Edward IEnglish Justinian

Conquests and Attempted Conquests

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Edward I (1239-1307)Assessment of the Young Prince

The pard, a beast of many colors, is very swift, likes blood, and kills with a leap. The adulterous mating of the pard with a lion (leo) produces degenerate offspring, the leopard.

Isidore of Seville

Some Themes of Edward’s Reign

• Need for Money• Expulsion of the Jews• Conquest of Wales• Conquest of Scotland, uncompleted• Statute Law• Development of Parliament as an Institution

Edward IGenealogy

Anglo-Saxon roots

Alexander IIINeolus, AthensScota, daughter of Pharaoh

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Wace Roman de Brut ~1150; Layamon Brut ~1190Tracing the Britons back to Troy

Marriage

• 1254 Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290)

Glastonbury

V&A

1260 Statute of Arms -Tournaments

• And no Knight or Esquire serving at the Tournament, shall bear a sword pointed, or Dagger pointed, or Staff or Mace, but only a broad sword for tourneying.

• And they who shall come to see the tournament, shall not be armed with any manner of armor, and shall bear no sword, or dagger, or staff, or mace, or stone,

• And no King at Arms or Minstrels shall bear secret arms . . .

The Round Table

• Round Tables often foci of tournaments

• Participants in Arthurian costume

• Tree ring dating to ~1290

• Painted during reign of Henry VIII

1274 Reforms

• Replace most sheriffs• Oath to enforce debts to King

– treat rich and poor alike

• Local inquests with local juries• Wheels of justice grind slowly• 1275 Hundred Rolls

Statute Law

• 1275 Statute of Westminster– Attempt to make courts more efficient– Includes Benefit of Clergy Act; Freedom of

Election Act; Prisoners and Bail Act – Robert Burnell, Chancellor

• Move towards tradition of laws made by the King in Parliament rather than by judges in courts

Edward I in parliament 1274 (illustration from ~1524)

Edward on Crusade 1270-1274

• Tunisia– Death of St. Louis– Philip agrees to truce

• Edward to Acre– Venetians trade with

enemy; Infighting among Christians

– Mission to Tabriz - Abaqa (nephew of Kublai)

Later Crusade Diplomacy• Arghun, son of Aqaba• 1285 Mission to Pope• 1288 Missions to

Philip and Edward• 1289 Missions to

Philip and Edward– Positive responses but

no implementation

• 1290 Mission to Persia

Edward and the Jews

• 1273-74 Jews restricted to preexisting locales

• 1275 Edward’s mother enters convent; demands removal of Jews from any towns from which she derives income

• Increased taxes

1275 Statute of Jewry

• … all Jews shall dwell in the King’s own cities and boroughs

• …covenants before made shall be observed, … [but] usuries shall cease

• … each Jew … shall wear a badge on his outer garment

Edward and the Jews

• Strict enforcement of insignia• Arrests for non-payment of taxes• 280 Jews hung in London for coin-clipping

1290 Expulsion

• Changing Christian religious attitudes (Dominicans and Franciscans)

• Indications of continuing usury• Failure to change occupation• Expulsion with much confiscation of

propertyMundill, Robin R. England's Jewish Solution: Experiment and Expulsion, 1262-1290 Cambridge [England ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998

Video: Edward I, Wales, Scotland, Gascony

Edward II, ScotlandDr. Jennifer Paxton

Wales 1267

Wales: Preparations for War

• 228 knights, 294 sergeants plus men supplied by barons

• c. 2500 infantry to 15,000• 200,000 crossbow bolts• Large quantities of wheat and oats• Harvesters

Conquest of Wales

• 1st campaign: 750 cavalry, 8,000 infantry• 2nd campaign: 15,000 infantry

– 1010 diggers, 345 carpenters

• Naval force at Anglesey• Initial defeats for English• Edward ‘walks on water’

Edward’s Route: First Campaign

2nd Campaign

Occupation of Wales

• 1284 Statute of Wales – provisions for King’s lands obtained from

Llywelyn– Wales annexed to England– Wales divided into shires– English law except for some civil matters

After the Treaty of Rhuddlan

1294 Rebellion

Ring of Castles

James of St. George

Rhuddlan

Rhuddlan Plan

Caernafon Plan

Caernafon

Conwy

Bastide Town

Scotland

Man-power for Scotland

• Request– 60,000 infantry and 1,000 men-at-arms

• From Ireland– 1 earl, 8 bannerets, 26 knights, 26 light cavalry, 27

crossbowmen, 2549 foot soldiers

Weaponry

• Increased use of infantry• Use of archers - longbow• “Warwolf” largest medieval trebuchet

(catapult)• Use of incendiaries?

Model of ‘Warwolf’

Choose Your Weapons

Cross Bow (balistarii)• "cocked“ with little effort• Wait for target• Can use cover

Defensive situations

Self bow (sagitarii)• Requires considerable

strength• Mobility• Higher firing rate

Offensive situations

Longbows and longbow debate

Battles are won more by the psychological effects of weapons than by their physical impacts.

But those psychological effects are the direct results of the physical ones.

Clifford RogersLongbows from the Mary Rose

Armor (mail) piercing arrowheadsM10 is the most common in military contexts

Oliver Jessup,Archaeology data service

Obtaining Crossbows

• John until 1202 – Genoa– Mercenaries

• John after 1202– Royal workshops

• Henry III– Expansion of royal workshops– Private manufacturers in England

Obtaining Crossbows

• Edward I– Expand royal workshops, particularly at the Tower

of London– Add new workshops near centers of conflict– Install makers at Welsh castles– Imports from Gascony

Costs of War

• 1277 Welsh war £23,000• 1282-3 Welsh war £98,000• Castles in Wales £80,000• 1294-8 (Wales, Flanders, Gascony)

£750,000

Cost of the Scotland Campaigns

• 1300 campaign £40,000 to £50,000• 1303-4 campaign £75,000 to £80,000

1297 Reaffirm Magna Carta

Confirmatio Cartarum

• An additional document in repsonse to new demands

• New taxes would require the consent of the realm and be for the benefit of the realm.

• Abolish heavy tax on wool.

Ricciardi of Lucca

• Employed to collect customs on wool exports

• Borrowing for Welsh wars• Papal crusading tax• Agents for other Italian loans• Debt of Edward in 1294 £392,000

(annual clerical receipts £210,000; annual wardrobe receipts £30,000- £140,000)

Bankruptcy

• 1294 New customs duties • Riccardi fail to collect all customs due• Assets seized; bank runs in Italy; frozen

assets in France• Edward forces loans from other bankers

TradeEngland

FlandersGascony

Wool

Cloth

Wine

‘carrying wool to England’poet of Artois

Trade flowCredit flow

Domestic ViolenceTithe barn, burnt 1297; replaced late 14th C.

Edward and His Family

• Faithful husband to two wives• Close to surviving daughters but perhaps not to

his sole surviving son

Death of Eleanor, 1290

• 15-16 children• Death at Lincoln

– Entrails

• Blackfriars –heart• Westminster Abbey• Crosses at resting

places for masses for her soul

1290 Eleanor Dies

Charing Cross

Center of London

1297 Confrontation with France

Causes

• Homage for Gascony• Clashes at sea• French protectorate in Flanders

– Wool

Peace

• Return to pre-war status in Gascony• Marriage with Margaret of France (age 20)

in 1299• Arrange marriage between Edward (II) and

Isabella of France