Edward had joined Louis on the Eighth Crusade in 1270 but the French king died in Tunis. A sick Henry wanted his son to return home but Edward joined the Ninth Crusade to Acre instead in 1271. But there was little to do after Hugh III of Cyprus, the nominal King of Jerusalem, made a truce with the Muslim states, so Edward decided to return home. Although the new king heard of his father’s death in November 1272, he took his time travelling home across Europe. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester, secured Edward’s right to succeed to the throne in his absence and he served as the Guardian of England until Edward I returned in August 1274.
Henry III’s queen, Eleanor, had betrothed their second son Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, to young Aveline de Forz in 1269. But the Earldoms of Devon and Albemarle were confiscated on behalf of the king when 15-year-old Aveline died in 1274, stopping Edmund from inheriting them when he returned from the crusades.
Edward I, who was known as ‘Longshanks’ because he was tall, wanted to reclaim his royal judgement rights and called a parliament at Gloucester in 1278. Many of the barons answered his writ with the words ‘by what warrant’, but John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, went a step further. With sword in hand, he stood before the new king and said ‘my ancestors came with William the Bastard and conquered their lands with the sword, and I will defend them with the sword against anyone wishing to seize them.’
Henry III had given Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, the Welsh Marcher lands in 1270. Llewelyn ap Gruffudd believed the grant was in violation of the Treaty of Montgomery so he refused to pay homage to the new king of England. So Edward I declared war on Gruffudd in 1277 and Bohun was joined by William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick, a ‘vigorous and innovative military commander’, as they secured the disputed lands.
The Welsh rose up again in 1282 but the earls rejected Edward’s call for mercenaries because it meant he could claim the conquered territory himself. Instead they insisted the king issue a feudal summons, so they could claim any captured lands for themselves. Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk, and John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, joined the campaign into South Wales, but it was Edward I’s brother, Edmund Crouchback, and William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who defeated and captured Gruffudd. Valence negotiated the surrender of the Dolwyddelan Castle, completing the conquest of Wales; it had taken over 200 years.
Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, had inherited his father’s considerable estates at the age of four. He was soon betrothed to Alice, daughter of Hugh of Lusignan, but the contract was annulled in 1267 because she loved her cousin Prince Edward. King Edward then betrothed the young Clare to his daughter Joan of Acre and promised him estates on the proviso they would be inherited by the king’s grandchildren. But the widowed Joan fell in love with Ralph de Monthermer, one of de Clare’s squires, before Clare came of age. She convinced her father to knight the squire and then she married him in secret.
Edward I imprisoned Monthermer when he found out about the marriage, ignoring Joan’s complaint that ‘no one sees anything wrong if a great earl marries a poor and lowly woman. Why should there be anything wrong if a countess marries a young and promising man?’ Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, eventually convinced Edward to release Ralph and sanction the marriage. Monthermer was then created Earl of Gloucester and Hertford but only for as long as Joan was alive. She died in 1307 and Gilbert de Clare finally inherited his Earldoms of Gloucester and Hertford when he came of age in 1308.
Edward I’s brother, Edmund Crouchback, had been married to Blanche, widow of Henry I of Navarre in 1276. He governed the Champagne and Brie regions (now in northern France) on behalf of her daughter Joan until 1284. Edmund agreed Edward could relinquish his continental lands to the French so they would restore his possessions, but the new King Philip IV refused to give them back. Prince Edward’s marriage to Philip’s daughter Isabella brought about a temporary peace but it would also produce an English claimant to the French throne. That claim would cause problems for many years in the future.
The successful Welsh campaign had increased resentment between Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. Clare had been Bohun’s guardian and he claimed he had not paid him enough for his marriage rights, as was the tradition. Bohun was in turn annoyed that Clare had been given command of the campaign which had ended in their defeat at the battle of Llandeilo Fawr in 1282.
Tension mounted during another campaign against Rhys ap Maredudd in 1287. Edward I was away in Gascony so the kingdom’s regent, Edmund of Almain, 2nd Earl of Cornwall, tried to mediate between Clare and Bohun. Edward was far from pleased to learn that Almain had been accused of mismanaging the kingdom in his absence and he was also annoyed that his Marcher lords had been arguing with each other rather than fighting the Welsh.
Clare reignited the feud when he ignored the king’s order to stop building Morlais Castle on land claimed by Bohun. Bohun asked the king to intervene because he faced the rebellious Welsh to the west and his rival de Clare to the east. But Edward I refused because it would set a precedent which would undermine one of the Marcher barons’ greatest privileges; the right to settle feuds privately.
Clare carried on building his castle and even raided Bohun’s lands in a show of defiance, so Edward used the January 1292 parliament to stamp his authority on the situation. He took Glamorgan from Clare and fined him 10,000 marks. He also confiscated Brecon from Hereford and fined him 1,000 marks. The fines would be cancelled and the lands were restored but the king had proved his point; he had the power to punish any disobedient earl.
Edward I headed to North Wales when Madog ap Llywelyn rebelled in 1294, only to find himself trapped inside Conwy Castle. William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick, raised the siege and defeated Madog at the battle of Maes Moydog in March 1295. This ended the Welsh rebellions, reducing the role the Marcher lords played in the defence of England. So Edward took the opportunity to restrict their liberties, reducing the chance of them fighting each other in the future.
Isabella de Fortibus, 8th Countess of Devonshire, owned the Isle of Wight and Edward I wanted it. She had outlived her six children and there was no chance of having any more, so the king offered to buy her southern estates in 1276. Unfortunately, an inquiry discovered that John de Eston was her distant heir, blocking Edward’s offer, but he still claimed her northern lands. One of his servants, Walter Langton, rushed to see Isabella when she was taken ill in 1293 and she sold the Isle of Wight to the king on her deathbed, in what can only be described as a dubious transaction.
Henry de Lacy had endured a double tragedy when his son Edmund drowned in a well at Denbigh Castle and his son John fell to his death from the walls of Pontefract Castle. Their sister Alice became Countess of Lincoln, Salisbury and Wiltshire, and the king married the 13-year-old heiress to his nephew Thomas, heir to the Earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester and Derby, in 1294. While Thomas and Alice produced no legitimate heirs to their combined estates, he fathered several illegitimate children and the couple eventually separated.
John of Savoy inherited the Dukedom of Brittany and the Earldom of Richmond in 1286 and he was expected to support the English cause. But he did not retake Bordeaux after King Philip IV seized Guyenne and declared Aquitaine forfeit in 1294. Edmund Crouchback and Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, tried to capture territory but their army dispersed during the siege of Bayonne when they were not paid. A broken-hearted Edmund died in 1296.
Edward I wanted to retake his lost lands so he asked his earls to support him at the Salisbury Parliament in March 1297. His plan was for his Earl Marshal, Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk, to attack Gascony while he invaded Flanders. But Bigod argued he was only obliged to serve abroad in the company of the king and when the king angrily stated ‘by God, you shall either go or hang,’ Bigod replied, ‘by the same oath, I will neither go nor hang.’ Others also protested against feudal service in yet another expensive foreign war.
Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, demanded the restoration of the ancient liberties detailed in a list of complaints called the Remonstrances because he was busy fighting the Welsh in the Marches. Although he eventually pledged support, he interfered with the raising of reinforcements for Edward’s invasion, forcing him to abandon the campaign and issue the ‘Confirmation of Charters’, confirming the Magna Carta’s terms as part of statute law.
John the Red, Duke of Brittany, abandoned the English cause after the failure to recover Aquitaine and he was deprived of the Earldom of Richmond. Instead he allied with the French and married his grandson John to King Philip’s cousin Isabella of Valois. He would spend the next decade supporting King Philip against Count Guy of Flanders. John was leading Pope Clement V’s horse at his coronation in Lyon when a wall collapsed under the weight of spectators, crushing him to death.
Scotland and France had agreed a treaty of mutual support which became known as the Auld Alliance in 1295. Each promised to help the other if they were attacked by England. But events went badly for Scotland when Robert Bruce rebelled and seized the crown in February 1306. When he attempted to invade England most of his family were killed or captured and his estates were confiscated. Edward would later become known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ for inflicting the crushing defeat on the Scottish rebel. Robert fled to the Isle of Rathlin off the Irish cost to consider his next move while Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, became Queen Elizabeth’s custodian.
Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, was appointed Warden of Scotland, Captain of Scotland and Warden of the Northern Marches. But Bruce did not give up and he returned to Scotland where he soon gained the initiative as Clare struggled to contain his raids.
The teenage Piers Gaveston had arrived in England in 1300 and he joined Prince Edward’s household where the two became firm friends. But they became too close and were both banned from court when Gaveston became involved in the prince’s argument with the Treasurer, Walter Langton.
The two young men soon returned to court but Gaveston was again in trouble in 1306 when he convinced twenty-one knights to abandon Edward’s campaign into Scotland and attend a tournament instead. They were arrested and then pardoned but Gaveston was exiled. King Edward hit Prince Edward and threw him out of the royal chambers when he tried to give his county of Ponthieu (now in northern France) to Gaveston.
Edward I fell ill while campaigning along the Scottish border at the beginning of July 1307. He worried that Gaveston would be a bad influence on his son and his dying wish was to stop Gaveston returning. He was right to be concerned.