tion for piety, and the cordial recognition of his rights throughout the country, gave promise of a peaceful and prosperous reign; nor was the hope thus awakened altogether disappointed. Though the king's deficiency in strength of character unfitted him for great enterprises, and the turbulent Welsh were but feebly checked in their incursions, the period was one of improvement. A digest of the laws was prepared; the remission of the tax called Danegelt removed a heavy burden from the community; there was no foreign war, except the honourable and successful expedition of the renowned Northumbrian, Earl Siward, into Scotland, for the support of Malcolm Canmore against Macbeth; and the frequent intercourse with Normandy, whose ruler, Duke William, on one occasion, paid a friendly visit to the English court, infused more refinement into the national customs and manners. The only serious interruption to tranquillity and progress arose out of the rebellion of Godwin. The favour shown to the Normans, who repaired in considerable numbers to Edward's court, was rankling in his bosom, when the count of Boulogne, on landing at Dover, came to blows with the citizens; and, after a furious assault, in which many of them were slain, took refuge with the king at Gloucester. Godwin and his two sons immediately raised a large force, and marched into Gloucestershire, demanding the surrender of the count, who was married to the king's sister. But meanwhile Siward and the wise Leofric, earl of Mercia; had been summoned to the aid of their sovereign; and Godwin consented to have the case referred to the witenagemote or national council; its decision was adverse to him, and he deemed it prudent to retire with his family to Flanders. It was at this time, in 1051, that William of Normandy paid his visit to England; but, in the following year, the sons of Godwin invaded the country with a strong band of Irish rovers; and the earl himself speedily followed at the head of a force collected on the continent. The impending struggle was likely to be fierce; and the resources of the sovereign at that period were not such as to exclude uncertainty respecting its issue. Accordingly, Stigand, the primate, counselled a compromise, which was accepted on both sides: a decree was passed for the banishment of the Normans, and the insurgent earl was reinstated in his former dignities. He died, however, in the following year, having been struck down by some sudden and fatal malady at the royal table, where the conversation had turned on the murder of Prince Alfred. His son Sweyne, stained with the blood of his cousin Beorn, sought relief in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, from which he never returned; and the family influence fell to Harold and Tostig. Their subsequent quarrels with the rival house of Leofric troubled the country for many years, occasioning battle and bloodshed in Northumbria and on the Welsh borders. But these feudal conflicts, while they indicated the weakness of the government, were not directly adverse to the stability of Edward's throne; and he died in peace in 1066, with that reputation for temperance and devotion which procured his canonization and his surname of the Confessor.—W. B.
EDWARD I., King of England, born in 1238, was the eldest son of Henry III., and of Eleanor his queen. He gave early indications of the great ability and energy by which he was characterized; and during the war between his father and the barons, headed by the famous Simon Montfort, earl of Leicester, Prince Edward was the life and soul of the royal party; but his impetuosity in attacking the Londoners at the great battle of Lewes (14th May, 1264), and his eagerness in pursuing them when they fled from the field, contributed mainly to the total defeat of the royalists, and the capture of the king and his brother and of the prince himself In the following year, however, Edward by a stratagem regained his liberty, and raised a powerful army with which he attacked and defeated Leicester at Evesham, and completely broke the power of the barons' party. The prince followed up his victory with great energy, but so desperate was the resistance of the defeated party, that, after the lapse of two years, he was fain to relax the severity of his first measures, and to make peace with them on moderate terms. As soon as the country was tranquillized, Prince Edward took the cross, and, with his wife and a powerful train of barons and knights, set out for the Holy Land in July, 1270. Louis IV. of France, who had preceded him in the crusade, instead of sailing for Syria, had turned aside to attack the bey of Tunis, and Edward resolved to join his forces to those of the French monarch. But on his arrival he found that Louis, along with half of his army, had already perished from the heat of the climate, the scarcity of provisions, and the pestilential atmosphere of the place. Undiscouraged by this disaster, the prince, after passing the winter in Sicily, proceeded to the Holy Land, where he signalized himself by many gallant feats of arms, but tarnished his glory by the cruel massacre of the Turks when Nazareth was taken by storm. His valour rendered him so formidable to the enemy, that the emir of Jaffa employed an assassin to murder him; but, though wounded with a poisoned dagger, the prince ultimately recovered through the skill of his physician, assisted by the grand master of the Templars. There appears to be no truth, however, in the common story that his wife, Eleanor, sucked the poison from her husband's wound. Meanwhile his presence was urgently required in England, where, under the feeble rule of his father, disorders of every kind prevailed. Feeling himself totally unequal to the burden of public affairs, Henry entreated his son to return home, and Edward, apparently tired of waging a profitless war, gladly accepted the proposals of peace made at this juncture by the sultan. A truce was concluded for two years, and the prince quitted Palestine for Sicily, where he first received the news of his father's death. He remained, however, for some time in Italy, and visited Rome, Milan, and other towns, where his reputation as the champion of the cross obtained for him an enthusiastic welcome. He then crossed the Alps, and spent nearly a year in France. It was not until the 2nd August, 1274, that he at length landed at Dover, after an absence of more than four years, and was welcomed with the most joyful acclamations. On the 19th of the same month he was crowned at Westminster abbey along with his queen. The new king immediately set himself to remedy the disorders which during his absence had crept into the various departments of government, and to protect the people from the oppression of the great barons. His measures, however, were not unfrequently both cruel and unjust, and his treatment of the Jews, especially, is a deep stain on his memory.
Not content with robbing and banishing the Jews, Edward sought to improve his resources by a strict inquiry into the value of escheated forfeitures and wardships, and by attempting to remove what he chose to regard as encroachments upon the royal domains; but on questioning the titles by which some of the great barons held their estates, he roused a spirit of resistance which compelled him to desist. The powerful Earl Warrene, on being asked to show his titles, drew his sword, and said—"By this instrument do I hold my lands, and by the same do I intend to defend them." The activity and ambition of Edward now took a new direction. A mutual jealousy had long existed between the king of England and the princes of Wales; and Llewellyn, the reigning sovereign of the principality, had been a firm supporter of Simon de Montfort and the barons, in their struggles with the crown. Edward, who had long meditated the subjugation of Wales, intrigued with the subjects of Llewellyn seized and detained his bride, the daughter of the deceased earl of Leicester, and having by these measures excited the suspicion and wrath of the Welsh prince, required him to come to the English court and do homage for his crown. Llewellyn, asked for hostages and for the previous liberation of his bride. His demands were of course refused, and Edward having thus obtained a plausible pretext for the step he had previously resolved to take, invaded Wales at the head of a powerful army in the summer of 1277. The Welsh prince took refuge in the fastnesses of his native mountains, where, on the approach of winter, he was ultimately compelled by famine to submit to the terms of the invader. The insolence and oppression of the conquerors, however, roused the indignation of the Welsh, and in spite of their inferiority in numbers and resources, they again flew to arms. The struggle lasted longer than might have been expected from the disparity of force on the part of the combatants. The Welsh fought with the utmost desperation, and worsted their enemies in several encounters; but in the end Llewellyn was surprised and slain by the earl of Mortimer, along with two thousand of his followers. His brother David, who continued the hopeless contest for several months longer, was chased from one place of refuge to another, and at length betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He was tried at Shrewsbury in September, 1283, before the peers of England, and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitor; and the sentence was executed to the letter. The principality of Wales was then annexed to the English crown, and thenceforth conferred upon the king's eldest son.
