Pactum Serva. SEELEY, JACKSON, & HALLIDAY, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCLXXII. London : Printed by Simmons & Botten , Shoe Lane, E.C....

The volume entitled “The Greatest of the Plantagenets,” was correctly described in its title‐page, as “an Historical Sketch.” Nothing more than this was contemplated by the writer. The compilation was made among the manuscripts of the British Museum, in the leisure mornings of one spring and summer; and so soon as a fair copy had been taken, it was handed to the printer. The work was regarded as little else than a contribution towards an accurate review of what is both the most interesting and t

On the night of June 17–18, 1239, Queen Eleanor, the consort of Henry III., presented her husband with a son, who was born in the Palace of Westminster, and who was instantly, says the old chronicler, named by the king, “Edward, after the glorious king and confessor, whose body rests in the church of St. Peter,” immediately adjoining. The event was greeted by the nobles and by the people of London with great manifestations of joy: by the citizens more especially, because the young prince was bor

The death of Henry III. took place in Westminster on the 16th of November, 1272, and he was buried on the 20th, in front of the great altar in that noble church, on the uprearing of which he had lavished so much treasure. At the close of the funeral, earl Warenne, the earl of Gloucester, and all the chief of the clergy and laity there present, went forward to the high altar, and swore fealty to king Edward. Three guardians or regents immediately entered upon the government of the realm—namely Ed

The key‐note struck by Bracton seems never to have ceased vibrating in the minds of Edward and his chancellor. “Let the king render to the law, what the law hath invested in him with regard to others, dominion and power.” “The king hath a superior—namely, God—and also the law, by which he was made a king.” Duty, the pressure of moral obligation, is as constantly present in Edward’s mind as, six centuries after, it was in the mind of Arthur Wellesley. We have seen it recognized at Marlborough, in

The prime or maturity of Edward’s life was spent in works of quiet usefulness. The rebellion and reduction of Wales formed, indeed, an apparent exception; but the period of actual hostility on this occasion was very short. Edward was forced by the sudden outbreak of Llewellyn and David, to draw the sword; but it was returned to its scabbard in a very few weeks. Prejudiced historians have delighted in describing this sovereign as a man who, like the great Corsican of the beginning of the present

The autumn of the year 1290 was a solemn epoch in this great king’s life. In this autumn died his beloved Eleanor; in this autumn died, also, “the maiden of Norway,” the young queen of Scotland, whose death ushered in so many troubles. Halcyon skies had for a whole quarter of a century gilded Edward’s course and prospects; but a few weeks sufficed to end the sunshine of his prosperous career. From the battle of Evesham, in 1265, to the death of his queen, and the opening of the Scottish controve

The year 1290, as we have already observed, was the disastrous one which ended Edward’s peaceful career, and involved him, without any purpose or desire of his own, in troubles and strife for the rest of his days. The death of a young princess, at a distance of five hundred miles from Edward’s dominions, involved the northern part of the island in troubles which he alone had power to quell. His interposition, earnestly and loudly called for, became, apparently, inevitable. But, when once engaged

At the close of 1292, Edward returned to England, doubtless with much content and satisfaction, having, apparently, accomplished one great object of his life—the unification of the island of Britain. Its conquest, which is too often described as the end he had in view, was never desired by him; but to bring the whole land into unity, so far as to render internal wars impossible, had been his object from the commencement of his reign. He found Alexander, king of Scotland, and Llewellyn, prince of

Edward had now, apparently, achieved a great and important object, and he returned in the autumn of 1296 to his palace of Westminster, the undisputed sovereign of both islands, and of all the territories contained within them. But his fifty‐ninth year, to which he was now approaching, was destined to prove one of the most trying and difficult conjunctures of his life. He had established his dominion over the whole realm; had frustrated one of Philip’s main designs, by crushing the Scottish rebel

We come now to a passage in this history which is beset with more than ordinary difficulties. Romance has entered the field, and has nearly thrust truth out of it. “Wallace,” 82 as he is called in modern times, has been elevated to a similar place in Scottish story that Arthur holds in English, and Patrick or Brian Boru in that of Ireland; but with this difference, that while nobody in England takes “the romaunt of Arthur” to be a history,—in Scotland “the romaunt of Wallace” has by degrees occu

The rebellion commenced by Wallace had now been crushed, and that leader had been consigned to the obscurity from which he only emerged to ascend the scaffold; but the pacification of Scotland did not immediately follow. Edward had lost much of the elasticity of youth; the bloody fields of Stirling and Falkirk, and the ravage of Cumberland, in 1297, were not likely to make either Scotchmen or Englishmen more placable or friendly; and the disturbing elements introduced into the question by France

We have purposely omitted one topic of dispute which occupied Edward much during the latter years of his life, reserving it for a distinct consideration. We now return to this subject, intending, if possible, to bring the whole of these transactions into one connected view. In speaking of the parliament of Lincoln a few pages back, we noticed the occurrence of this question, but it occupied much time in several other parliaments besides that of Lincoln. It gave rise to a strife which continued d

Some historians, in recounting the events of Edward’s reign, have spoken of three, or even of four conquests of Scotland. But, strictly speaking, the term can only be applied to his first march through the kingdom, in 1296; and his last great expedition, in 1303–4. On both of these occasions the land was thoroughly possessed and quieted; and when Edward returned to England, he left not behind him, in all Scotland, in the open field, one declared foe. Our present chapter will be given to the desc

Properly to understand the portion of history to which we are now coming, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Bruces with whom Edward had dealings, were three—the father, the son, and the grandson. The first was the competitor for the crown in 1291, 1292. This Robert de Brus, or Bruce, died in 1295; leaving a son, also Robert de Brus, who was through life Edward’s faithful and familiar friend. This, the second of the three, died in 1304, and was followed by his son, the third of the same na

I., page 93 . A YEAR’S EXPENDITURE OF THE KING. It is now more than eighty years since the Society of Antiquarians published “The Account of the Comptroller of the Wardrobe, of the twenty‐eighth year of king Edward I., A.D. 1299–1300;” and it is probable that few of the readers of this volume have ever seen that publication. It seems desirable, therefore, to give, in this place, a brief sketch of that Account, the whole details of which form a quarto volume. We shall confine ourselves to a few g