Edward I (1272-1307)‘The pattern of the medieval king’, Edward was born in 1239. Eldest son of Henry III, he married Eleanor of Castile in 1254. His headstrong nature led to a temporary split with his father during the de Montfort rebellion, and it was on his way back from Palestine in 1272 that Edward learned of Henry’s death.

Tall and handsome, Edward was happiest on horseback with hunting dogs at his heels and a hawk on his wrist, or when making war on the Welsh and Scots. In 1284 Wales was formally annexed to the English Crown and the king built a chain of castles around the Welsh, to choke resistance.

When King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, Edward decided to assert his overlordship of the Scots. First he planned to marry Alexander’s granddaughter Margaret (‘The Maid of Norway’) to his son, but Margaret died in 1290. Claimants to the vacant Scots throne were then submitted to Edward, who provoked the
Scottish lords when he chose John Balliol.

Edward led an English army north, defeating the Scots at Falkirk in 1298. Forced to renew hostilities in 1303, he captured the Scots’ leader William Wallace, who
suffered a traitor’s gruesome death in 1305. Following Wallace came a new Scots hero, Robert the Bruce, crowned in 1306. On his way north to yet another battle,
Edward I - the ‘hammer of the Scots’ - died near Carlisle on 7 July 1307.

‘Item, paid to Henry the king’s barber for money which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile [heads and tails] five shillings.’
Entry in Edward II’s wardrobe rolls

Edward II (1307-27)
Although handsome, like his father Edward I, Edward II was less astute and more eccentric - his interest in ditch-digging, for instance, raised eyebrows at court. So did his affection for Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight. Edward’s marriage in 1308 to Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV of France, produced a son (the future Edward III) but Gaveston’s closeness to the king aroused such resentment that in 1312 rebel barons killed him. The king burned for revenge.

Instead, he suffered further humiliation, in Scotland, where in 1314 Robert the Bruce crushed the English army.

Edward inflamed the situation by appointing Hugh le Despenser and his son to run the country. The barons revolted; the Despensers were sacked, then reinstated; leading rebels were executed. It was a familiar pattern, made worse by French meddling: the King of France seized Edward’s French lands. Queen Isabella (thoroughly weary of her husband) took as her lover a leading baron-in-exile, Roger Mortimer, and the pair arrived in England from France in 1326. The Despensers were put to death as traitors. Edward was jailed at Kenilworth, ruled incompetent to govern, then moved to Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire where he was almost certainly murdered (allegedly with a red-hot iron).

Monarch over all
An imaginary scene of Edward I in Parliament, flanked by King Alexander III of Scotland and the last prince to rule Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd.



Effigy of Edward
Pilgrims flocked to the tomb of Edward II, revering the murdered king as a saint – a distinction hardly merited.



Castles of Wales
To secure his conquest of Wales, Edward I built castles to dominate key routes, on sites where they could be supplied by sea. His great castles (Beaumaris, Caernafon, Caerphilly, Conwy, Flint and Harlech) represent the peak of medieval military architecture in Britain. Directing a vast army of workers was Master James of St George, a master-builder from Savoy (France).

Harlech Castle
One of Edward I’s great Welsh castles, Harlech was completed in 1829. The sea once came right up to the rock on which the castle stands.