The Plantagenets: The Kings That Made Britain

by Wilson, Derek

  1286–91

  In the spring of 1286 Edward crossed the Channel and was absent from England for three years. He was, by this time, highly regarded by his brother monarchs, and his advice and mediation were sought in various disputes. His main objective, however, was to establish his rule in Gascony as firmly as he had done in England. Edward still held the hereditary title Duke of Aquitaine, an area covering most of southwest France, but in reality the activities of local rulers and the intermittent encroachment of the French kings tended to limit his effective rule to Gascony. This territory was important to him because of its flourishing (and therefore taxable) wine trade, its provision of money and troops to aid him in his wars, and its strategic position between the sea and the Pyrenees. Edward held this territory as a vassal of the king of France and, just as he sought to consolidate his control of Wales and (later) Scotland, so his French counterparts were endeavouring to extend their rule over the lands of their vassals. Edward spent the summer of 1286 in Paris and reached an agreement with Philip IV confirming his holding of most of Aquitaine, while he ceded the rest to the French king in return for payment.

  Edward devoted considerable energy to revising the laws that operated in the various lands of Aquitaine and to establishing trustworthy men in office. This was a complicated exercise, since different customs and laws pertained in the regions, but the king’s attention to detail indicated his commitment to the rule of law and to ensuring the rights of his subjects.

  This concern did not extend to the Jews, however. This unpopular community was regarded by the church as the enemy of Christianity, and Jews were disliked by the people at large for their wealth and exclusivity. In 1287 Edward took a crusading vow, and in order to finance his proposed expedition to the Holy Land he took the popular step of confiscating all Jewish property and expelling the Jews from Gascony. He explained this action in pious terms, but it was, in reality, simply an easy way of making money.

  By 1289 Edward’s English subjects were getting restless. When parliament was asked in February for a grant of taxation they refused to pay ‘until they saw the king’s face in England again’. The king returned in August and was immediately confronted with many complaints about the administration of the royal courts in his absence. He responded with ruthless efficiency. All the senior judges except two were found guilty of corruption and were dismissed. One who fled into sanctuary was starved out and then banished. Then, in 1290, he repeated in England the action that had proved so popular and profitable in Gascony: he expelled all the Jews from the kingdom.

  This was the year that saw the turn of Edward’s fortunes, but it began with a personal tragedy. In November his much-loved wife fell ill at Harby, Nottinghamshire, near Lincoln. Edward, who was meeting with his parliament, went to her as soon as he could and was present when she died on the 28th of the month. The queen’s body was embalmed, and her grieving husband accompanied it on its journey to Westminster for burial in the abbey. This took 12 days, and at each place where the cortege spent the night Edward ordered a cross to be erected so that people would be reminded to pray for Eleanor’s soul. The first crosses were of wood, but they were subsequently replaced by elaborate stone memorials. Three of the Eleanor crosses remain, at Geddington and Hardingstone, both in Northamptonshire, and at Waltham Cross in Essex. The final monument at Charing Cross, in what was then the stables for Westminster Palace (its location was on the south side of what is now Trafalgar Square), was the most splendid of the series, being built of marble by the best sculptor and mason of the day. A roughly accurate Victorian replica stands now outside Charing Cross station.

  Another death in this year presaged the bloody conflicts that were to mar the last years of the reign. On 26 September 1290 Margaret, the seven-year-old Maid of Norway, died in the Isle of Orkney. She was the only child of Eric II of Norway and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III of Scotland. In 1283 Alexander’s only son died, and three years later the Scottish king was fatally injured when his horse plunged over a cliff in the dark. This sequence of tragedies left the Scottish throne vacant, and the circumstances involved Edward for two reasons. First, he claimed the overlordship of the northern kingdom on the basis that Alexander had sworn fealty to him (although Alexander had always claimed that this applied to lands he held in England and not to his Scottish crown). Secondly, in 1288 Edward had negotiated with King Eric the marriage of little Margaret to his own infant son, Edward. There were several potential claimants to the Scottish crown, but all the leaders of the nation had agreed to this arrangement, which would unite the two countries.

  The Maid of Norway’s death threatened anarchy, and Edward intervened to prevent this and to assert what he considered to be his rights. He summoned the Scottish lords to meet him at Norham Castle, close to the border, and they reluctantly accepted his authority and swore fealty to him. Edward set up a united council of regency and a commission to consider the claims of the two main rivals for the crown, John Balliol and Robert Bruce – this is known in Scottish history as the Great Cause – and then went on a tour of several Scottish towns to receive the homage of the people.

  1292–8

  In November 1292, after lengthy deliberations, Edward decided the Great Cause in favour of John Balliol, who was crowned before the end of the year and subsequently came to Norham to swear fealty to Edward.

  The following year a dispute arose with Philip IV, which led to war when the French king used a clash between English and Norman ships as an excuse to assert his authority. Just as Edward summoned Balliol to Norham, Philip now demanded that Edward appear before him. Early in 1294 the king sent his brother Edmund instead, and an agreement was patched up. It involved the marriage of Edward to Philip’s sister Margaret and the temporary ceding of Gascony to the French king. Philip subsequently reneged on the agreement and claimed that Edward had forfeited Gascony by his failure to answer the summons in person. Edward sent a military contingent to Gascony and prepared for war with France by forging a series of alliances with rulers in Germany and the Low Countries.

  Welsh malcontents now took advantage of Edward’s involvement with France to stage a rebellion. The leader, Madog-ap-Llewelyn, enjoyed widespread support from people who resented English-style administration and Edward’s demand for troops to fight in France. The effectiveness of Edward’s castle-based defence strategy was now put to the test and proved itself. With the exception of half-finished Caernarfon, all the royal fortresses survived Welsh attack, but Edward had to put on hold his plans for a major expedition across the Channel and marched into Wales at the head of an army with more than 30,000 infantry and hundreds of mounted knights. The campaign would probably have been over quickly had an attack by Madog on the king’s baggage train not forced Edward to take refuge in Conwy for the winter. Again, the castle chain proved impregnable because the English were able to keep it provisioned by sea and river. In March 1295, at Maes Moydog, near Montgomery, an English force led by the Earl of Warwick fell upon Madog’s army and slaughtered it. The rebellion rapidly collapsed, and Edward toured the country, receiving homage from the defeated rebels and ordered the building of his last Welsh castle at Beaumaris, Anglesey.

  Meanwhile, fresh difficulties arose in Scotland. In 1294 Edward demanded that John Balliol provide soldiers for his French war. When the Scottish king agreed, a group of nobles and ecclesiastics set his authority aside, formed a regency council and opened negotiations with the French king. In March 1296 a Scottish force crossed the border, and the following month Balliol renounced his fealty to Edward, who responded immediately by invading Scotland. Any resistance collapsed rapidly after the capture of Dunbar (27 April), and Edward swiftly overran the Lowlands. In July Balliol surrendered. The humiliated king is known in Scottish folklore as ‘Toom Tabard’ (Empty Coat) because of the insignia removed from his robes as a symbol of his submission. Edward made a victory tour of the kingdom and brought back to Westminster the Stone of Scone upon which Scottish kings had traditiona
lly been crowned. Balliol was taken to England as a prisoner, and he remained there for three years before retiring to France.

  The Welsh rebellion had cost Edward valuable time and money, and he now resorted to blatantly unjust measures to finance his French expedition, including seizing the wool that his merchants were exporting in order to pocket the profit. Parliament granted fresh taxes, but when the king asked for money from the church Pope Boniface VIII refused to sanction it. (At this point the pope was trying to put an end to the Anglo-French war.) Edward’s angry response, early in 1297, was to call a meeting of all the leading clergy and demand half their revenues, threatening to outlaw any who opposed him. ‘Whoever of ye will say me nay,’ he said, ‘let him rise and stand up that his person may be known.’ According to a contemporary source, the dean of St Paul’s fell dead with fright on the spot. Thus browbeaten, the clergy gave in and gave the king what he wanted. Yet Edward still lacked the funds necessary for a major campaign, and he was forced to use the money he had collected for his planned crusade and to borrow still more heavily from Italian bankers. He was eventually able to sail in August 1297.

  The French campaign was a disaster. While inconclusive fighting occurred in the southwest, Edward took a small army to Flanders to link up with his allies, but they deserted him. In October 1297 he made a truce with Philip. While peace terms were being worked out Edward returned to England in March 1298. His marriage to Margaret was confirmed and took place the following year.

  Meanwhile, the position in Scotland had been reversed. As soon as Edward had departed for France a widespread revolt had erupted led by Robert Bruce (grandson of the earlier competitor for the throne), William Wallace, a charismatic knight, and Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, and in September 1297 they defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. As soon as he returned from France Edward summoned his barons to join him in another Scottish invasion. Some declined to be involved until the king agreed additions to Magna Carta that would clarify still further the rights of king and subjects and confer new freedoms on the people, and it was with an army composed largely of Welsh, Irish and Gascon elements that Edward crossed the border in July. On the 22nd of the month, despite having been injured when his own horse threw him, the king led his men in the Battle of Falkirk. This was a resounding English victory, only Wallace’s infantry having put up a heroic resistance. The Scots lost some 20,000 men.

  By this time Edward’s determination to pursue by military means what he considered to be his rights had alienated the French, the Welsh, the Scots, the church, the English magnates and the merchants. He was hugely in debt and had squeezed his subjects for money almost to the point at which they could pay no more. He continued to summon parliament frequently and could claim with some accuracy that he consulted his people on important matters of state. In the writs for the parliament of 1295 (often known as the Model Parliament) this principle was first clearly enunciated. ‘What touches all should be approved by all,’ the writ stated. Theory and practice did not always coincide, however.

  1299–1307

  The situation in Scotland continued to be disturbed, and Edward was determined to make his rule there a reality. However, he was forced to abandon a campaign in 1299 because his magnates refused to march with him, and Stirling Castle fell to Scottish attackers. He was back again the next year, reasserting his authority. Under instruction from the pope, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert of Winchelsea, pursued the king into Scotland and there delivered the papal demand that Edward should abandon his overlordship of Scotland. ‘By God’s blood,’ Edward retorted, ‘I will defend with all my might what all the world knows to be my right.’ In the parliament held at Lincoln in 1301 the king skilfully drove a wedge between the church and the barons when his magnates supported his claim that he was not answerable to any higher earthly authority in relation to his territorial claims.

  Edward now invested his son with the title Prince of Wales, and he made further campaigns into Scotland in 1301 and 1303. In the latter year peace was finally concluded with France. Philip had delayed this as long as possible, but now, because he had fared badly in war with his neighbours and was just as financially embarrassed as Edward, he agreed terms that restored Gascony to the English king.

  Early in 1302 Robert Bruce acknowledged Edward, and over the next couple of years most Scottish nobles followed suit. The king set up an English-style administrative system, as he had done in Wales, and appointed his nephew, John of Brittany, as his lieutenant. In 1303 Prince Edward was betrothed to Isabella, the infant daughter of the king of France.

  Just as it seemed that the aged king had achieved all his ambitions, Scotland once again erupted into violence in 1306 when Robert Bruce threw off his allegiance and made a bid for the Scottish crown. Edward, ill and angry at this ‘betrayal’, made his way slowly northwards, carried in a litter, for yet one more campaign. He never reached Scotland. While the Prince of Wales triumphed over the enemy and Bruce fled to Ireland, Edward succumbed to dysentery. In his pain and rage he ordered that all captives should be treated with more than usual savagery, and he even had two female prisoners of rank locked into cages and hung up for public view. The king’s strength gradually failed, but he insisted on remounting his horse, even though he could not travel more than a couple of miles a day. At Burgh-by-Sands, Cumberland, he died on 7 July 1307.

  ‘Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, Keep the Faith’. Edward ordered these words to be carved on his tomb. So great was his fury at what he considered the perfidy of Robert Bruce that he also imposed another, bizarre instruction on his heir: whenever, in future, the Scots rebelled his bones were to be disinterred and carried with the English army so that he could continue to lead and inspire his troops against their troublesome northern neighbour. This order was ignored.

  EDWARD II 1307–27

  There is a remarkable parallel between the two most disastrous reigns in English history, those of Edward II and Charles I. Both inherited the crown because older brothers had died; both defied parliament; both were zealous in asserting the power and dignity of the monarchy; both were humiliated in war with Scotland; both were disastrously influenced by court favourites; both provoked civil war; both were imprisoned by their own people; and both died violently in their forties.

  Edward II resembled his father physically. A contemporary chronicler describes him as ‘tall and strong, a handsome man with a fine figure’ but then goes on to lament: ‘If only he had given to arms the attention that he expended on rustic pursuits, he would have raised England on high; his name would have resounded through the land. Oh what hopes he raised as prince of Wales! All hope vanished when he became king of England.’1

  The unkingly ‘rustic pursuits’ the writer criticized included swimming, digging, thatching, rowing and encouraging actors, jesters and singers. In an age when men expected their kings to be military leaders and law-givers, such activities appeared trivial, and at a time when social divisions were rigid it was considered reprehensible that a prince should choose low-born men for his companions and to esteem ‘mechanical’ pursuits above jousting and hunting (in neither of which Edward II showed any interest).

  It has been said that Edward I left his son a poor hand to play and that he then played it very badly. The old king was deep in debt in 1307, was involved in a long-running war with Scotland and was regarded with suspicion by many of his magnates. His advisers expected his successor to wrap up military affairs successfully, ease the tax burden on his subjects, respond to wise counsel and submit to equable laws. Unfortunately, the prince had scarcely been well prepared to assume such a role. He saw little of his father, lost his mother when he was six, had no brothers to influence him and scarcely knew his sisters, most of whom were married off before he was born or during his infancy. It is, therefore, scarcely surprising that young Edward should choose and become closely attached to his own companions. It was that, above all things, that would prove his downfall.

  1307–1
1

  Edward II succeeded his father on 7 July 1307 at the age of 23. For some years his closest companion had been Piers Gaveston, the son of a Gascon knight who had been brought up in the prince’s household, and it may be that Edward doted on Gaveston as the accomplished elder brother he had never had, for the courtier was athletic, intelligent and cultured. It may also be that the relationship of the two young men was homosexual. What is clear is that Gaveston came to exercise complete dominance over the prince. Edward could refuse him nothing, and Gaveston took advantage of that to gain lands and favours. He also behaved with insufferable arrogance towards those whose noble birth gave them the right, as they thought, to be numbered among the prince’s intimates and guides. ‘I firmly believe,’ wrote one chronicler, ‘that had he borne himself discreetly and with deference towards the great lords of this land, he would not have found one of them opposed to him.’2

  In February 1307 Edward I had ordered Gaveston’s banishment because his son had tried to make over a large portion of his continental lands to his friend. When the king died in July one of Edward’s first acts was to recall Gaveston and make him Earl of Cornwall. In November Gaveston married the king’s niece, Margaret de Clare, sister of the Earl of Gloucester, and also received from the king large sums of money filched from the royal treasury. Edward had already sacked the treasurer and replaced him with another favourite, Walter Reynolds.