Edward I
Edward, the son of Henry III was born in June 1239. This English king is often referred to by the name Longshanks, a reference to his impressive height of 6 feet and 2 inches (1.88m) or Scotshammer, a reference to his violent conduct of Scotland. At the age of 15, he was married to Eleanor of Castile.
Edward’s early adulthood is overshadowed by the civil war between his father, the king, and the rebelling nobles, who requested the kings' adherence to the Magna Carta. In the year 1259, he sided with the baronial support of the Provisions of Oxford for a short time. Yet he remained loyal to the crown in the Second Barons’ War after reconciling with his father. After one of the great battles in this war, the battle of Lewes, Edward was even held hostage for a few months, before he escaped and joined his fathers fight against Simon de Montfort. Simon de Montfort, the leader of the rebelling Barons was finally defeated in the Battle of Evesham in 1265. After the rebellion of the barons was fought down and England was pacified, Edward felt he did not have a lot to do in England, so he went on the Ninth Crusade to the ‘Holy Land’. As was to be expected, the crusade turned out to be not so blessed by the Gods and accomplished little. On his way home in 1272, he was informed about his father’s death and when he arrived back to England in 1274, he ascended the throne and ruled until his death in 1307.
Longshanks spent most of his reign with the constitution of the common law, which among other reforms, brought about the institution of the parliament of nobles, who had to give consent to the decisions of the king.
His belligerent political decisions can be described as quite possessive. After suppressing a minor rebellion of the Welsh, he responded to their second attempt of rebellion with a conquest, that subjected Wales to English rule. Next, he made his advances to Scotland. After being invited by the Scottish to arbitrate a dispute between two possible successors of the Scottish throne, Edward simply claimed his own reign of the Scottish kingdom. The war that followed this decision went on after his death even though English victory seemed close at some points.
What should be taken from this brief overview of his life and reign is that he was a king of contrasts. His political decisions line out an ambivalent picture of his reign. One the one hand, he can be thanked for his contribution to the law and administration and his establishment of the Parliament as a permanent institution. Moreover, the initial request of the Scottish for him to decide about the succession of their throne indicates that he was a well-respected ruler. On the other hand, he can be criticized for his violent conduct of the Welsh and Scots as well as his uncompromising attitude towards his nobility that became evident in the Second Baron’s war.
ROBERT THE BRUCE
Robert I, known as Robert the Bruce, was the king of the Scots who secured Scotland's independence from England.
Robert was born on 11 July 1274 into an aristocratic Scottish family. Through his father, he was distantly related to the Scottish royal family. His mother had Gaelic antecedents. Bruce's grandfather was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne during a succession dispute in 1290 - 1292. The English king, Edward I, was asked to arbitrate and chose John Balliol to be king. Both Bruce and his father refused to back Balliol and supported Edward I's invasion of Scotland in 1296 to force Balliol to abdicate. Edward then ruled Scotland as a province of England.
Bruce then supported William Wallace's uprising against the English. After Wallace was defeated, Bruce's lands were not confiscated and in 1298, Bruce became a guardian of Scotland, with John Comyn, Balliol's nephew and Bruce's greatest rival for the Scottish throne In 1306, Bruce quarreled with Comyn and stabbed him in a church in Dumfries. He was outlawed by Edward and excommunicated by the pope. Bruce now proclaimed his right to the throne and on 27 March was crowned king at Scone. The following year, Bruce was deposed by Edward's army and forced to flee. His wife and daughters were imprisoned and three of his brothers executed. Robert spent the winter on the island off the coast of Antrim (Northern Ireland).
Returning to Scotland, Robert waged a highly successful guerrilla war against the English. At the Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, he defeated a much larger English army under Edward II, confirming the re-establishment of an independent Scottish monarchy. Two years later, his brother Edward Bruce was inaugurated as high king of Ireland but was killed in battle in 1318. Even after Bannockburn and the Scottish capture of Berwick in 1318, Edward II refused to give up his claim to the overlordship of Scotland. In 1320, the Scottish earls, barons and the 'community of the realm' sent a letter to Pope John XXII declaring that Robert was their rightful monarch. This was the 'Declaration of Arbroath' and it asserted the antiquity of the Scottish people and their monarchy.
Four years later, Robert received papal recognition as king of an independent Scotland. The Franco-Scottish alliance was renewed in the Treaty of Corbeil, by which the Scots were obliged to make war on England should hostilities break out between England and France. In 1327, the English deposed Edward II in favor of his son and peace was made with Scotland. This included a total renunciation of all English claims to superiority over Scotland. Robert died on 7 June 1329. He was buried at Dunfermline. He requested that his heart is taken to the Holy Land, but it only got as far as Spain. It was returned to Scotland and buried in Melrose Abbey.
STONE OF SCONE
The Stone of Scone is an ancient symbol of Scottish sovereignty. According to legend, the sandstone slab was used by the biblical figure Jacob as a pillow when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven and then brought to Scotland by way of Egypt, Spain and Ireland. The rock, also known as the Stone of Destiny, was used for centuries in the coronation ceremonies of Scottish monarchs.
The Celtic name of the stone upon which the true kings of Scotland have traditionally been crowned is Lia Fail, “the speaking stone”, or the stone which would proclaim the chosen king. When Kenneth I, the 36th King of Dalriada united the Scots and Pictish kingdoms and moved his capital to Scone from western Scotland around 840AD, the Stone of Destiny was moved there too.
Following his victory at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296, England’s King Edward I seized the stone from Scotland’s Scone Abbey and had it fitted into the base of a specially crafted wooden Coronation Chair on which English—and later British—monarchs have been crowned inside London’s Westminster Abbey ever since.. The stone, weighing 336 pounds (152 kg), is a rectangular block of pale yellow sandstone (almost certainly of Scottish origin) measuring 26 inches (66 cm) by 16 inches (41 cm) by 11 inches (28 cm). A Latin cross is its only decoration.
Still another interesting legend surrounding this mystical stone suggests that as King Edward I approached the palace, the monks of Scone hurriedly removed the Stone of Destiny and hid it, replacing it with another stone of similar size and shape. And it was this which the English King carried off in triumph back to London.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Stone-of-Destiny/
http://www.medievalwarfare.info/marshal.htm
https://www.ancient.eu/Sir_William_Marshal/
WILLIAM MARSHAL
William Marshal or William the Marshal born (1146-May 14, 1219). The name William Marshal sounds ordinary enough and could belong to any unremarkable Englishman. The chances are that you do not associate it with anyone of note.
William Marshal was one of the greatest men ever to have lived and arguably the greatest ever Englishman. He was one of the most celebrated knights of the Middle Ages. Renowned for his fighting skills, he remained undefeated in tournaments, spared the life of Richard I King of England (r. 1189-1199 CE) in battle, and rose to become Marshal and then Protector of the Kingdom - king in all but name.
Marshal became a guardian (1170) to Prince Henry, eldest son of King Henry II of England. He effectively became player-manager of the young King’s Anglo-Norman tournament team and for the next twelve years they fought alongside each other, aided by a team of up to 500 other knights, winning tourney after tourney. It was William’s job not only to devise the team tactics, but to act as minder to the young King, usually the most valuable prize on the tournament field. In 1187, four years after the prince’s death, Marshal reentered Henry II’s service and fought beside him in France until the king died in 1189. When Henry II died, Richard became king. Although they had fought only days before, Richard rewarded William by giving him the hand of Isabel de Clare, heiress to the states of Strongbow in England, Ireland, Normandy and Wales. And so at the age of 43 William married his 17-year-old bride, transforming the landless knight from a minor family into a great baron and one of the richest men in the kingdom.
In 1990 William was appointed to the Council of Regency which was left to govern the country when the Lionheart departed for the Holy Land at the head of the Third Crusade. He acted as the King's hands-on general in his continuing wars in France against King Philip II.
His physical fitness had helped him outlive three kings, and when King John died in 1216, William was made Regent of England and protector of the nine-year old Henry III.
Now aged 70, William had jus one more fight in him and at the Battle of Lincoln he led the King's army against an invading French force backed by rebel English barons.
Claiming to have captured more than 500 knights in his career, he apparently signed off with the admission "I cannot defend myself from death"
Finally, he died and shortly after William’s death, Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, described him as ‘the greatest knight that ever lived’ and his deeds and titles are such that the claim still seems justified today.
William Marshal was one of the greatest men ever to have lived and arguably the greatest ever Englishman. He was one of the most celebrated knights of the Middle Ages. Renowned for his fighting skills, he remained undefeated in tournaments, spared the life of Richard I King of England (r. 1189-1199 CE) in battle, and rose to become Marshal and then Protector of the Kingdom - king in all but name.
Marshal became a guardian (1170) to Prince Henry, eldest son of King Henry II of England. He effectively became player-manager of the young King’s Anglo-Norman tournament team and for the next twelve years they fought alongside each other, aided by a team of up to 500 other knights, winning tourney after tourney. It was William’s job not only to devise the team tactics, but to act as minder to the young King, usually the most valuable prize on the tournament field. In 1187, four years after the prince’s death, Marshal reentered Henry II’s service and fought beside him in France until the king died in 1189. When Henry II died, Richard became king. Although they had fought only days before, Richard rewarded William by giving him the hand of Isabel de Clare, heiress to the states of Strongbow in England, Ireland, Normandy and Wales. And so at the age of 43 William married his 17-year-old bride, transforming the landless knight from a minor family into a great baron and one of the richest men in the kingdom.
In 1990 William was appointed to the Council of Regency which was left to govern the country when the Lionheart departed for the Holy Land at the head of the Third Crusade. He acted as the King's hands-on general in his continuing wars in France against King Philip II.
His physical fitness had helped him outlive three kings, and when King John died in 1216, William was made Regent of England and protector of the nine-year old Henry III.
Now aged 70, William had jus one more fight in him and at the Battle of Lincoln he led the King's army against an invading French force backed by rebel English barons.
Claiming to have captured more than 500 knights in his career, he apparently signed off with the admission "I cannot defend myself from death"
Finally, he died and shortly after William’s death, Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, described him as ‘the greatest knight that ever lived’ and his deeds and titles are such that the claim still seems justified today.
http://www.medievalwarfare.info/marshal.htm
https://www.ancient.eu/Sir_William_Marshal/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Marshal-1st-earl-of-Pembroke
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/William-Marshal-Knights-Tale/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/William-Marshal-Knights-Tale/
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