Edward I of England

King Edward I of England is popularly known as "Longshanks" and "Hammer of the Scots", and is best known as the king who conquered Wales and kept Scotland under English domination. He lived from 1239 to 1307, acceding to the throne of England on the death of his father, King Henry III of England, in 1272.

Edward was born in June 1239 at Westminster, and married twice. His first marriage, to Eleanor of Castile, produced sixteen children, and his second, to Margaret of France, produced a further three. His character was in great contrast to that of his father, who had reigned from childhood and was always inclined to favour compromise with his opponents. Edward displayed impatience and considerable military prowess, defeating Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 and treating the rebels with great savagery. He pursued the surviving members of the de Montfort family, who were his cousins, relentlessly.

In 1275, pirates in Edward's pay intercepted a ship carrying Eleanor de Montfort, Simon's only daughter, from France, where her family had been in exile, to Wales, where she was to marry Llywelyn the Last, then ruler of the principality. The marriage had been arranged when there was still some political advantage to be obtained from an alliance with Simon de Montfort, but Llywelyn wished to proceed with it largely in order to antagonise his long-standing enemy. Edward seized Eleanor, and imprisoned her at Windsor until Llywelyn conceded his terms for peace in 1278. However, Llywelyn's younger brother, Dafydd, who had briefly been an ally of the English, started another rebellion in 1282. Llywelyn was killed shortly afterwards in a skirmish, and Edward destroyed the remnants of resistance, capturing and executing Dafydd in the following year. To consolidate his conquest, he built a network of stone castles throughout the principality, of which the best known is Caernarfon.

Edward then turned his attentions to Scotland, planning to marry off his son to the child queen, Margaret I of Scotland. When Margaret died, he was invited by the Scottish nobles to select her successor from the various claimants to the throne, and he chose John Balliol over Robert Bruce (father of Robert I of Scotland. Opposition sprang up (see Wars of Scottish Independence), and Edward mercilessly executed the focus of discontent, William Wallace, in 1305, having earlier defeated him at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. His plan to unite the two countries never came to fruition, and he died while on his way to wage another campaign against the Scots.

Edward died on July 7, 1307, in Carlisle and was buried at Westminster. He was succeeded by his son, King Edward II of England.