Edward I of England enacted administrative, legal, and procedural reforms that earned him the title “Lawgiver.” His brave, innovative leadership of the army
established him as the most efficient medieval military leader. He strengthened the crown and Parliament against the English feudal nobility, defeated Wales, fought in the Crusades, and conducted a long-term campaign against Scotland.
From the time of his birth at Westminster on June 17, 12S9, the eldest son of King Henry III, Edward was in line for the crown. At age fifteen, Edward received property grants and several titles, which led to his first combat experience in 1255, when landowners along the border with independent Wales revolted. Without help from Henry or from the nobility residing along the border, Edward’s efforts to quell the rebellion failed.
Disappointed at the lack of support, Edward briefly joined his uncle Simon de Montfort’s rebellion against the crown but changed his mind in 1259 and sought and received his father’s forgiveness. Edward remained in semiexile in France for several years before returning to England in 1263 to assist his father in yet another civil war against Montfort and his baron supporters. At the Batde of Lewes on May 14, 1264, Edward led a charge that routed a portion of the rebel force, but when he foolishly pursued the survivors, the enemy main force attacked find captured both King Henry and Edward.
After a year of confinement, Edward escaped and began a military campaign that many would later describe as the most bril¬liant ever fought on English soil and some would claim was the best-organized conflict in all of history. Edward gathered the scat¬tered Royalist forces, established a clear chain of command, and combined rapid mobility with shock action to defeat Montfort in a series of batdes during July-August 1265. After the final batde at Evesham on August 4, Edward rescued his father and returned him to power.
While Edward had accomplished his military objectives, he had done litde to endear himself to his own soldiers and much to engender terror in his enemies. During the campaign, Edward marched his army relendessly to gain the advantage. After his victory, he executed opposition leaders and treated captives so harshly that he actually extended the war for nearly a year because small pockets continued to resist rather than surrender.
Still eager for more combat, Edward joined France’s King Louis IX on a crusade to liberate the Holy Land from its Muslim occupiers. Louis died en route, and the expedition never reached its planned magnitude. Nevertheless, Edward landed at Acre and conducted several operations between May 1271 and September 1272. Although he achieved no great victories, Edward added to his reputation as a brave batde leader :
In the fall of 1272, Edward learned of his father’s failing health and journeyed back to England. Henry died on November 16, 1272, and Edward received the crown on August 19, 1274.
For the next fifteen years Edward concentrated on administrative matters rather than military operations, advocating a strong central government with power shared by the crown and an elected Parliament. Although the Parliament Edward established was not England’s first such organization, it was the one to become a permanent part of the government. Edward soon gained the name of Lawgiver for the many statutes he initiated to end con¬tradictory regulations, standardize property laws, establish civil po¬lice organizations, and develop foreign trade.
While government matters occupied most of his time, Edward still tended to military business. In the spring of 1277, Edward led an army of six thousand into Wales to put down a rebellion led by Welsh prince Llywelyn. To aid his troops, Edward provided resup- plies from an offshore fleet and employed woodcutters and road builders to prepare paths for rapid mobility.
By November, Edward had overwhelmed the rebels, forcing them to sue for peace, but the truce lasted for only four years be¬fore Llywelyn again took up arms against England. This time, Ed¬ward did not allow a peaceful resolution. He destroyed the Welsh rebels and captured their final stronghold at Bere Castle in April 1283. To maintain his power over Wales, Edward established castles at Conway, Rhuddlan, Harlech, and Beaumaris, which significantly contributed to the quick defeat of subsequent Welsh rebellions in 1287 and 1294.
In 1290, at the request of the Scots, Edward arbitrated for the succession to Scotland’s vacant throne. Edward chose John de Baliol as king and attempted to bring Scotland under the overall power of England. Both Baliol and the Scottish people resisted and formed an alliance with France, which in 1295, went to war against Edward. Using the same land and sea tactics that had defeated the Welsh, Edward invaded Scotland in March 1296 and forced Baliol to step down.
When Edward turned his army against France to engage in what became an unsuccessful campaign on the Continent, William Wallace began still another revolt in Scotland in 1298. Edward returned to fight Wallace, earning the title “Hammer of Scotland” as he viciously fought the rebels by introducing to the battlefield the longbow, with its added range, to give his archers superiority. He captured and executed Wallace in 1305 but failed to put down the Scottish rebellion completely. On July 7, 1307, while organizing an¬other campaign against the Scots, Edward, sixty-eight, died at Burgh by Sands near Carlisle.
Tall, thin, and blond, Edward cast an imposing figure as a man and a giant shadow as a leader. While impetuous and quick¬tempered in his youth, Edward matured and became a bold and inspiring king who readily listened to subordinates and advisers in making both military and administrative decisions. His improvements in the English military—particularly in solidifying the chain of command and introducing the longbow—and his integration of land and sea operations consistency produced successful campaigns that mark him as the most influential military leader of his time and as one of the all-time great commanders in his country’s history.