Edward I of England Edward I ( 17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307 ) , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots ( Latin : " Malleus Scotorum " ) , was King of England from 1272 to 1307 . The first son of Henry III , Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father ' s reign , which included an outright rebellion by the English barons . In 1259 , he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement , supporting the Provisions of Oxford . After reconciliation with his father , however , he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict , known as the Second Barons ' War . After the Battle of Lewes , Edward was hostage to the rebellious barons , but escaped after a few months and joined the fight against Simon de Montfort . Montfort was defeated at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 , and within two years the rebellion was extinguished . With England pacified , Edward left on a crusade to the Holy Land . The crusade accomplished little , and Edward was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died . Making a slow return , he reached England in 1274 and he was crowned king at Westminster on 19 August . He spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law . Through an extensive legal inquiry , Edward investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties , while the law was reformed through a series of statute s regulating criminal and property law . Increasingly , however , Edward ' s attention was drawn towards military affairs . After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276 – 77 , Edward responded to a second rebellion in 1282 – 83 with a full - scale war of conquest . After a successful campaign , Edward subjected Wales to English rule , built a series of castles and towns in the countryside and settled them with Englishmen . Next , his efforts were directed towards Scotland . Initially invited to arbitrate a succession dispute , Edward claimed feudal suzerainty over the kingdom . In the war that followed , the Scots persevered , even though the English seemed victorious at several points . At the same time there were problems at home . In the mid - 1290s , extensive military campaigns required high levels of taxation , and Edward met with both lay and ecclesiastical opposition . These crises were initially averted , but issues remained unsettled . When the king died in 1307 , he left to his son , Edward II , an ongoing war with Scotland and many financial and political problems . Edward I was a tall man for his era , hence the nickname " Longshanks " . He was temperamental , and this , along with his height , made him an intimidating man , and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries . Nevertheless , he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship , as a soldier , an administrator and a man of faith . Modern historians are divided on their assessment of the king : while some have praised him for his contribution to the law and administration , others have criticised him for his uncompromising attitude towards his nobility . Currently , Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign , including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III , establishing Parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes , and reforming the law through statutes . At the same time , he is also often criticised for other actions , such as his brutal conduct towards the Scots , and issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290 , by which the Jews were expelled from England . The Edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages , and it would be over 350 years until it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell in 1656 . Early years . Childhood and marriage . Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night of 17 – 18 June 1239 , to King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence , being named Edward of Westminster . Although the young prince was seriously ill on several occasions , in 1246 , 1247 , and 1251 , he grew up to be strong and healthy . Edward was in the care of Hugh Giffardfather of the future Godfrey Giffard until Bartholomew Pecche took over at Giffard ' s death in 1246 . Among his childhood friends was his cousin Henry of Almain , son of King Henry ' s brother Richard of Cornwall . Henry of Almain would remain a close companion of the prince , both through the civil war that followed , and later during the crusade . In 1254 , English fears of a Castilian invasion of the English province of Gascony induced Edward ' s father to arrange a politically expedient marriage between his fourteen - year - old son and Eleanor , the half - sister of King Alfonso X of Castile . Eleanor and Edward were married on 1 November 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile . As part of the marriage agreement , the young prince received grants of land worth 15 , 000 marks a year . Though the endowments King Henry made were sizeable , they offered Edward little independence . He 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 the king retained much control over the land in question , particularly in Ireland , so Edward ' s power was limited there as well , and the king derived most of the income from those lands . From 1254 to 1257 , Edward was under the influence of his mother ' s relatives , known as the Savoyards , the most notable of whom was Peter of Savoy , the queen ' s uncle . After 1257 , Edward increasingly fell in with the Poitevin or Lusignan factionthe half - brothers of his father Henry IIIled by such men as William de Valence . This association was significant , because the two groups of privileged foreigners were resented by the established English aristocracy , and they would be at the centre of the ensuing years ' baronial reform movement . There were tales of unruly and violent conduct by Edward and his Lusignan kinsmen , which raised questions about the royal heir ' s personal qualities . The next years would be formative on Edward ' s character . Early ambitions . Edward 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 . This ran contrary to his father ' s policy of mediation between the local factions . In May 1258 , a group of magnates drew up a document for reform of the king ’ s governmentthe so - called Provisions of Oxford largely directed against the Lusignans . Edward stood by his political allies and strongly opposed the Provisions . The reform movement succeeded in limiting the Lusignan influence , however , and gradually Edward ’ s attitude started to change . In March 1259 , he entered into a formal alliance with one of the main reformers , Richard de Clare , Earl of Gloucester . Then , on 15 October 1259 , he announced that he supported the barons ' goals , and their leader , Simon de Montfort . The motive behind Edward ' s change of heart could have been purely pragmatic ; Montfort was in a good position to support his cause in Gascony . When the king left for France in November , Edward ' s behaviour turned into pure insubordination . He made several appointments to advance the cause of the reformers , causing his father to believe that his son was considering a coup d ' état . When the king returned from France , he initially refused to see his son , but through the mediation of the Earl of Cornwall and the archbishop of Canterbury , the two were eventually reconciled . Edward was sent abroad , and in November 1260 he again united with the Lusignans , who had been exiled to France . Back in England , early in 1262 , Edward fell out with some of his former Lusignan allies over financial matters . The next year , King Henry sent him on a campaign in Wales against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd , with only limited results . Around the same time , Simon de Montfort , who had been out of the country since 1261 , returned to England and reignited the baronial reform movement . It was at this pivotal moment , as the king seemed ready to resign to the barons ' demands , that Edward began to take control of the situation . Whereas he had so far been unpredictable and equivocating , from this point on he remained firmly devoted to protecting his father ' s royal rights . He reunited with some of the men he had alienated the year beforeamong them his childhood friend , Henry of Almain , and John de Warenne , Earl of Surrey and retook Windsor Castle from the rebels . Through the arbitration of King Louis IX of France , an agreement was made between the two parties . This so - called Mise of Amiens was largely favourable to the royalist side , and laid the seeds for further conflict . Civil war . The years 1264 – 1267 saw the conflict known as the Second Barons ' War , in which baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort fought against those who remained loyal to the king . The first scene of battle was the city of Gloucester , which Edward managed to retake from the enemy . When Robert de Ferrers , Earl of Derby , came to the assistance of the rebels , Edward negotiated a truce with the earl , the terms of which he later broke . Edward then captured Northampton from Montfort ' s son Simon , before embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby ' s lands . The baronial and royalist forces finally met at the Battle of Lewes , on 14 May 1264 . Edward , commanding the right wing , performed well , and soon defeated the London contingent of Montfort ' s forces . Unwisely , however , he followed the scattered enemy in pursuit , and on his return found the rest of the royal army defeated . By the agreement known as the Mise of Lewes , Edward and his cousin Henry of Almain were given up as prisoners to Montfort . Edward remained in captivity until March , and even after his release he was kept under strict surveillance . Then , on 28 May , he managed to escape his custodians and joined up with the Earl of Gloucester , who had recently defected to the king ' s side . Montfort ' s support was now dwindling , and Edward retook Worcester and Gloucester with relatively little effort . Meanwhile , Montfort had made an alliance with Llywelyn and started moving east to join forces with his son Simon . Edward 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 . The two forces then met at the second great encounter of the Barons ' Warthe Battle of Evesham , on 4 August 1265 . Montfort stood little chance against the superior royal forces , and after his defeat he was killed and mutilated on the field . Through such episodes as the deception of Derby at Gloucester , Edward acquired a reputation as untrustworthy . During the summer campaign , though , he began to learn from his mistakes , and acted in a way that gained the respect and admiration of his contemporaries . The war did not end with Montfort ' s death , and Edward participated in the continued campaigning . At Christmas , he came to terms with the younger Simon de Montfort and his associates at the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire , and in March he led a successful assault on the Cinque Ports . A contingent of rebels held out in the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle and did not surrender until the drafting of the conciliatory Dictum of Kenilworth . In April it seemed as if Gloucester would take up the cause of the reform movement , and civil war would resume , but after a renegotiation of the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth , the parties came to an agreement . Edward , however , was little involved in the settlement negotiations following the wars ; at this point his main focus was on planning his upcoming crusade . Crusade and accession . Edward took the crusader ' s cross in an elaborate ceremony on 24 June 1268 , with his brother Edmund and cousin Henry of Almain . Among others who committed themselves to the Ninth Crusade were Edward ' s former adversaries — like the earl of Gloucester , though the earl did not ultimately participate . With the country pacified , the greatest impediment to the project was providing sufficient finances . King Louis IX of France , who was the leader of the crusade , provided a loan of about £17 , 500 . This , however , was not enough ; the rest had to be raised through a tax on the laity , which had not been levied since 1237 . In May 1270 , Parliament granted a tax of a twentieth , in exchange for which the king agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta , and to impose restrictions on Jewish money lending . On 20 August Edward sailed from Dover for France . Historians have not determined the size of the force with any certainty , but Edward probably brought with him around 225 knights and all together less than 1000 men . Originally , the Crusaders intended to relieve the beleaguered Christian stronghold of Acre , but Louis had been diverted to Tunis . The French king and his brother Charles of Anjou , who had made himself king of Sicily , decided to attack the emirate to establish a stronghold in North Africa . The plans failed when the French forces were struck by an epidemic which , on 25 August , took the life of King Louis himself . By the time Edward arrived at Tunis , Charles had already signed a treaty with the emir , and there was little else to do but return to Sicily . The crusade was postponed until next spring , but a devastating storm off the coast of Sicily dissuaded Charles of Anjou and Louis ' s successor Philip III from any further campaigning . Edward decided to continue alone , and on 9 May 1271 he finally landed at Acre . By then , the situation in the Holy Land was a precarious one . Jerusalem had fallen in 1244 , and Acre was now the centre of the Christian state . The Muslim states were on the offensive under the Mamluk leadership of Baibars , and were now threatening Acre itself . Though Edward ' s men were an important addition to the garrison , they stood little chance against Baibars ' superior forces , and an initial raid at nearby St Georges - de - Lebeyne in June was largely futile . An embassy to the Ilkhan Abaqa ( 1234 – 1282 ) of the Mongols helped bring about an attack on Aleppo in the north , which helped to distract Baibar ' s forces . In November , Edward led a raid on Qaqun , which could have served as a bridgehead to Jerusalem , but both the Mongol invasion and the attack on Qaqun failed . Things now seemed increasingly desperate , and in May 1272 Hugh III of Cyprus , who was the nominal king of Jerusalem , signed a ten – year truce with Baibars . Edward was initially defiant , but an attack by a Muslim assassin in June forced him to abandon any further campaigning . Although he managed to kill the assassin , he was struck in the arm by a dagger feared to be poisoned , and became severely weakened over the following months . It was not until 24 September that Edward left Acre . Arriving in Sicily , he was met with the news that his father had died on 16 November . Edward was deeply saddened by this news , but rather than hurrying home at once , he made a leisurely journey northwards . This was partly due to his health still being poor , but also due to a lack of urgency . The political situation in England was stable after the mid - century upheavals , and Edward was proclaimed king at his father ' s death , rather than at his own coronation , as had until then been customary . In Edward ' s absence , the country was governed by a royal council , led by Robert Burnell . The new king embarked on an overland journey through Italy and France , where among other things he visited the pope in Rome and suppressed a rebellion in Gascony . Only on 2 August 1274 did he return to England , and was crowned on 19 August . Reign . Administration and the law . Upon returning home , Edward immediately embarked on the administrative business of the nation , and his major concern was restoring order and re - establishing royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father . To accomplish this , he immediately ordered an extensive change of administrative personnel . The most important of these was the appointment of Robert Burnell as chancellor , a man who would remain in the post until 1292 as one of the king ' s closest associates . Edward then replaced most local officials , such as the escheat ors and sheriffs . This last measure was done in preparation for an extensive inquest covering all of England , that would hear complaints about abuse of power by royal officers . The inquest produced the set of so - called Hundred Rolls , from the administrative subdivision of the hundred . The second purpose of the inquest was to establish what land and rights the crown had lost during the reign of Henry III . The Hundred Rolls formed the basis for the later legal inquiries called the " Quo warranto " proceedings . The purpose of these inquiries was to establish by what warrant ( ) various liberties were held . If the defendant could not produce a royal licence to prove the grant of the liberty , then it was the crown ' s opinionbased on the writings of the influential thirteenth - century legal scholar Bracton that the liberty should revert to the king . By enacting the Statute of Gloucester in 1278 the king challenged baronial rights through a revival of the system of general eyres ( royal justices to go on tour throughout the land ) and through a significant increase in the number of pleas of quo warranto to be heard by such eyres . This caused great consternation among the aristocracy , who insisted that long use in itself constituted license . A compromise was eventually reached in 1290 , whereby a liberty was considered legitimate as long as it could be shown to have been exercised since the coronation of King Richard I , in 1189 . Royal gains from the " Quo warranto " proceedings were insignificant ; few liberties were returned to the king . Edward had nevertheless won a significant victory , in clearly establishing the principle that all liberties essentially emanated from the crown . The 1290 statute of " Quo warranto " was only one part of a wider legislative effort , which was one of the most important contributions of Edward I ' s reign . This era of legislative action had started already at the time of the baronial reform movement ; the Statute of Marlborough ( 1267 ) contained elements both of the Provisions of Oxford and the Dictum of Kenilworth . The compilation of the Hundred Rolls was followed shortly after by the issue of Westminster I ( 1275 ) , which asserted the royal prerogative and outlined restrictions on liberties . In the Mortmain ( 1279 ) , the issue was grants of land to the church . The first clause of Westminster II ( 1285 ) , known as " De donis conditionalibus " , dealt with family settlement of land , and entails . Merchants ( 1285 ) established firm rules for the recovery of debts , while Winchester ( 1285 ) dealt with peacekeeping on a local level . " Quia emptores " ( 1290 ) issued along with " Quo warranto " set out to remedy land ownership disputes resulting from alienation of land by subinfeudation . The age of the great statutes largely ended with the death of Robert Burnell in 1292 . Welsh wars . Llywelyn ap Gruffudd enjoyed an advantageous situation in the aftermath of the Barons ' War . Through the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery , he officially obtained land he had conquered in the Four Cantrefs of Perfeddwlad and was recognised in his title of Prince of Wales . Armed conflicts nevertheless continued , in particular with certain dissatisfied Marcher Lords , such as the earl of Gloucester , Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun , Earl of Hereford . Problems were exacerbated when Llywelyn ' s younger brother Dafydd and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys , after failing in an assassination attempt against Llywelyn , defected to the English in 1274 . Citing ongoing hostilities and the English king ' s harbouring of his enemies , Llywelyn refused to do homage to Edward . For Edward , a further provocation came from Llywelyn ' s planned marriage to Eleanor , daughter of Simon de Montfort . In November 1276 , war was declared . Initial operations were launched under the captaincy of Mortimer , Lancaster ( Edward ' s brother Edmund ) and William de Beauchamp , Earl of Warwick . Support for Llywelyn was weak among his own countrymen . In July 1277 Edward invaded with a force of 15 , 500of whom 9 , 000 were Welshmen . The campaign never came to a major battle , and Llywelyn soon realised he had no choice but to surrender . By the Treaty of Aberconwy in November 1277 , he was left only with the land of Gwynedd , though he was allowed to retain the title of Prince of Wales . When war broke out again in 1282 , it was an entirely different undertaking . For the Welsh , this war was over national identity , enjoying wide support , provoked particularly by attempts to impose English law on Welsh subjects . For Edward , it became a war of conquest rather than simply a punitive expedition , like the former campaign . The war started with a rebellion by Dafydd , who was discontented with the reward he had received from Edward in 1277 . Llywelyn and other Welsh chieftains soon joined in , and initially the Welsh experienced military success . In June , Gloucester was defeated at the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr . On 6 November , while John Peckham , archbishop of Canterbury , was conducting peace negotiations , Edward ' s commander of Anglesey , Luke de Tany , decided to carry out a surprise attack . A pontoon bridge had been built to the mainland , but shortly after Tany and his men crossed over , they were ambushed by the Welsh and suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Moel - y - don . The Welsh advances ended on 11 December , however , when Llywelyn was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge . The conquest of Gwynedd was complete with the capture in June 1283 of Dafydd , who was taken to Shrewsbury and executed as a traitor the following autumn . Further rebellions occurred in 1287 – 8 and , more seriously , in 1294with five under Madog ap Llywelyn , a distant relative of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd . This last conflict demanded the king ' s own attention , but in both cases the rebellions were put down . By the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan , the Principality of Wales was incorporated into England and was given an administrative system like the English , with counties policed by sheriffs . English law was introduced in criminal cases , though the Welsh were allowed to maintain their own customary laws in some cases of property disputes . After 1277 , and increasingly after 1283 , Edward embarked on a full - scale project of English settlement of Wales , creating new towns like Flint , Aberystwyth , and Rhuddlan . An extensive project of castle - building was also initiated . The assignment was given to Master James of Saint George , a prestigious architect whom Edward had met in Savoy on his return from the crusade . Among the major buildings were the castles of Beaumaris , Caernarfon , Conwy and Harlech . His programme of castle building in Wales heralded the introduction of the widespread use of arrowslit s in castle walls across Europe , drawing on Eastern influences . Also a product of the Crusade s was the introduction of the concentric castle , and four of the eight castles Edward founded in Wales followed this design . In 1284 , King Edward ' s son Edwardthe later Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle . In 1301 at Lincoln , the young Edward became the first English prince to be invested with the title of Prince of Wales . Diplomacy and war on the Continent . Edward never again went on crusade after his return to England in 1274 , but he maintained an intention to do so , and took the cross again in 1287 . This intention guided much of his foreign policy , until at least 1291 . To stage a European - wide crusade , it was essential to prevent conflict between the greater princes on the continent . A major obstacle to this was represented by the conflict between the French House of Anjou ruling southern Italy , and the kingdom of Aragon in Spain . In 1282 , the citizens of Palermo rose up against Charles of Anjou and turned for help to Peter of Aragon , in what has become known as the Sicilian Vespers . In the war that followed , Charles of Anjou ' s son , Charles of Salerno , was taken prisoner by the Aragonese . The French began planning an attack on Aragon , raising the prospect of a large - scale European war . To Edward , it was imperative that such a war be avoided , and in Paris in 1286 he brokered a truce between France and Aragon that helped secure Charles ' release . As far as the crusades were concerned , however , Edward ' s efforts proved ineffective . A devastating blow to his plans came in 1291 , when the Mamluks captured Acre , the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land . After the fall of Acre , Edward ' s international role changed from that of a diplomat to an antagonist . He had long been deeply involved in the affairs of his own Duchy of Gascony . In 1278 he assigned an investigating commission to his trusted associates Otto de Grandson and the chancellor Robert Burnell , which caused the replacement of the seneschal Luke de Tany . In 1286 , Edward visited the region himself and stayed for almost three years . The perennial problem , however , was the status of Gascony within the kingdom of France , and Edward ' s role as the French king ' s vassal . On his diplomatic mission in 1286 , Edward had paid homage to the new king , Philip IV , but in 1294 Philip declared Gascony forfeit when Edward 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 ) . In the war that followed , Edward planned for a two - pronged attack . While the English forces focused on Gascony , alliances were made with the princes of the Low Countries , Germany , and Burgundy , who would attack France from the north . The alliances proved volatile , however , and Edward was facing trouble at home at the time , both in Wales and Scotland . It was not until August 1297 that he was finally able to sail for Flanders , at which time his allies there had already suffered defeat . The support from Germany never materialised , and Edward was forced to seek peace . His marriage to his first cousin once removed , Philip IV ' s half - sister Margaret , in 1299 ended the war , but the whole affair had proven both costly and fruitless for the English . The Great Cause . The relationship between the nations of England and Scotland by the 1280s was one of relatively harmonious coexistence . The issue of homage did not reach the same level of controversy as it did in Wales ; in 1278 King Alexander III of Scotland paid homage to Edward I , but apparently only for the lands he held of Edward in England . Problems arose only with the Scottish succession crisis of the early 1290s . In the years from 1281 to 1284 , Alexander ' s two sons and one daughter died in quick succession . Then , in 1286 , King Alexander died himself , leaving as heir to the throne of Scotland the three - year - old Margaret , the Maid of Norway , who was born in 1283 to Alexander ' s daughter Margaret and King Eric II of Norway . By the Treaty of Birgham , it was agreed that Margaret should marry King Edward ' s then one - year - old son Edward of Carnarvon , though Scotland would remain free of English overlordship . Margaret , by now seven years of age , sailed from Norway for Scotland in the autumn of 1290 , but fell ill on the way and died in Orkney . This left the country without an obvious heir , and led to the succession dispute known to history as the Great Cause . Even though as many as fourteen claimants put forward their claims to the title , the real contest was between John Balliol and Robert de Brus . The Scottish magnates made a request to Edward to arbitrate in the dispute . At Birgham , with the prospect of a personal union between the two realms , the question of suzerainty had not been of great importance to Edward . Now he insisted that , if he were to settle the contest , he had to be fully recognised as Scotland ' s feudal overlord . The Scots were reluctant to make such a concession , and replied that since the country had no king , no one had the authority to make this decision . This problem was circumvented when the competitors agreed that the realm would be handed over to Edward until a rightful heir had been found . After a lengthy hearing , a decision was made in favour of John Balliol on 17 November 1292 . Even after Balliol ' s accession , Edward still continued to assert his authority over Scotland . Against the objections of the Scots , he agreed to hear appeals on cases ruled on by the court of guardians that had governed Scotland during the interregnum . A further provocation came in a case brought by Macduff , son of Malcolm , Earl of Fife , in which Edward demanded that Balliol appear in person before the English Parliament to answer the charges . This the Scottish king did , but the final straw was Edward ' s demand that the Scottish magnates provide military service in the war against France . This was unacceptable ; the Scots instead formed an alliance with France and launched an unsuccessful attack on Carlisle . Edward responded by invading Scotland in 1296 and taking the town of Berwick in a particularly bloody attack . At the Battle of Dunbar , Scottish resistance was effectively crushed . Edward confiscated the Stone of Destiny – the Scottish coronation stoneand brought it to Westminster , deposed Balliol and placed him in the Tower of London , and installed Englishmen to govern the country . The campaign had been very successful , but the English triumph would only be temporary . Finances , Parliament and the Expulsion of Jews . Edward I ' s frequent military campaigns put a great financial strain on the nation . There were several ways through which the king could raise money for war , including customs duties , money lending and lay subsidies . In 1275 , Edward I negotiated an agreement with the domestic merchant community that secured a permanent duty on wool . In 1303 , a similar agreement was reached with foreign merchants , in return for certain rights and privileges . The revenues from the customs duty were handled by the Riccardi , a group of bankers from Lucca in Italy . This was in return for their service as money lenders to the crown , which helped finance the Welsh Wars . When the war with France broke out , the French king confiscated the Riccardi ' s assets , and the bank went bankrupt . After this , the Frescobaldi of Florence took over the role as money lenders to the English crown . Another source of crown income was represented by England ' s Jews . The Jews were the king ' s personal property , and he was free to tax them at will . By 1280 , the Jews had been exploited to a level at which they were no longer of much financial use to the crown , but they could still be used in political bargaining . Their usury businessa practice forbidden to Christianshad made many people indebted to them and caused general popular resentment . In 1275 , Edward had issued the Statute of the Jewry , which outlawed usury 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 . In 1280 , he ordered all Jews to attend special sermons , preached by Dominican friars , with the hope of persuading them to convert , but these exhortations were not followed . The final attack on the Jews in England came in the Edict of Expulsion in 1290 , whereby Edward formally expelled all Jews from England . This not only generated revenues through royal appropriation of Jewish loans and property , but it also gave Edward the political capital to negotiate a substantial lay subsidy in the 1290 Parliament . The expulsion , which was not reversed until 1656 , followed a precedent set by other European territorial princes : Philip II of France had expelled all Jews from his own lands in 1182 ; John I , Duke of Brittany , drove them out of his duchy in 1239 ; and in the late 1240s Louis IX of France had expelled the Jews from the royal demesne before his first passage to the East . Among the main achievements of the reign of Edward I were the reforms of the institution of the English Parliament and its transformation into a source for generating revenues . Edward held Parliament on a reasonably regular basis throughout his reign . In 1295 , however , a significant change occurred . For this Parliament , in addition to the secular and ecclesiastical lords , two knights from each county and two representatives from each borough were summoned . The representation of commons in Parliament was nothing new ; what was new was the authority under which these representatives were summoned . Whereas previously the commons had been expected simply to assent to decisions already made by the magnates , it was now proclaimed that they should meet with the full authority ( " plena potestas " ) of their communities , to give assent to decisions made in Parliament . The king now had full backing for collecting lay subsidies from the entire population . Lay subsidies were taxes collected at a certain fraction of the moveable property of all laymen . Whereas Henry III had only collected four of these in his reign , Edward I collected nine . This format eventually became the standard for later Parliaments , and historians have named the assembly the " Model Parliament " . Constitutional crisis . The incessant warfare of the 1290s put a great financial demand on Edward ' s subjects . Whereas the king had only levied three lay subsidies until 1294 , four such taxes were granted in the years 1294 – 97 , raising over £200 , 000 . Along with this came the burden of prises ( appropriation of food ) , seizure of wool and hides , and the unpopular additional duty on wool , dubbed the " maltolt " . The fiscal demands on the king ' s subjects caused resentment , and this resentment eventually led to serious political opposition . The initial resistance was not caused by the lay taxes , however , but by clerical subsidies . In 1294 , Edward made a demand of a grant of one half of all clerical revenues . There was some resistance , but the king responded by threatening with outlawry , and the grant was eventually made . At the time , the archbishopric of Canterbury was vacant , since Robert Winchelsey was in Italy to receive consecration . Winchelsey returned in January 1295 and had to consent to another grant in November of that year . In 1296 , however , his position changed when he received the papal bull " Clericis laicos " . This bull prohibited the clergy from paying taxes to lay authorities without explicit consent from the Pope . When the clergy , with reference to the bull , refused to pay , Edward responded with outlawry . Winchelsey was presented with a dilemma between loyalty to the king and upholding the papal bull , and he responded by leaving it to every individual clergyman to pay as he saw fit . By the end of the year , a solution was offered by the new papal bull " Etsi de statu " , which allowed clerical taxation in cases of pressing urgency . Opposition from the laity took longer to surface . This resistance focused on two things : the king ' s right to demand military service , and his right to levy taxes . At the Salisbury parliament of February 1297 , Roger Bigod , Earl of Norfolk , in his capacity as Marshal of England , objected to a royal summons of military service . Bigod argued that the military obligation only extended to service alongside the king ; if the king intended to sail to Flanders , he could not send his subjects to Gascony . In July , Bigod and Humphrey de Bohun , Earl of Hereford and Constable of England , drew up a series of complaints known as the Remonstrances , in which objections to the extortionate level of taxation were voiced . Undeterred , Edward requested another lay subsidy . This one was particularly provocative , because the king had sought consent only from a small group of magnates , rather than from representatives from the communities in parliament . While Edward was in Winchelsea , preparing for the campaign in Flanders , Bigod and Bohun turned up at the Exchequer to prevent the collection of the tax . As the king left the country with a greatly reduced force , the kingdom seemed to be on the verge of civil war . What resolved the situation was the English defeat by the Scots at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . The renewed threat to the homeland gave king and magnates common cause . Edward signed the " Confirmatio cartarum " a confirmation of " Magna Carta " and its accompanying Charter of the Forest and the nobility agreed to serve with the king on a campaign in Scotland . Edward ' s problems with the opposition did not end with the Falkirk campaign . Over the following years he would be held up to the promises he had made , in particular that of upholding the Charter of the Forest . In the parliament of 1301 , the king was forced to order an assessment of the royal forest s , but in 1305 he obtained a papal bull that freed him from this concession . Ultimately , it was a failure in personnel that spelt the end of the opposition against Edward I . Bohun died late in 1298 , after returning from the Falkirk campaign . As for Bigod , in 1302 he arrived at an agreement with the king that was beneficial for both : Bigod , who had no children , made Edward his heir , in return for a generous annual grant . Edward finally got his revenge on Winchelsey in 1305 , when Clement V was elected pope . Clement was a Gascon sympathetic to the king , and on Edward ' s instigation had Winchelsey suspended from office . Final years : return to Scotland . The situation in Scotland had seemed resolved when Edward left the country in 1296 , but resistance soon emerged under the leadership of the strategically gifted and charismatic William Wallace . On 11 September 1297 , a large English force under the leadership of John de Warenne , Earl of Surrey , and Hugh de Cressingham was routed by a much smaller Scottish army led by Wallace and Andrew Moray at Stirling Bridge . The defeat sent shockwaves into England , and preparations for a retaliatory campaign started immediately . Soon after Edward returned from Flanders , he headed north . On 22 July 1298 , in the only major battle he had fought since Evesham in 1265 , Edward defeated Wallace ' s forces at the Battle of Falkirk . Edward , however , was not able to take advantage of the momentum , and the next year the Scots managed to recapture Stirling Castle . Even though Edward campaigned in Scotland both in 1300 , when he successfully besieged Caerlaverock Castle and in 1301 , the Scots refused to engage in open battle again , preferring instead to raid the English countryside in smaller groups . Furthermore the defeated Scots , secretly urged on by the French , appealed to the pope to assert a claim of overlordship to Scotland in place of the English . His papal bull addressed to King Edward in these terms was firmly rejected on Edward ' s behalf by the Barons ' Letter of 1301 . The English managed to subdue the country by other means , however . In 1303 , a peace agreement was reached between England and France , effectively breaking up the Franco - Scottish alliance . Robert the Bruce , the grandson of the claimant to the crown in 1291 , had sided with the English in the winter of 1301 – 02 . By 1304 , most of the other nobles of the country had also pledged their allegiance to Edward , and this year the English also managed to re - take Stirling Castle . A great propaganda victory was achieved in 1305 when Wallace was betrayed by Sir John de Menteith and turned over to the English , who had him taken to London where he was publicly executed . With Scotland largely under English control , Edward installed Englishmen and collaborating Scots to govern the country . The situation changed again on 10 February 1306 , when Robert the Bruce murdered his rival John Comyn and a few weeks later , on 25 March , had himself crowned king of Scotland by Isobel , sister of the Earl of Buchan . Bruce now embarked on a campaign to restore Scottish independence , and this campaign took the English by surprise . Edward was suffering ill health by this time , and instead of leading an expedition himself , he gave different military commands to Aymer de Valence and Henry Percy , while the main royal army was led by the Prince of Wales . The English initially met with success ; on 19 June , Aymer de Valence routed Bruce at the Battle of Methven . Bruce was forced into hiding , while the English forces recaptured their lost territory and castles . Edward responded with severe brutality against Bruce ' s allies ; it was clear that he now regarded the struggle not as a war between two nations , but as the suppression of a rebellion of disloyal subjects . This brutality , though , rather than helping to subdue the Scots , had the opposite effect , and rallied growing support for Bruce . In February 1307 , Bruce reappeared and started gathering men , and in May he defeated Aymer de Valence at the Battle of Loudoun Hill . Edward , who had rallied somewhat , now moved north himself . On the way , however , he developed dysentery , and his condition deteriorated . On 6 July he encamped at Burgh by Sands , just south of the Scottish border . When his servants came the next morning to lift him up so that he could eat , he died in their arms . Various stories emerged about Edward ’ s deathbed wishes ; according to one tradition , he requested that his heart be carried to the Holy Land , along with an army to fight the infidels . A more dubious story tells of how he wished for his bones to be carried along on future expeditions against the Scots . Another account of his deathbed scene is more credible ; according to one chronicle , Edward gathered around him the earls of Lincoln and Warwick , Aymer de Valence , and Robert Clifford , and charged them with looking after his son Edward . In particular they should make sure that Piers Gaveston was not allowed to return to the country . This wish , however , the son ignored , and had his favourite recalled from exile almost immediately . Edward I ' s body was brought south , and after a lengthy vigil he was buried in Westminster Abbey on 27 October . The new king , Edward II , remained in the north until August , but then abandoned the campaign and headed south . He was crowned king on 25 February 1308 . Character and assessment . Physically , Edward was an imposing man ; at 6 feet 2 inches ( 1 . 88 m ) he towered over most of his contemporaries , and hence perhaps his epithet " longshanks " . Edward I by Michael Prestwich states his " Long arms gave him an advantage as a swordsman , long thighs one as a horseman . In youth , his curly hair was blond ; in maturity it darkened , and in old age it turned white . [ His features were marred by a drooping left eyelid . ] His speech , despite a lisp , was said to be persuasive . " He also 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 over the high level of taxation in 1295 , fell down and died once he was in the king ' s presence . When Edward of Caernarfon demanded an earldom for his favourite Gaveston , the king erupted in anger and supposedly tore out handfuls of his son ' s hair . Some of his contemporaries considered Edward frightening , particularly in his early days . The " Song of Lewes " in 1264 described him as a leopard , an animal regarded as particularly powerful and unpredictable . Despite these frightening character traits , however , Edward ' s contemporaries considered him an able , even an ideal , king . Though not loved by his subjects , he was feared and respected . He met contemporary expectations of kingship in his role as an able , determined soldier and in his embodiment of shared chivalric ideals . In religious observance he also fulfilled the expectations of his age : he attended chapel regularly and gave alms generously . Modern historians have been more divided in their view of Edward I . Bishop William Stubbs , working in the whig tradition of historical writing , praised Edward as a king deliberately working towards the goal of a constitutional government . " . . . the self - regulating action of the body politic " , according to Stubbs " was very much the work of Edward . " Stubbs ' student T . F . Tout departed from this view . In Tout ' s opinion , " Even the parliamentary system grew up in obedience to the royal will . It was no yielding to a people crying for liberty , but the shrewd device of an autocrat , anxious to use the mass of the people as a check upon his hereditary foes among the greater baronage . " F . M . Powicke offered a more positive perspective in his extensive work on Edward I in " King Henry III and the Lord Edward " ( 1947 ) and " The Thirteenth Century " ( 1953 ) . K . B . McFarlane , on the other hand , criticised Edward ' s restrictive policy towards his earls , and concluded that " . . . he belonged less to the future than to the past . " In 1988 , Michael Prestwich released what has been called " . . . the first scholarly study devoted exclusively to the political career of Edward I . " Prestwich ' s work , which is considered authoritative , tries to assess Edward by the standards of his own age , and concludes that his reign was a great one . His contributions to the development of the law , parliament and a functioning system of taxation , as well as his military exploits , stand out in particular . At the same time , he left a legacy of financial difficulties , political distrust and an unresolved situation in Scotland . The roots of the disasters of the reign of Edward II can be found in the reign of Edward I . Other contemporary writers have been more willing to criticise Edward for his failings , particularly his severe treatment of the Jews . There is also a great difference between English and Scottish historiography on King Edward . G . W . S . Barrow , in his biography on Robert the Bruce , accused Edward of ruthlessly exploiting the leaderless state of Scotland to obtain a feudal superiority over the kingdom . This view of Edward is reflected in the popular perception of the king , as can be seen in the 1995 movie " Braveheart " ' s portrayal of the king as a hard - hearted tyrant . Name and epithets . Edward , being an Anglo - Saxon name , was not a common name among the aristocracy of England after the Norman Conquest . Henry III was devoted to the veneration of Edward the Confessor , and for this reason decided to name his firstborn son after the saint . Other Anglo - Saxon kings had included Edward the Elder and Edward the Martyr , and numerals were still not commonly used in Edward ' s time ; as the first post - Conquest king to carry that name , he was referred to simply as " King Edward " , " King Edward , son of King Henry " , or " King Edward , the first by that name after the Conquest " . It was only after the succession of first his son and then his grandsonboth of whom bore the same namethat " Edward I " came into common usage . The epithet under which Edward I is best known is probably " Longshanks " meaning " long legs " or " long shins " in reference to his tall stature . On 2 May 1774 , the Society of Antiquaries opened Edward ' s tomb in Westminster Abbey . They reported that his body had been well preserved over the preceding 467 years , and measured the king ' s body to be 6 feet 2 inches ( 188 cm ) . At this length , he would tower over most of his common contemporaries . Another epithet applied to Edward I is " Hammer of the Scots " . This comes from the Latin inscription on his tomb , which reads " Edwardus Primus Scottorum Malleus hic est , 1308 . Pactum Serva " ( " Here is Edward I , Hammer of the Scots , 1308 . Keep the Vow " ) . This inscription , however , referring to his incessant campaigns against the Scots in the later years of his reign , is from a later date , probably the sixteenth century . The seventeenth - century lawyer Edward Coke called Edward the " English Justinian " . This was a way of highlighting the king ' s legislative accomplishments , by comparing him to the renowned Byzantine law - maker Justinian I . Unlike Justinian , Edward did not codify the law , but as William Stubbs pointed out , " if it be meant to denote the importance and permanence of his legislation and the dignity of his position in legal history " , the comparison is still a valid one . Issue . Eleanor of Castile died on 28 November 1290 . Uncommon for such marriages of the period , the couple loved each other . Moreover , like his father , Edward was very devoted to his wife and was faithful to her throughout their married lives — a rarity among monarchs of the time . He was deeply affected by her death . He displayed his grief by erecting twelve so - called Eleanor cross es , one at each place where her funeral cortège stopped for the night . As part of the peace accord between England and France in 1294 , it was agreed that Edward should marry Philip IV ' s half - sister Margaret . The marriage took place in 1299 . Edward and Eleanor had at least fourteen children , perhaps as many as sixteen . Of these , five daughters survived into adulthood , but only one boy outlived Edward : the future King Edward II . 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 . By Margaret , Edward had two sons , both of whom lived into adulthood , and a daughter who died as a child . The Hailes Abbey chronicle indicates that John Botetourt may have been Edward ' s illegitimate son , however the claim is unsubstantiated .