Edward I/Citable Version
Edward I, 1272-1307, also known as Edward 'the Longshanks' and Edward 'hammer of the Scots', was named after the legendary Anlo-Saxon King, Edward the Confessor, one of the last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings by his father Henry III. Edward is often regarded as one of Englands finest medieval Kings, but has in recent years received heavy criticism from certain historians and from Hollywood in the epic film Braveheart.
Early Life
Edward was born in June 1239 at Westminster. He received a good education, due to the devotion of his parents to the arts (notably Eleanor of Provence) with emphasis on Latin and French. In 1254 he travelled to Spain to marry Eleanor of Castille and at around the same time he recieved Gascony from his father, a land he would share a lot of love for in the future and which would influence his foreign policy quite profoundly.
Henry III was a weak King who constantly struggled with his barons, who erupted into a Civil War in which Edward was forced to defend his father when he was only a young man. In this he managed to continue the legacy of the great warrior princes such as Richard I with the notable difference being that while Richard rebelled against his own father, Henry II in Aquitaine on a regular basis, Edward I fought on the side of his father leading the royalist troops to victory at Evesham on 4 August, 1265.
External Links
Work in progress, references and full bibliography on the way