The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

EDWARD I

Edward I was King of England from 1272 to 1307. He was born in 1239 at Winchester and died in 1307. Edward I was the son of Henry III and an able administrator and law-maker. He re-established royal power, investigating many of the abuses resulting from weak royal government and issuing new laws. Edward was an effective soldier, gaining experience from going on crusade to Syria before he became king. In 1277 Edward I invaded Wales where Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, prince of Wales, had built up considerable power. In a series of campaigns Edward I gained control of Wales, building strong castles to secure his conquests. Llewelyn was subdued before his death, by the 1277 treaty of Conway. In 1284, the Statute of Wales brought Wales under Edward I's rule. In 1301, he created his eldest surviving son, Edward, the first English Prince of Wales. Wanting to unite the country behind him and to raise money for his campaigns in Wales and Scotland and another war in France, in 1295 Edward called what became known as the 'Model Parliament'. To this meeting he summoned the aristocracy, bishops and abbots, and the knights of the shires, burgesses from the towns and the junior clergy.

In 1296 Edward I invaded Scotland, successfully seizing the Stone of Scone; the king John Baliol abdicated and surrendered to Edward I. However, a guerrilla war broke out and the English were defeated by the Scottish under William Wallace at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. William Wallace was finally captured and executed in 1305. Edward I died in 1307, when he was about to start another campaign against the Scots and their leader, Robert the Bruce.
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