King Edward I Coin Pendant

Edward I, called longshanks was King of England of the House of Plantagenet between the years 1272 and 1307 AD. The eldest son of King Henry III, at 15 he married Eleanor of Castile.

Greater than any other problem Edward encountered, and there were many with which he dealt quite effectively, was the problem with Scotland. When he agreed to arbitrate among the various claimants to the Scottish throne, Edward, in 1291, exacted, as a prior condition, the recognition by all concerned of his overlordship of Scotland. The Scots later repudiated him and made an alliance with France against England.

In 1296, after invading and conquering Scotland, he declared himself king of that realm. In 1298 he again was required to invade Scotland to suppress the revolt led by Sir William Wallace, called “Braveheart.” In winning the battle of Falkirk, against Wallace, in 1298, Edward achieved the greatest military triumph of his career, but he failed to crush Scottish opposition, and thus was born the passion of Edwards’ life, the conquest of Scotland. A goal he was not to achieve in his lifetime, but his efforts to reach it would give history one of its most adventurous tales.