into Wales. A branch baron army
under de Montfort’s son, Simon the Younger, sprang
up, but Edward met them at Kenilworth and defeated
them there on 1 August 1265. Edward then turned back
on Leicester, attacking and killing him at Evesham (4
August 1265) while also rescuing his father from impris-
onment. Before the battle, de Montfort had predicted
his own defeat and death, writing that he and his men
should “let us commend our souls to God, because our
bodies are theirs... they are approaching wisely, they
learned this from me.” Edward’s harsh retaliation against
the barons after his victory at Evesham set the stage for
more than a year of resistance before they sued for peace
in 1266. Under the Statute of Marlborough (1267), full
royal authority was restored to the throne.
Following this momentous victory, Edward decided
to lead a Crusade to the Holy Land, although due to
several difficulties he could not start his journey until
1270, following the death of King Louis IX of France.
That year, Edward arrived at Acre (now in Lebanon) and
led an army against Muslim forces near Jerusalem. Al-
though he gained no substantial land, he did strengthen
his standing as a warrior.
Edward was returning to England in 1272 when
he learned of his father’s death; he was crowned king of
England on 19 August 1274. Almost from the start of
his reign, he was at war—first against the Welsh, starting
in 1277, to end border disputes. He launched a major
offensive and defeated the Welsh prince Llyewelyn ap
Gruffydd in November 1277. However, Gruffydd and
his brother David viewed the Treaty of Conway, which
ended the conflict, as a temporary measure rather than
permanent peace. In 1282, following the abduction of
England’s representative in Wales, Edward assembled a
large force and invaded Wales, killing Gruffydd, whose
brother David was captured and later executed by the
English. Edward then built a series of castles to confirm
his hold on Wales, and despite a number of minor re-
volts, Wales was never again a threat to England: Under
the Statute of Wales (1284), it was made an integral
part of the English kingdom, whose shire system was
extended to Wales.
Edward next turned his sights on Scotland. In
1290, when Margaret of Norway, the last heir to the
Scottish throne, died, Scottish noblemen asked Edward
to name a successor. In November 1292, Edward chose
John of Balliol over Edward Bruce, but Balliol was still
a Scot who resented Edward’s claim to be “overlord.”
When war broke out between England and France in
1294, Balliol lost most of his authority as the Scottish
nobles entered into an alliance with the French in Octo-
ber 1295. Outraged by this betrayal, Edward assembled
an army and invaded Scotland in March 1296.
To pay for his fighting force, the king brought to-
gether a group of men in a parley (meeting) to pass laws
for taxes. This eventually became a constant parley, or
parliament. At the same time that he was turning on
Scotland, Edward asked the parliament to fund a war
against France following King Philip’s seizure of the
English territory of Gascony. Known as the Model Par-
liament because it represented a major cross-section ofeDwARD i