THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND

Edward the First

EDWARD had repeatedly been called upon by Henry, during the last months of his reign, to return to England; but he had some of the love of adventure, and more of the obstinacy, so conspicuous in Richard, and instead of obeying these summonses, he chose to land at Acre. His achievements were far from corresponding with this ill-timed display of zeal, the capture of two unimportant castles, the robber-like plundering of two caravans, and an idle expedition to Nazareth, being the sole result of an eighteen months’ sojourn in the territories of the soldan. This inglorious career had well nigh had a termination as inglorious. The emir of Joppa, by the pretence of em bracing Christianity, had won his confidence, and frequent messages passed between them, till at length the vigilance of his guards was lulled, and the bearer of these missives was allowed to pass without suspicion. On the Friday of Whitsun week, the Saracen paid one of his usual visits, and found his way into the apartment where Edward was reclining on a couch during the mid-day heat. This was the opportunity for which the infidel had so long been watching. lie aimed a blow at the bosom of the prince, who received it in his arm, and in the struggle, which ensued, killed the intended assassin with his own dagger. The weapon, however, had been poisoned, and serious fears were entertained for his life, but the skill of his surgeon, and the affectionate care of his wife, eventually saved him from this danger. In the romance of the Spanish historian, this simple occurrence is elevated into a legend that has been the subject of many a tale and ballad ; according to this inventive chronicler, Eleanor sucked the poison from her husband’s wound, and thus saved his life at the imminent hazard of her own.

A ten years’ truce was now concluded with the sultan, and Edward again returning to Trapano, was invited to Rome by Pope Gregory the Tenth. This Pontiff had been the companion of his expedition, when only archdeacon of Liege, and was now eager to shew either his gratitude or his greatness. On his way through Sicily and Calabria, Edward received the news of his father’s death, yet he staved two days at Rome, and then proceeded to Civita Vecchia, where the Pope received him with respect and affection. His subsequent journey through Italy was as much a triumphal procession as if he had re-conquered the Holy Land, but possibly his narrow escape from the Saracen’s dagger had elevated him in the pious imagination of the Italians to the dignity of a martyr.

At Guienne he was detained for some time, by the troubled state of that province, and here an occurrence took place that does not put the boasted spirit of chivalry in too favourable a light. He was challenged to a tournament by the Count of Chalons under the pretence of doing him honour, but the suspicions of others at the time hinted at a secret design against his life, and the event fully justified such surmises. His cousin, Henry, had a short time before been murdered by the adherents of De Montfort, and whether from any more certain knowledge, or from the doubts arising from this previous assassination, the Pope earnestly endeavoured to dissuade Edward from exposing his life in a tournament. The king, however, who seldom seems to have paid much attention to the advice of any one when in opposition to his own will, persisted, and on the appointed day entered the lists with a thousand champions on foot and on horseback; his opponent had twice that number. In a short time the mimic tourney was converted into a real fight, when the English archers, exasperated by the king’s peril, drove their adversaries from the field, mingled among the knights, and by cutting their saddle-girths or killing their horses brought them to the ground, and easily made then prisoners. The Count of Chalons, who was a man of prodigious strength, after tilting with his spear, threw his arms round the king’s neck to drag him from his horse, but Edward sprang forward, and his antagonist was thrown to the ground. Although immediately raised by his attendants, he was incapacitated by the shock from any exertion, and was compelled to sue for quarter, which the king in his rage was so far from granting that for a time he continued to belabour him soundly in his fallen state, and at last made him yield up his sword to one of the foot champions, disdaining to receive it himself from such unworthy hands.

Edward was now preparing for his return to England, when he was yet farther detained by a mercantile dispute with the Flemish government. It had been a custom with many of his predecessors to buy the military services of the Counts of Flanders, with annuities for their respective lives, a contract which was always considered optional, till the reigning countess, Margaret, assumed it as a right, and demanded from the late king forty thousand marks as the balance of a long arrear. Upon this being refused, the Countess seized all the wool of English growth within her dominions, to whomsoever it might belong, when Henry by way of retaliation seized upon the Flemish manufactures in England, forbade the farther exportation of wool-fell to Flanders, and by premiums invited the coming over and settlement of Flemish clothiers. It was soon, however, found that other foreigners supplied Flanders with wool purchased in the English markets, and in consequence upon Henry’s death his son prohibited the exportation of wool altogether. This decisive measure, by reducing the Flemish manufacturers to poverty, affected Margaret’s own revenue, and made her anxious for an accommodation, which was finally granted upon her yielding such conditions as the king thought proper to impose, and making a public apology through the mouth of her son for her aggressions upon English property.

Edward now returned to England, where he was crowned, and immediately began those plans for uniting the kingdoms of Great Britain into one, which formed the very reasonable object of his ambition through life. The refusal of Llewellyn to do the usual homage to his superior, gave him the first opportunity of exercising his arms and his policy in an attempt to unite Wales more thoroughly with England. His aim through the winter was to create a party among the Welsh, in which he was aided by David, the brother of Llewehlyn, who had been deprived by him of his patrimony, and now sought revenge by winning over as many of his countrymen to the cause of Edward. By their assistance the Welsh leader was soon driven to such straits that he was obliged to submit to the terms of Edward, but these, though harsh at first, were afterwards relaxed by the generosity or the prudence of the victor.

Edward now flattered himself that he had subdued the Welsh as much by his magnanimity, as by the terror of his arms. It soon however appeared that the long nourished hatred of the Welsh for their neighbours was not so easily to be tamed into acquiescence, and David with the fickleness of all semi-barbarians had on a sudden turned to the side of his brother, and urged him on to violence. Both the brothers were farther incited by a prediction of Merlin, the conditions of which had just then been fulfilled ; the seem had prophecied that when English money became circular, the Prince of Wales would be crowned in London, and Edward had lately issued a new coinage of round half pennies and farthings, forbidding the custom of dividing time coin into halves and quarters.

The insurrection was begun by David, who, unmindful of all the benefits he had received from Edward, surprized Hawarden castle in a dark and stormy night, putting all within to the sword, except the wounded justiciary whom he made prisoner, and carried to the top of Snowdun. He was immediately joined by his brother, and the Welsh pouring down from their mountains, laid waste the marches with fire and sword, and inflicted every sort of cruelty upon the inhabitants. At first Edward could not bring himself to believe in such unexampled treachery, but when repeated messages convinced him of the truth, he lost no time in attacking the insurgents. At first, the chances of war were all so much in favour of the Welshmen that Llewellyn turned a deaf ear to the mediation of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Edward had ordered a large force to assemble at Carmarthen, upon which, leaving the defence of Snowdun to his brother, he hastened to Bruit in Radnorshire, where the English showed themselves on the heft bank of the Wye. A part of his force held the bridge, while a yet larger body was posted on a neighbouring mountain, and he himself descended from his strong position, to have a nearer view of his enemy. In the mean while, Mortimer unobserved by him had passed the river at a distant ford, when Adam Frank, a knight, approaching the barn by accident, where Llewellyn reposed, killed him after a short struggle, by thrusting a spear into his side. The Welsh in con sequence of this loss were totally defeated, and Llewellyn’s head was fixed on the Tower of London, wreathed with ivy or silver, in scorn of Merlin’s prophecy. Upon the death of their enterprizing leader, the other chieftains hastened to submit to Edward, and were received by him with kindness, David alone holding back. For six months in his mountain fastnesses he eluded the vigilance of his pursuers, and might have escaped them altogether, had not his own coun¬ trymen hunted him from rock to rock, till they made him prisoner with his wife and children. This time Edward was resolved not to pardon. He ordered a parliament to be summoned at Shrewsbury, that David might be tried by his peers. Their sentence condemned him to the usual pains and penalties of high treason, and he was executed accordingly.

One whole year did the king spend either in Wales, or in the neighbourhood, to secure by policy what he had won by the force of arms. Never in fact was defeat more advantageous to the conquered.. He restrained the sanguinary and barbarous habits of the natives, established corporate bodies of merchants in the principal towns, introduced the English system of jurisprudence into their courts, and used every means to conciliate as well as civilize. A fortunate event tended not a little to confirm the efforts of wisdom and policy. His queen, Eleanor, was delivered of a son in Carnarvon castle, and by a happy thought he was declared Prince of Wales, to the great satisfaction of the Welsh-men, who looked upon this as a restoration of their independence —so easily are mankind deluded by mere words.

The next four years were spent by Edward, partly in legislating for England, and partly in arbitrating between the kings of France, Arrogan, and Sicily. In the absence of Charles of Anjou, who had gone on a crusade against the infidels, the Sicilians murdered every Frenchman in the island, and Peter, King of Arrogan, by whom the massacre had been instigated, took possession of the throne. The Pope, who claimed both Sicily and Arrogan as fiefs of the holy see, excommunicated the Sicilians, and their protector; Charles, who still possessed the south of Italy, invited the mercenaries of all the neighbouring states to join his standard; amid Philip of France, to whose younger son the Pope had granted Arrogan, entered Catalonia with seventy thousand men, to maintain by force, what had been given by injustice. But Peter had the good fortune, or the talent, to defeat the plans of all his enemies. Doria, to whom lie had committed time defence of his new domains, destroyed the French fleet, and made prisoner Charles’s son, the Prince of Salerno; he himself compelled Philip, baffled and outgeneralled, to retreat hastily into France ; and the thunders of the Vatican lie could venture to despise, when deprived of that military aid, which alone made them formidable. The same year however, consigned all these opponents to the grave, and Edward, though with some trouble, was able to mediate successfully between the contending parties.

While Edward was thus employed for the benefit of foreigners the affairs of England were neglected, and the refusal of his parliament to grant the supplies demanded of them, gave him warning that it was high time for him to return. If ever he entertained the idea of uniting the whole island under one government, the entangled affairs of Scotland now offered a favourable opportunity for the gratification of his ambition. The crown of that country, by time death of all the intermediate claimants, had devolved upon Alexander’s grand-child, Margaret, who combined in herself all the disadvantages of being a foreigner, a female, and an infant, for she was the daughter of Eric, King of Norway, and was little more than three years old. As the best protection for the interests of his daughter, Eric solicited the friendship of Edward, and by a treaty signed at Salisbury, between the deputies of time three countries, it was agreed that Eric should send his daughter to Britain, unfettered by any matrimonial engagement, that Edward should so deliver her to the Scots when Scotland should be in a tranquil state, when security was to be given, that they would not attempt to marry her without the approbation of the King of England, and of the King of Norway

It was the object of Edward to effect an union between Margaret and his eldest son, for which he easily obtained her father’s consent and the papal dispensation. He even induced the Scots by means of his agents, to make the first official proposals, and thus an arrangement was concluded, which, had it taken effect, would at once have united England and Scotland by the firmest bonds, and spared both countries many years of war and devastation. Unfortunately, the maid of Norway, as she was called, was too delicate to bear the fatigues of a sea-voyage, and was obliged to be landed at one of the Orkney isles, where after recovering for awhile, she relapsed and died.

Upon her death, no fewer than thirteen claimants for the crown appeared, even Eric deeming himself entitled to it in right of his deceased daughter. The true heir, however, was to be sought in the descendants of David, Earl of Huntingdon, the brother of King William, and of these there were two claiming in different degrees of kinship, namely John Baliol, Lord of Galloway, and Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale. Appalled by the evils impending over Scotland, from so many rivals for the throne, the states referred the matter to Edward, as one whose judgement had been appealed to, and whose awards had been obeyed by the leading rulers of Europe.

Edward agreed to arbitrate, but not in virtue of the authority conferred upon him by their solicitation. He claimed to be the feudal superior of Scotland, and as such the cognizance of the cause belonged to him. By the Scottish writers, this has been called the unjust ambition of Edward, but the English kings had for centuries been used to have homage done them by the kings of Scotland, though the exact nature of it had always been a matter of dispute, which on every fresh occasion ended by a compromise and a mutual reservation of their respective rights. This lasted till the time of Alexander, who after four years’ resistance, swore fealty to Edward without any conditions. Now, however, when he summoned the Scotch prelates, barons and commonalty to meet him at Norham, that he might decide between the claimants for the throne, though they obeyed his summons, and assembled on the appointed day at Upsetlington upon the opposite side of the Tweed, yet they evaded giving any answer to his assertion of feudal superiority. Many delays on the part of the Scots, were requested and allowed, and as they still put in no counter-plea, Edward announced that he should take his rights for granted, and proceed in virtue of them to adjudicate between the claimants.

Bruce was the first called upon to say whether he would abide by the king’s decision as his feudal lord, to which he replied in the affirmative, and the other competitors in turn did the same. Baliol alone was absent at the time, and when he did appear the next morning, it seemed with great reluctance that he gave his assent, after having consulted with his friends. Edward next demanded that all the claimants should sign a document acknowledging him to be their feudal superior, a demand which was complied with, and in yet farther corroboration of his rights all the military tenants of the Scottish crown swore fealty. to him, while the regents and wardens of the royal castles surrendered their respective charges into his hands.

The first check that Edward received in his projects, was from Pope Nicholas the Fourth. He had sent envoys to Rome, to obtain the papal recognition of the claims which had been so solemnly allowed by the Scotch themselves. Nicholas refused, forgetful of the great obligations due to England by the Roman see, alleging many frivolous pretexts, and amongst others even pretending that he himself had a right in the kingdom of Scot land. Edward paid no attention to this reply, but proceeded at once to the matter in hand, and finally gave his award in favour of Baliol, after a long and minute consideration of the various claims brought forward. His anxiety to do justice to all parties, has never been disputed, and succeeding times have confirmed the justice of his decision.

But the Scottish nobles did not acquiesce in the propriety of the award, and the course adopted shortly afterwards by Edward or his advisers, towards the newly created sovereign, was not calculated to gain the esteem of a people as proud and as turbulent as they were poor. Either with a view to acquire an ascendancy over the new monarch, or to increase his own reputation for inflexible administration of justice, the English king not only summoned Baliol to Newcastle, for the purpose of causing him to swear loyalty as a vassal, but subjected him besides to the indignity of obeying citations to appear in parliament at Westminster, and even to stand as an ordinary individual at the bar of the common courts there, as a defendant at time instance of various private complainants. From the records of the period it appears that John was summoned no less than six times in the course of one year ; and even his spirit, submissive as it was, at last revolted from the indignity. He secretly threw himself into the arms of France; and the French king, thus stimulated, in his turn cited Edward to appear before him as a liege for the possession of Guienne. This was a summons, which it was equally hazardous for the English monarch to obey or defy. If he complied, in the exasperated relation of the two countries, lie would almost assuredly have been treated as a prisoner a sanguinary collision had lately occurred between the French and the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports at sea; and in the event of refusing, lie was liable at once, according to all the codes of Europe, to be deprived of his last remaining ancestral possessions as a recusant. With the usual policy, he endeavoured to steer an intermediate course; he despatched the bishop of London to the French court, with the view of effecting an accommodation, and every effort was made by him to avert the catastrophe ; but with the usual results attendant on such measures; the French sovereign resisted every overture, and hastened to form an alliance with Baliol. Edward, when apparently on the eve of attaining the long-cherished object of his ambition, found his own conduct unexpectedly recoil upon him he had scarcely completed the humiliation of Baliol, when he himself was doomed to experience equal haughtiness at the hands of France; and as lie was not at present in a condition to resist the hostility of the latter, no alternative remained but to witness in mournful silence the loss of his last continental possessions.

On the Scottish king, and on Scotland, he took his revenge. He had no sooner learned that Guienne was confiscated, partly by fraud and partly by force, than he prepared to indulge at once his resentment and ambition on Baliol and his subjects as confederates in the plot. In a period incredibly short, an immense army was assembled and marched to the north ; Berwick was carried by assault, and its garrison put to the sword. The Earl Warrene, pursuing his march northwards from the city, encountered the Scots near Dunbar, and in a sanguinary action, fought on the 27th of April, 1296, ten thousand of their number are said to have been left dead on the field. The whole country immediately submitted: the castle of Stirling, though strong, and that of Edinburgh, almost impregnable, surrendered without a blow; and the English sovereign had shortly afterwards the satisfaction of finding his triumph completed by the surrender of John on the banks of the Tay.

The terms lie imposed, it must be confessed, were harsh. Baliol, after a forced surrender of his crown as well as person, was despatched to London as a prisoner, and only allowed to escape from incarceration in its Tower, on condition of retiring to France, there to live and die as a private person. But the treatment of the country has been still more condemned. Not only were all the nobility who fell into his hands sent as prisoners into England, but the whole public records and regalia were either destroyed or removed; including amongst the latter, the celebrated coronation stone, to which a veneration so superstitious was annexed, and which we believe is still to be found in the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey used by time sovereigns of England.

This asperity had the effect of creating fresh insubordination. While Edward was absent on the continent levying a languid and. abortive war against France, the spirit of revolt was rekindled in Scotland by Sir William Wallace, one of the most memorable patriots of whom history makes mention. In the career of this remarkable person it is impossible now to separate the real from the fabulous: but whether he was the immaculate and untarnished hero whom popular opinion in his country surmises, or imbued with the usual portion of ferocity common in that age, and ambition incidental to every, there can be no doubt that he speedily proved a formidable foe. From small beginnings, rising little above the dignity of common rapine or ordinary robbery, he soon raised a force which threatened to overturn Edward’s power—a consummation which he was the more readily enabled to achieve by the refusal of Bohun the constable, and Bigod the earl-marischal of England, to march northwards without the presence of the king, to assail him. Edward, then in Flanders, was thus unable to resist, and the greater part of the conquered kingdom was consequently regained by Wallace, who, after defeating a numerous body of the English at Stirling, forced his way into England and laid time whole of the northern counties under contribution. But when the English king in person arrived on the spot, the tide was turned. The Scottish nobles, jealous of Wallace’s ascendancy, refused to obey him; and all being tumult and confusion in an hour when unanimity of purpose was imperatively requisite, Edward was enabled to obtain a still more decisive advantage at Falkirk. Half the nobility of Scotland are supposed to have been here destroyed; and the English king having shortly afterwards concluded hostilities with France by the marriage of its princess, the whole of this ancient realm appeared on the point of helpless reduction.

In this emergency, however, the Scotch found an unexpected ally in the Pope. His holiness deemed it a desirable opportunity for recovering ascendancy over a kingdom long almost lost to the Roman see, and while Edward was preparing to annex it permanently to England, he suddenly had his ambition arrested by a papal bull, declaring that Scotland appertained to the sovereign Pontiff. Thus claim has usually been considered untenable, and none in a later age would perhaps more revolt from it than the Scotch. But at present it allowed them respite from Edward’s power; and while he was forced to remain inactive by the interdict of the church, they suddenly advanced and captured Stirling. But the treaty which followed between France and England, enabled Edward to overcome this difficulty. By the influence of the French monarch, he was gradually enabled to remove the pretensions of the Pope; and the principal Scotch nobility having been either gained or forced to acknowledge his authority, the whole country was again brought under subjection. The indomitable Wallace alone held out; but his career was short: betrayed and entrapped, he was sent as a prisoner to London, and executed for high treason—the greatest blot that rests on Edward’s name.

The English sovereign was now apparently in the zenith of his power, and he seemed at length on the point of attaining the object of his hopes; but was destined, when in this altitude, to experience the uncertainty of human greatness. From an unexpected quarter, opposition arose. Robert Bruce, the young earl of Carrick, grandson of one of the candidates who had been rejected for Baliol, and hitherto, even in opposition to Wallace, one of the most devoted of Edward’s adherents, suddenly, in consequence of some surmised danger or personal disappointment, fled from London and unfurled the standard of revolt in the north. His followers at first were few; but rank, vigour, and ability, soon brought numbers to his aid; and an opponent more formidable than Wallace, thus started into existence, inasmuch as to all the courage and more than the address of the other, he united substantial claims to the crown.

No time accordingly was lost in despatching an army to quell him. But in the interval, Bruce, had been solemnly crowned at Scone; and though the overwhelming forces of the English monarch defeated him, they could not destroy the prestige attached to this ceremony in that superstitious age. Whether prosperous or in adversity, the Scotch henceforth regarded Bruce as their sovereign ; and though lie was often constrained to live in caverns, or wander as an outcast, he again at intervals arose and ever remained unsubdued. He was in vain excommunicated by the Pope; he again appeared in the field, and his subjects supported his pretensions to the crown. With equal futility did Edward march an army, apparently irresistible against him, and stimulate the courage of its chiefs by bestowing knight hood on three hundred of their sons, in common with his own heir, the Prince of Wales. In the midst of his pride and pomp, his body, long debilitated, was suddenly struck down near Carlisle, in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, and the sixty-ninth of his age.

The character of this prince has often been drawn, and in colours diametrically opposite by English and Scotch historians. By the former, he is justly praised as one of the greatest of their monarchs; by the other, he is naturally condemned as one of the most odious princes that ever sat upon a throne. In this age however, when national passions are past, and the kingdoms are at last conciliated by that union which it was his object to establish, posterity may do him justice; and the northern may unite with the southern inhabitants of the island in admiring his courage, lofty character, and capacity; his ability in peace, and vigour in war; his personal virtues as a man, chivalrous bearing as a monarch; and acknowledging the soundness of his aim, though they may dissent on the propriety of his measures.

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