English Kings 1066-1307

William the Conqueror was the illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy, and Herleva, daughter of a wealthy Falasian; many contemporary writers referred to him as "William the Bastard". Robert died in 1035 while travelling through Asia Minor, and the young William was named Duke of Normandy. He married Mathilda, daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders, who bore him at least nine children, four of which were boys. Edward the Confessor, in an effort to gain Norman support while fighting with his father-in-law, Earl Godwin, had promised the throne to William the Confessor in 1051. By 1066, however, Edward had reconciled with Godwin, and on his deathbed named the Earl's son Harold as successor to the crown. William felt cheated and immediately prepared to invade, insisting that Harold had sworn allegiance to his accession in 1064. He was prepared for battle in August of 1066, but the winds were against him throughout August and most of September, prohibiting he and his troops from crossing the English Channel. This turned out to be an advantage, however, as Harold Hardrada, the King of Norway, invaded England and met Harold Godwinson's forces at Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066. Godwinson emerged victorious, but two days after the battle, William was able to land unopposed at Pevensey and spent the next two weeks pillaging the area and strengthening his position on the beachhead. The victorious Harold, in an attempt to solidify his kingship, took the fight to William and the Norman's on October 14, 1066 at Hastings. Harold and his brothers died fighting in the Hastings battle, removing any further organised resistance to the Norman's. The earls and bishops of the Witan hesitated in supporting William, but soon submitted and crowned him William I on Christmas Day 1066.

The kingdom was immediately besieged by minor uprisings, each one individually crushed by the Norman's, until the whole of England was conquered and united in 1071. William punished rebels by confiscating their land and giving it to Norman's. The Domesday Book was commissioned in 1085 as a survey of land ownership to assess property and establish a tax base; within the regions covered by the Domesday survey, only two native English landowners still held their land. All landowners were summoned to pay homage to William in 1086. William imported an Italian, Lanfranc, to take the position of Archbishop of Canterbury; Lanfranc reorganised the English Church, establishing separate Church courts to deal with infractions of Canon law.

William was a feudal vassal of the king of France (a situation destined to cause great consternation between England and France), and constantly found himself at odds with King Philip. In a siege on the town of Mantes in 1087 he was injured, and he died from complications of the wound on September 9. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gave a favourable review of William's twenty-one year reign, but added, "His anxiety for money is the only thing on which he can deservedly be blamed; ...he would say and do some things and indeed almost anything ... where the hope of money allured him." He was certainly cruel by modern standards, and exacted a high toll from his subjects, but he laid the foundation for the building of English history.

William II was the third son of William the Conqueror and Mathilda, born c. 1057,and earned the nickname Rufus either because of his red hair or his propensity for anger. William Rufus never married and had no offspring. His eldest brother Robert was bequeathed the family duchy of Normandy, while William Rufus was given England. The contention between the two brothers may have had quite an influence on the poor light in which William Rufus was historically portrayed.

Many of the barons in service to the Norman's owned property on both sides of the English Channel, and found themselves in the midst of a rebellion. They risked offending either of the brothers by declaring for the other, but William Rufus' cruelty and avarice led most of them to side with Robert. Robert, however, failed to make an appearance in England, and William Rufus quelled the rebellion, and turned his sights to Normandy in 1089. He bribed the Norman barons for support, eroding his brother's power base. In 1096, Robert sold Normandy to William Rufus for 10,000 marks and went off on the first Crusade.

William Rufus had no respect for the clergy, and they any for him. He bolstered the royal revenue by leaving sees open and diverting the money into his coffers. He treated the Church as nothing more than a rich corporation deserving of heavy taxing, at a time when the Church was gaining in influence through the Gregorian reforms of the eleventh century. The ingenious aid of a sharp-witted clerk, Ranulf Flambard, greatly assisted William Rufus in profiting from clerical vacancies. The failed appointment and persecution of Anselm, Abbot of Bec, as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 (Lanfranc died in 1089) added fuel to the historical denigration of William II; most contemporary writings were done by monks, who cared little for the crass, blasphemous king.

On August 2, 1100, at the height of his success, William Rufus was killed while hunting in the New Forest, struck in the eye by an arrow. It is still debatable whether the arrow was a stray shot or premeditated murder. 1066 and All That remembered William II in a unique manner: "William Rufus was always very angry and red in the face and was therefore unpopular, so that his death was a Good Thing." It is a shame that more is not known of William II - the monastic chroniclers of his thirteen year reign quickly point out the way he plundered the Church, but fail to recognise his success as a diplomat and soldier.

Henry I was the fourth and most capable son of William the Conqueror and Matilda, born 1068, and nicknamed "Beauclerc" (fine scholar) for his above average education. He married Eadgyth (who later took the name Matilda), daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland, who bore him two sons and a daughter. One son died very early, and the other, William, died in the wreck of the White Ship in November 1120, leaving the daughter, Matilda, as the sole heir. Eadgyth died in 1118, and Henry married Adelaide of Louvain, but the union produced no offspring. Henry also had two fairly significant illegitimate children - Robert de Mellent, Earl of Gloucester, and Sibylla, wife of the Scottish King Alexander I. Henry's was the longest reign of the Norman line, lasting thirty-five years.

The first years of Henry's reign were concerned with subduing Normandy. His father divided his kingdoms between Henry's older brothers, leaving England to William and Normandy to Robert. Henry inherited no land, but received £5000 in silver. He played both sides in his brothers' quarrel, leading both to distrust Henry, and sign a mutual accession treaty barring their brother from the crown. Henry's hope arose when Robert went on the First Crusade; should William die, Henry would be the obvious choice. Henry was in the woods hunting on the morning of William's death, August 2, 1100. He moved quickly and was crowned king on August 5, his coronation charter denouncing William's oppressive policies and promising good government. Robert returned to Normandy a few weeks later, but escaped final defeat until 1106, at the Battle of Tinchebrai. Robert was captured and lived the remaining twenty-eight years of his life as Henry's prisoner.

Henry was drawn into controversy with the Church over the lay investiture issue - the practice of selling clergy appoints by the king to gain revenue, heavily opposed by Gregorian reformers in the Church. He ignored the situation until he was threatened with excommunication by Pope Paschal II in 1105, reaching a compromise with the papacy: he would officially denounce lay investiture, but prelates were to continue to do homage for their fiefs. In practice, it changed little - the king still had the deciding voice in appointing ecclesiastical offices - but it a marked a point when kingship was viewed as purely secular, and subservient to the Church.

A solution to the lay investiture controversy and conquest of Normandy were accomplished in 1106, allowing Henry to expand his power. Henry mixed generosity with violence in motivating allegiance to the crown, appointing loyal and gifted men to administrative positions. Roger of Salisbury, the most famous of Henry's servants, was instrumental in organising a department for collection of royal revenues, the Exchequer. The Exchequer quickly gained notoriety for sending out court officials to judge local financial disputes, weakening the feudal courts controlled by local lords, and won the title "Lion of Justice".

The final years of his reign were concentrated on war with France and succession concerns upon the death of his son William in 1120. The marriage to Adelaide was fruitless, leaving Matilda his only surviving legitimate heir. She was recalled to Henry's court in 1125 after the death of her husband, Emperor Henry V of Germany; Henry forced the barons to swear they would accept Matilda as Queen upon Henry's death. She was then forced to marry the sixteen-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou (founder of the Plantagent dynasty) in 1128 to continue the Angevin alliance. The marriage was unpopular with the Norman barons, but Matilda and Geoffrey produced a male heir, prompting Henry to force another oath from the barons in support of Matilda. In summer 1135, Henry refused to give custody of certain key Norman castles to Geoffrey, as a show of good will, and the pair entered into war. Henry's life ended in this sorry state of affairs - war with his son-in-law - in December 1135.

Stephen was the grandson of William the Conqueror , through his daughter Adela and Stephen, Count of Blois. Born circa 1096, he was about half-dozen years older than his cousin and rival for the throne, Matilda, daughter of Henry I. Stephen married Matilda of Boulogne, who bore him five children, only three of whom survived infancy: Eustace, Mary, and William. Stephen's father died in the Holy land in 1102, and he was raised by his uncle Henry I. Henry was genuinely found of Stephen, and granted his nephew estates on both sides of the English Channel. Stephen, by 1130, was the richest man in England and Normandy.

Stephen's reign was beset by problems from the beginning. Stephen had promised to recognise his cousin as lawful heir, but Matilda was in Anjou at the time of Henry's death. Stephen, in a rare exhibition of resolve, crossed the Channel and took control in England, being crowned on December 22, 1135. The first few years were calm, but the Welsh and Scots attacked in 1138, followed by invasions of Matilda, her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou , and her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Civil war ensued until close to the end of the reign, as the rivalry divided loyalties. Stephen captured and released Matilda; Matilda later captured Stephen and traded him for Robert of Gloucester, had also had been captured. The succession problem went beyond the hostilities of the two cousins: Stephen wanted his son Eustace to be named heir, and Matilda wanted her son Henry fitz Empress to succeed to the crown. It became academic in 1153, when Eustace died and the two sides reached a compromise - Stephen would rule unopposed until his death, as the throne would pass to Henry of Anjou, crowned Henry II in 1154.

Henry's death came soon, just a year later in 1154. 1066 and All That offered a humorous but accurate account of the civil war: "...Stephen and Matilda (or Maud) spent the reign escaping from each other over the snow in night-gowns..." Anglo-Saxon Chronicle addressed both the virtues of the man, and the nature of the era: "In the days of this King there was nothing but strife, evil, and robbery, for quickly the great men who were traitors rose against him. When the traitors saw that Stephen was a good-humoured, kindly, and easy-going man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes ... And so it lasted for nineteen years while Stephen was King, till the land was all undone and darkened with such deeds, and men said openly that Christ and his angels slept."

Henry II was born in 1183, the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet , Count of Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of Henry I . He grew up in Anjou, but visited England as early as 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne of Stephen ; educated by famous scholars, he had a true love of reading and intellectual discussion. Geoffrey of Anjou died in September 1151, leaving Normandy and Anjou to Henry. Henry's continental possessions more than doubled with his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane, ex-wife of King Louis VII of France. After a succession agreement between Stephen and Matilda in 1153, he was crowned Henry II in October 1154. Eleanor bore Henry five sons and three daughters between 1153 and 1167; the relationship between Henry, Eleanor, and their sons Henry, Richard, and John proved to be tumultuous and treacherous. The empire ruled by Henry and his sons was considerably larger than the lone English island - the French Angevin positions extended from Normandy southward to the Pyrenees, covering the counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, and Gascony, as well as Anjou, Aquitane, and Normandy. Henry was extremely energetic, and travelled quickly and extensively within the borders of his kingdom.

Henry revitalised the English Exchequer, issuing receipts for tax payments and keeping written accounts on rolled parchment. He replaced incompetent sheriffs, expanding the authority of royal courts, which brought more funds into his coffers. A body of common law emerged to replace feudal and county courts, which varied from place to place. Jury trials were initiated to end the old Germanic customary trials by ordeal or battle. Henry's systematic approach to law provided a common basis for development of royal institutions throughout the entire realm.

The process of strengthening the royal courts, however, yielded an unexpected controversy. Church courts, instituted by William the Conqueror , became a safe haven for criminals of varying degree and ability, for one in fifty of the English population qualified as clerics. Henry wished to transfer such cases to the royal courts, as the only punishment open to the Church courts was demotion of the cleric. Thomas Beckett, Henry's close friend and chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162. In an attempt to discredit claims that he was too closely tied to the king, he vehemently opposed the weakening of Church courts. Henry drove Beckett into exile from 1164-1170, when the Archbishop returned to England and greatly angered Henry over opposition to the coronation of Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry publicly announced a half-hearted desire to be rid off Beckett - four ambitious knights took the king at his word and murdered Beckett in his own cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry is perhaps best remembered for Beckett's murder, but, in fact, the realm was better off without the contentious Archbishop. Henry endured a rather limited storm of protest over the incident, but the real threat to his power came from within his own family.

Henry's sons - Henry the Young King, Richard, Geoffrey, and John - were never satisfied with any of their father's plans for dividing his lands and titles upon his death. The sons, at the encouragement (and sometimes because of the treatment) of their mother, rebelled against the king several times. Prince Henry, the only man ever to be crowned while his father still lived, wanted more than a royal title. Thus from 1193 to the end of his reign henry was plagued by his rebellious sons, who always found a willing partner in Louis VII of France. The death of Henry the Young King in 1183, and that of Geoffrey in 1186, gave no respite from his children's rebellion - Richard, with the assistance of Louis VII, attacked and defeated Henry, forcing him to accept a humiliating peace on July 4, 1189.

Henry II died two days later, on July 6, 1189. A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a unique light on Henry , Eleanor, and their sons. From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675 : "Henry II Plantagenet, the very first of that name and race, and the very greatest King that England ever knew, but withal the most unfortunate ... his death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life, his ungracious sons..."

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England : Concerning endowments of mind, he was of a spirit in the highest degree generous ... His custom was to be always in action; for which cause, if he had no real wars, he would have feigned ... To his children he was both indulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused his son henry to be crowned King in his own time; and out of hardness he caused his younger sons to rebel against him ... He married Eleanor, daughter of William Duke of Guienne, late wife of Lewis the Seventh of France. Some say King Lewis carried her into the Holy Land, where she carried herself not very holily, but led a licentious life; and, which is the worst kind of licentiousness, in carnal familiarity with a Turk."

Richard I, the Lion-hearted, the third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitane, was born in 1157, and spent much of his youth in his mother's court at Poitiers. He was betrothed to Philip II's daughter, Alice, but the match never came to fruition; his mother brought him an alternative bride, Berengaria of Navarre, who bore him no children (Richard did have a son, Philip, but he was illegitimate and therefore ineligible for succession). Richard cared much more for the continental possessions of his mother than for England - he also cared much more for his mother than for his father. Family considerations influenced much of his life: he fought along side of his brothers Prince Henry and Geoffrey in their rebellion of 1173-4; he fought for his father against his brothers when they supported an 1183 revolt in Aquitane; he joined Philip II of France against his father in 1188, defeating Henry in 1189.

Richard spent but six months of his ten-year reign in England. He acted upon a promise of his father to join the Third Crusade; he set off for the Holy Land in 1190 with his partner-rival Philip II. He conquered Cyprus en route, in 1191, and performed admirably against Saladin, nearly taking Jerusalem twice. Philip II, in the meantime, returned to France and plotted with Richard's brother John . The Crusader failed in its primary objective, liberating the Holy Land from Moslem Turks, but did have a positive result - easier access to the region for Christian pilgrims through a truce with Saladin. Richard received word of John's treachery, and decided to return home; he was captured by Leopold V of Austria and imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. The administrative developments of Henry II insured the continuance of royal authority, for Richard was unable to return to his realm until 1194. Richard, upon his return, crushed a coup attempt by John, and regained lands lost to Philip II during the German captivity. Richard's war with Philip continued sporadically until the French were finally defeated near Gisors in 1198.

Richard died April 6, 1199, from a wound received in a skirmish at the castle of Chalus in the Limousin. Near his death, Richard finally reconciled his position with his late father, as evidenced by Sir Richard Baker in A Chronicle of the Kings of England : "The remorse for his undutifulness towards his father, was living in him till he died; for at his death he remembered it with bewailing, and desired to be buried as near him as might be, perhaps as thinking they should meet the sooner, that he might ask him forgiveness in another world." Richard's prowess and courage in battle earned him the nickname Coeur De Lion ("heart of the lion"), but his youthful training in his mother's court, known for emphasis on chivalry and courtly love, turns up in a verse written during the captivity:

No one will tell me the cause of my sorrow

Why they have made me a prisoner here.

Wherefore with dolour I now make my moan;

Friends had I many but help have I none.

Shameful it is that they leave me to ransom,

To languish here two winters long.

John was born on Christmas Eve 1167, the youngest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitane. His parents drifted apart after his birth, and his youth was divided between his eldest brother's house where he learned the art of knighthood, and the house of his father's justiciar, Ranulf Glanvil, where he learned the business of government. As the fourth child, inherited lands were not available to him, giving rise to his nickname, Lackland. His first marriage, to Isabel of Gloucester, lasted but ten years and was fruitless; Isabella of Angouleme, his second wife, bore him two sons ( Henry and Richard) and three daughters (Joan, Isabella, and Eleanor). He also had an illegitimate daughter, also named Joan, who married Llywelyn the Great, Ruler of All Wales , from which the Tudor line of monarchs was descended.

The Angevin family feuds left quite a mark on John - he proved his betrayal to both his father and his brother Richard. He and Richard clashed in 1184 when the elder refused to turn Aquitane over to the younger brother, as dictated by Henry II. The following year Henry sent John to rule Ireland, but John alienated the native Irish and the transplanted Anglo-Norman's who emigrated to carve out new lordships for themselves; the experiment was a total failure, and John returned home within six months. Richard, after acceding to the throne in 1189, gave John vast estates to appease his younger brother, but to no avail. He tried to overthrow Richard's administrators during the German captivity, but failed. He conspired with Philip II in another attempt, which again failed. Upon Richard's release in 1194, John was forced to sue for pardon, and spent the next five years in his brother's shadow, staying out of trouble long enough to be named heir to the crown.

John's reign was full of trouble. A quarrel with the Church resulted in England being placed under an interdict in 1207, with John excommunicated two years later. The dispute, centered around John's refusal to install the papal candidate, Stephen Langdon, as Archbishop of Canterbury, and was not resolved until John surrendered to the wishes of Innocent III, one of the greatest medieval popes.

A succession dispute with his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, ultimately resulted in the loss of French territories, as the king's French vassals preferred Arthur. By Spring 1205, John had crossed the Channel back into England as the last of his French possessions fell out of his hands. From 1206 to the end of his reign, John was preoccupied with regaining these territories, levying a number of new taxes upon the landed barons to pay for his campaigns. This would have been satisfactory had John been winning battles, but he was continually trounced by the French. The discontented rebel barons revolted, capturing London in May 1215. In June, at Runnymeade, John met with the barons and signed the Magna Carta, a feudal rights document stressing three points: 1) the Church was free to make its own appointments, 2) no more than the normal amounts of money could be collected to run the government, unless the king's feudal tenants gave their consent, and 3) no freeman was to be punished except in concert with the common law. This document proved to be the forerunner of modern constitutions. John signed the document as a means of buying time, and failed to keep his word. The nobility called for French assistance, and John died in the midst of an invasion. John was remembered in elegant fashion by Sir Richard Baker in A Chronicle of the Kings of England : "...his works of piety were very many ... as far his actions, he neither came to the crown by justice, nor held it with any honour, nor left it peace." John's treacherous nature was the cause of the greatest loss of English continental territory until Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).

Henry became king under a regency; William Marshal, the 1st earl of Pembroke, and later Pandulf acted as the chief of government, while Peter des Roches was the king’s guardian. At the time of Henry’s accession to the throne, England was torn by civil war and partially occupied by the French prince Louis (later King Louis VIII). In 1217, however, the French were defeated and withdrew. Some of the English barons, Louis’s former allies, continued to cause trouble; but Hubert de Burgh, chief justiciar and the greatest power in the government after 1221, gradually restored order. In 1227 Henry fully became king and in 1230 against the advice of the justciar he led his first major expedition as king into Gascony and Brittany. It was a major failure and in 1232 the king dismissed Hubert de Burgh and handed over control of the administration to Peter des Roches. The administration was heavily staffed with Poitevins and uniformly hated by the barons. In 1233 matters came to ahead and the barons revolted forcing Henry to dismiss the administration.

At this point Henry took direct control of the government and despite many protests from the barons he continued to heavily staff it with his French favourites. Well placed among these were relatives of Eleanor of Provence (who became his wife in 1236) and his own Poitevin half brothers. His brothers persuaded him in 1242 to attempt to expel Louis IX of France from the Poitou, it was another disastrous campaign for the king.

In 1238 had again to placate the barons after the secret marriage of his sister, Eleanor, to Simon de Montford, earl of Leicester. Later the king sent Montford to Gascony to restore English authority, however he recalled him in 1252 to answer charges of unjust administration and alienated him from his cause. This alienation was to cost Henry dearly when in 1254 he was offered the kingdom of Sicily by the papacy for his son Edmund on condition that he finance the conquest of the island from the Hohenstaufen dynasty. The kings willingness to so easily take orders from the papacy did not sit well with the barons, also that he'd not consulted them before accepting the papacy's offer infuriated many of them so they refused to und the war. Under the threat of excommunication by the pope Henry was forced to agree terms with the barons and their new dynamic leader, Simon de Montford. Thus the king was forced to accept the barons plan for concilur government as set out on the Provisions of Oxford and later supplemented by the Provisions of Westminster.

Henry spent the next two years biding his time and letting divisions in the barons party get deeper and more bitter. Eventually in 1261 the barons had lost most of their unity and he was able to repudiate the provisions with sanction from the papacy. Finally in 1263 the festering tensions between the barons and the king finally erupted into open warfare. An attempt to have Louis IX of France arbitrate the dispute lead to the Mise of Amiens, but Louis had ignored the barons case and ruled totally in the kings favour. Events now escalated and the kings army met the barons army at Lewis (1264) where the barons defeated the kings army. A short period of peace ensued when Simon de Montford summoned his representative parliament, however in 1265 at the battle of Evesham Prince Edward (later to be Edward I) led the royal troops to a decisive victory over the barons army where Simon de Montford was killed. By 1267 the barons had capitulated and from this timer on Prince Edward actually ruled the realm and Henry was king in name only.

Born in June 1239 at Westminster, Edward I, nicknamed "Longshanks" due to his great height and stature, was perhaps the most successful of the Angevin monarchs. His early youth was spent learning the harsh lessons of his fathers failures as king, watching him being forced to agree to the provisions of Oxford in 1258 and the catastrophic defeat of the royal army at the battle of Lewis. Despite being captured the young Prince Edward managed to escape in early 1265 and then rallied the royal army on the Welsh Marches and at Evesham utterly crushed Montfort's army, the battle swiftly becoming a massacre. The aftermath of the Barons revolt dragged on another two years until Henry III finally managed to pacify the realm.

In 1270 Parliament agreed a tax of one-twentieth of every citizens goods to finance Edward going on Crusade and in August he left for the holy land with 1000 knights headed fro Acre. On route Louis IX, the king of France died and his army were bought off from continuing the crusade, so in may 1271 Edward found himself in Acre, but without enough men to achieve any substantial victory, besides the capture of Acre. In June Edward survived an assassination attempt and shortly after that left for Sicily and back to England. While on route back he was told that his father had died and and that he had succeeded to the throne by hereditary right and that all of the barons had sworn allegiance to him.

Edwards first major undertaking after becoming king was to expand the administration by the crown into four principle areas: the Chancery, the Exchequer, the Household, and the Council. The Chancery researched and created legal documents while the Exchequer received and issued money, scrutinized the accounts of local officials, and kept financial records. These two departments operated within the king's authority but independently from his personal rule, prompting Edward to follow the practice of earlier kings in developing the Household, a mobile court of clerks and advisers that travelled with the king. The King's Council was the most vital segment of the four. It consisted of his principal ministers, trusted judges and clerks, a select group of magnates, and also followed the king. The Council dealt with matters of great importance to the realm and acted as a court for cases of national importance. This enhanced and invigorated administration enabled Edward to tax his subjects more efficiently than ever before and shortly great sums of money were flowing into his treasury. At the same time Edward refined the common law to restrict the expansion of large private holdings and reinforced the principle that they were subordinate to the crown. Also that Royal jurisdiction and the crown was the ultimate authority in all things.

Wales:
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Wales had been acknowledged prince of Wales by Henry III in 1267. He provoked Edward repeatedly;. initially he refusing to attend Edward's coronation, in 1274, further he declining a summons to do homage as he was bound to do and then finally he reneged on a large debt to the crown. Edward was furious and his response was overwhelming and swift. He raised the largest ever English field army with over 15,000 infantry including some 9,000 Welsh and Gascon troops and large bodies of knights and Welsh longbow men. The army was formed in three great bodies, one at Chester, one at Shrewsbury (the great muster point for the Marcher Lords) and the last army was mustered at Hereford. After a swift march into Wales Llywelyn and his forces we quickly driven back and isolated in the mountainous region of Snowdon and by early November starvation compelled them to surrender. Llywelyn was forced to sign a treaty on the 9th of November effectively stripping him of his lands and rights, those passed to the crown. He was left with a principality consisting of Anglesey and Snowdon that was allowed to him on lease from the English crown.

With the rest of Wales now administered by English agents, corruption and brutality crept in as the Agents aggressively forced home the crown's rights for taxation and their own personal interests. By 1282 this repression was so great that a widespread uprising took place and Llywelyn quickly took its head. Edward again mustered his army and invaded Wales and Llywelyn was killed. The revolt quickly collapsed under the English onslaught and without a leader and Edward quickly regained control of the entirety of Wales. By the statute issued at Rhuddlan in 1284 the principality of Wales was transformed into counties, on the English principle, to be governed by officials on behalf of the crown. In 1301 Edward added the final symbolic touch to the conquest of Wales, he revived the title of 'prince of Wales', bestowing it on his heir, the future Edward II. A further uprising in 1294-5 was again ruthlessly crushed by Edward's armies and now he embarked on one of the greatest castle building programs seen since the Anarchy of King Stephens reign. The enormous sum of £80,000 was set aside for the construction of new, key castles, each planned to be so massive and so daunting that the Welsh would be too overawed to rise again against the crown. Harlech (1283-9) in the south, to Caernarfon (1283-92) and Beaumaris (1295-8) on either side of the Menai Strait, and on to Conwy (1283-8) in the north. Effectively these great castles sealed the fate of Wales and gave Edward the administrative centres he needed to control the principality.

His reign saw Parliament move towards its modern form with the Model Parliament of 1295. When money was needed to wage war against Philip of France (who had confiscated the duchy of Gascony), Edward summoned the most comprehensive assembly ever summoned in England. This representing various estates: barons, clergy, knights and townspeople. (The assembly in Westminster Hall represented the country in a very real sense. The magnates were present in force (the two archbishops as well as all the bishops, 67 abbots, 8 earls and 41 barons) they sat with the elected representatives of the parish clergy (2 from each diocese) and from each shire 2 knights, and from each city 2 citizens and from each borough 2 burgesses. Edward's main aim was to create a uniform administration of justice, to raise sufficient funds for his wars in and to complete codification of the legal system. In achieving this he established the rights of the crown over the traditional privileges of the barons and delivered in to existence a series of key legislative items that carry forward in principle to modern day.

Edward commissioned a survey of local government 1274-5, such a survey had not been seen since the Domesday survey, which defined royal rights and possessions, but also uncovered many administrative abuses and debts owing to the king from his absence 1272-4. The results of these surveys were entered into documents that were known as the Hundred Rolls, so called because hundreds are the subdivisions of counties and the results were recorded on vellum rolls.
The First Statute of Westminster I 1275 codified 51 existing laws - many originating from Magna Carta - covering areas ranging from extortion by royal officers, lawyers and bailiffs, methods of procedure in civil and criminal cases to freedom of elections. It also provided for the distant fining of defaulters in cases in sheriff courts; increasingly severe penalties for corrupt royal officers and statutory penalties for rape, poaching and trespass.
The Statutes of Gloucester 1278 and Quo Warranto 1290 attempted to define and regulate feudal jurisdictions, which were an obstacle to royal authority and to a uniform system of justice for all.
1279, Inquiries to ascertain by what legal title the king's subjects enjoyed privileges and franchises. Edward was concerned that the magnates were usurping the crown's rights and thus reducing its income.
Statute of Mortmain, 1279 which forbade the granting of land by laymen to the church. Once land was granted to the church the crown lost most of its feudal rights to the land and taxes from it. It was common for people to give their land to the church on their death to evade death duties, something that initially cost the crown dearly until it was blocked by the statute. People could still give land and property to the church upon their death, but now the correct licence had to be bought from the crown beforehand.
'Kirkby Quest' of 1285 Named after John Kirkby - questions put to local juries about unpaid debts owing to the crown.
The Statute of Winchester 1285 codified the policing system for preserving public order.
The Second Statute of Westminster 1285 restricted the alienation of land and kept entailed estates within families: tenants were only tenants for life and not able to sell the property to others.
The Third Statute of Westminster or Quo Warranto (meaning 'by which warrant') 1290 stopped subinfeudation (in which tenants of land belonging to the King or to barons subcontracted their properties and related feudal services) this enabled tenants to seek a writ to prove that they have a warrant for their franchisal rights.
Between 1279-81 Edward had the currency recalled and re-minted. With £500,000 of coinage minted and reissued Edward managed to make an £18,000 profit from identifying unknown holdings that had not been taxed.
Ordinance regarding Judicial Circuits - 1293. Edward commanded that, as far as the crown can provide it, speedy justice shall be rendered to everyone in the kingdom. This was to stop the old practise of bringing charges against someone and then deliberately drag out the process of coming to trial while the man held in a legal limbo in prison.

Scotland:
Shortly after Edward completed his suppression of the Welsh trouble flared up on his Scottish border. After a long period of peace, which at one point had seen Edward act as arbitrator between the various claimants to the Scottish throne and his choice of John de Balliol being made King, his treatment of the Scottish King and nobles caused unrest in the North. Scottish resentment of Edward finally culminated in their signing a treaty with France in 1295 against England. Edward was infuriated by this treachery and in 1296 he launched his campaign against Scotland. Edwards campaign, from its outset, was brutal and shocking. Most of the male population of Berwick were massacred and some seventeen days Stirling and Edinburgh castles were under English control. John de Balliol and his court were taken as prisoners and sent to the Tower of London. The sacred Scottish coronation seat, the Stone of Scone, travelled south at the same time to a new home in Westminster Abbey and the royal throne.

Within a year a new leader had arisen in Scotland and a war of independence was launched by William Wallace in 1297. Outside Stirling on September 11th 1297 Wallace confronted by an English army lead by the Earl of Surrey. The Earl totally underestimated Wallace and the Scottish army - he'd sent a sizable portion of his army back because of the complaints by the Treasurer about the cost of the army and he significantly delayed the start of the confrontation outside Stirling by over sleeping. Rather then march his army two miles upstream to a wide and shallow ford he ordered it advance across a narrow bridge to confront Wallace's army. When nearly half the English army are across the bridge Wallace's army slammed into the English army and most of the English army on the northern side of the bridge were massacred, or drowned in the river in their flight. As a result of the victory Wallace was knighted and was able to rule Scotland on behalf of Balliol who was still imprisoned in the Tower.

Edward moved north in person in 1298 to confront Wallace and bring the situation under control and confronted Wallace at Falkirk. Wallace formed his bodies of spearmen into tight blocks called "schiltron" and initially these managed to hold off the English knights. The Scottish knights were soon driven off by the much larger number of English knights, which left the schiltrons on their own. It was now that Edward showed that he'd learned the lesson from Stirling and as the schiltron's were unable to manoeuvre because of his mounted knights presence. He advanced his Welsh/English longbow men who then showered volley after volley of arrows into the tightly packed schiltrons inflicting huge numbers of fatalities on the units of spearman. Huge gaps were soon torn into the units by the massed archery fire and then Edward ordered his knights in to crush the Scottish Army. Wallace and the Scottish Nobles fled and the army disintegrated under the English onslaught and routed, the slaughter was terrible.

Wallace carried on a guerrilla campaign against the English until his eventual betrayal by the Scottish Nobility and his execution at Smithfields in London in 1305 as a trator to the crown. Peace did not ensue, and in 1306 Scotland Declared Robert de Bruce King, John de Balliol was now living privately in Normandy (after renouncing his throne). The Bruce's rise to kingship was not without the spilling of Scottish blood. John Comyn, a member of another great Norman family and the nephew of John de Balliol, had a better claim to the Scottish throne. On 10 February 1306 the two men and several of their followers met in the Franciscan church in Dumfries. A quarrel broke out and Bruce and his men murdered John Comyn. Bruce swiftly moved to secure his position and on March 25 he was crowned at Scone, still the sacred site for the occasion - even though it lacked the ancient Stone of Scone, linked with Scottish kingship.

During the next few months the new Scottish king's fortunes could not have sunk lower. Defeated twice in battle, in June and August, he fled for the safety to the island of Rathlin off the northern Irish coast. In his absence three of his brothers are captured by the English and are executed. In February 1307 Bruce returned to Scotland as he was in danger of losing his crown to other Scottish claimants and started to rally his nobles and soldiers. Edward's last campaign was another expedition north to destroy Bruce and his army, but he never reached Scotland. He died of illness, probably dysentery, just short of the border near Carlisle, in July 1307.

His desire to subdue Scotland is reflected in the epitaph on his tomb in Westminster Abbey: Edwardus Primus Malleus Scotorum hic est, 'Here lies Edward I, Hammer of the Scots'. Edward's character found accurate evaluation by Sir Richard Baker, in A Chronicle of the Kings of England: He had in him the two wisdoms, not often found in any, single; both together, seldom or never: an ability of judgement in himself, and a readiness to hear the judgement of others. He was not easily provoked into passion, but once in passion, not easily appeased, as was seen by his dealing with the Scots; towards whom he showed at first patience, and at last severity. If he be censured for his many taxations, he may be justified by his well bestowing them; for never prince laid out his money to more honour of himself, or good of his kingdom."