258 CHAPTER V. EDWARD I. (LONGSHANKS). A.D. 1272 To A.D. 1307. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. FRANCE. Philip III. (the Hardy); Philip IV. (the Fair). POPES.-Gregory X.; Innocent V.; Adrian V.; Vicedominus; § 1. Accession of EDWARD I. Retrospect of the preceding reigns.— § 2. Edward's victorious tournament with the Count of Chalons at Paris. § 3. His invasion and conquest of Wales. Llewellyn Prince of Wales. His death.-§ 4. Edward quells his rebellious vassals of Gascony.-§ 5. Disputes in Scotland respecting the succession to the crown, and their origin. The maiden of Norway; her death. Award of Edward in favour of Baliol.-§ 6. Dissatisfaction of the Scottish lords at the abject submission of Baliol to Edward's domination. § 7. English possessions in France. Edward is insultingly summoned by the French monarch to answer complaints before his peers at Paris. Conquest of Scotland.-§ 8. Sir William Wallace, the hero of Scotland, raises the standard of revolt. His successful career. Appointed "Guardian of the kingdom and commander of the armies."-§ 9. Contests in France. Difficulties, foreign and domestic, by which Edward is surrounded. Taxes refused without the assent of Parliament. Peace with France.-§ 10. Edward's invasion of Scotland, and his devastating career. His contests with his peers and parliamentary representatives. Betrayal and savage execution of Wallace. His high character.-§ 11. Earl Comyn defeats the English army. Edward's expedition into Scotland, and his sanguinary career. Insurrection of Robert Bruce; he stabs Earl Comyn. Is crowned as Robert I. of Scotland.-§ 12. Edward makes immense preparations for invading Scotland. Successes of Bruce. Indignant rage of Edward. His death. § 1. EDWARD was thirty-three years of age, strong in body. and expert in all knightly exercises, the greatest warrior of his time, and distinguished not less for political skill than military courage. After the feeble reigns of his father and A.D. 1272-1273.] ACCESSION OF EDWARD I. 259 grandfather, the fiery blood of the Plantagenet seemed to run in its old channels. Richard might have been owner of his sword, and Henry II. of his strength of will. His regardlessness of life, furiousness of temper, energy of exertion, and love of power might have characterized the founder of the Norman race. Yet the position of England was so greatly changed, that the personal qualities of its ruler were not of such paramount importance as at an earlier date. It was a constitutional country, governed by certain laws, strengthened by charters, garrisoned, as it were, in the name of freedom by municipal corporations, and regulated in its expenditure and taxation by the public voice, expressed in parliament assembled. The idea of a limited monarchy was complete in all its parts; but unfortunately men at that time were not to be restrained by so unsubstantial a thing as an idea from stretching their authority as far as it would go; and bold and unscrupulous rulers like Edward, while acknowledging the laws and customs of the State as binding upon others, and even upon themselves, relied for a justification of their most illegal actions on the revived fiction of a dark and undefined power called the prerogative. This certainty of escape from the effects of their own concessions, was perhaps one of the reasons why they were always so ready to ratify an ancient charter, or abrogate a tyrannical enactment. The gratified parliament paid for the concession or the repeal, and the king performed the same acts again, not by any authority conveyed to him by a law, but by virtue of some inherent faculty inseparable from his office. The present maxim, that the king can do no wrong, was exactly reversed in Edward's mind, for he seems to have thought that unless he could do as much wrong as he chose he was not a king at all. § 2. Edward had taken so many of the wilder spirits of the time-the supporters of Leicester and lovers of war for its own sake—in his train to Palestine, that he had little cause to fear for the quiet of England in his absence after his father's death. He took the precaution to order the mayor and aldermen of London to cast any suspicious persons within their jurisdiction into prison, and continued his stay in France, caballing, fighting, and feasting, as the manner of those times was. He accepted a challenge from the Count of Chalons to meet him in a peaceful tournament. He attended with a thousand knights and soldiers to be witnesses of the joust. Chalons came on at the appointed hour, and when Edward, perceived that he had brought twice the number of spectators of his prowess, and all armed and mounted, he suspected treason, and instantly both sides took off the blunting-guards of their spears, and proceeded to deadly combat. Chalons relying on his bodily strength, closed with the English king, and grasped him round the neck. Edward in a moment made his charger jump aside, and the encumbered count fell heavily to the ground. He offered his sword to the conqueror, and cried for quarter; but the Plantagenet signed to a common soldier to receive the sword, and thus inflicted irreparable disgrace upon the knightly name. The bloody lists were left in triumphant possession of the English, and Edward, having shown that he had not degenerated from the day of his earlier fame, returned to his expectant kingdom, and was solemnly crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 19th of August, 1274. § 3. Not long had he been seated on his uncontested throne before he cast his eyes to the westward, and determined on the conquest of Wales. The relations between that Principality and England up to this time had been doubtful and undefined. Foreign and even hostile as regarded the feelings of the population, it was looked on as a dependency of the English crown, by reason of the feudal homage paid by the greater number of the native chiefs. Many of the AngloNormans had invaded the country, and established their dominion by force of arms and the erection of strong-walled castles. They were nobles of England and great proprietors of Wales; but the peasantry, the original gentry, and here A.D. 1275–1276.]. INVASION OF wales. 261 They spoke ditary princes were strongly national still. Welsh, and feasted their revenge with the boastful prophecies of their bards, who foretold their triumphant restoration to the old British soil. The authority, therefore, of the English settlers was limited to the small territory where their garrisons were placed. The Welsh hated them as tyrannical invaders, and they hated the Welsh as a discontented and inferior race. Several of the native chieftains had weakened the patriotic cause by mixing themselves up in the disputes of the English factions. Llewellyn, the prince, who derived his independent authority in an unbroken line from one of the oldest ancestries in Europe, had attached himself to the party of the Earl of Leicester, and was still betrothed to his daughter, the beautiful Elinor de Montfort. In the absence of any law to enforce the obedience of the Welsh ruler, Edward had no difficulty in bringing forward a claim of paramount superiority over the whole realm of Wales; for the predecessor of Llewellyn had done homage for certain of his lands to his predecessors on the English throne, and accordingly all England was called to arms to subdue a refractory vassal, and complete the conquest which had been left imperfect, not only by William the Bastard and the Normans, but by Hengist and the Saxon bands, and by the great Romans themselves. An unconquered land, as the minstrels sang to their harps, without taking into consideration that a sterile territory with brawling streams tumbling through rocky defiles, and inhabited by a poor and half-savage people, is sometimes considered not worth the trouble of conquering. But Wales was now discovered to have rich valleys enclosed between its sheltering hills, and colonies of Flemings and other foreigners who turned the rough wool of the country into valuable exports; and streams which watered large levels of grassy soil, and harbours which led by the easiest course to the new dependency of Ireland, and gave the command of the western sea. These were excellent reasons in the eyes of Edward for pushing his refractory vassal into rebellion, in order to gain the legal forfeiture of his land. Llewellyn sent to France for his affianced bride, and she embarked with her brother Almeric for the port of Bristol. But a fiercer wooer encountered her in the Channel. An English ship took the hapless children of the great De Montfort prisoners; and although Llewellyn offered a ransom, and public feeling was outraged by this unchivalrous treatment of an unoffending maiden, the politic king was inexorable; and while the Welsh prince was inconsolable for his loss, poured his forces into the disputed country. By the co-operation of a fleet which cut off supplies, and the treachery of rival chiefs, including Prince David, the brother of Llewellyn, he succeeded in forcing the unprepared Welshman to a surrender on terms. which stripped him of all his possessions except the Isle of Anglesey, and gave to his impoverished arms the bride whom he had wooed and won in the happier days of his almost regal rule. These things were not forgotten on either side. The fiery genius of the Welsh burst forth in prophecy and song. Llewellyn and his brother became reconciled by a community of degradation. Anglo-Normans sneered at their language and manners, and even their dress, and the sword was drawn with a determination on both sides to put an end for ever to the contest between the races. But what could courage and patriotism do against suits of strong armour and thousands of mounted men? The quick mountaineers made forays hither and thither; castles were surprised by the rapidity of attack, and proud barons, who had never coalesced with their tenants or neighbours, were driven across the marches; but the mighty torrent of disciplined and exasperated soldiers still poured on. Edward, in spite of the often confirmed charters and his professions of moderation, imposed a forced loan upon Church and State, and marched at the head of all his lords |