Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/21

Edward I at London, where great feasts were held in honour of the king and queen of the Scots. His devotion to the chivalrous exercises and pleasures that became his age and station led him to neglect the administration of the vast estates and jurisdictions placed under his control He trusted too much to his officers, who were violent and exacting, and he was blamed for their evil doings. Nor was he by any means blameless even as regards his own acts. His followers were mostly foreigners, and he did not restrain them from acts of lawlessness and oppression. At Wallingford, for example, they made havoc of the goods of the priory, and illtreated the monks (ib, p. 593). And he set them a bad example, for Matthew Paris records as a specimen of his misdeeds how, apparently out of mere wanton cruelty, he horribly mutilated a young man whom he chanced to meet, an act which moved Englishmen greatly, and made them look forward with dread to the time when he should become king (ib, p. 598). With a father who was a Frenchman in tastes and habits, with a Provençal mother, and surrounded by foreign relations and followers, Edward in these his younger days is scarcely to be looked on as an Englishman, and his conduct is to be judged simply by the standard of what was held to become a young French noble. In one part of his possessions it was specially dangerous to excite discontent. Among the grants made him by his father in 1254 was the lordship of the Four Cantreds of Wales, the country that lay between the Conway and the Dee. Wales had long been a source of trouble to England, and her princes took advantage of every embarrassment that befell the English crown to add to its difficulties. As long as the country preserved its native laws and system of government it was impossible to reduce it to anything more than a state of nominal dependence, or to put an end to its power to do mischief. Moreover, as long as it remained virtually unconquered, the position of the lords marchers was almost that of petty sovereigns, and greatly weakened the authority of the crown. It is probable that Edward, young as he was, saw this, for he refused to recognise the native customs, and approved of an attempt made by one of his officers to enforce the introduction of English law. Unfortunately he did not see that this could only be carried out after a military conquest which the maladministration of Henry rendered impossible, and he chose as his lieutenant Geoffrey Langley, a greedy and violent man, who believed that he could treat the Welsh as a thoroughly conquered people, imposed a poll-tax of 15d. a head upon them, and tried to divide the land into counties and hundreds, or, in other words, to force the English system of administration upon them (Ann. Tewk. p. 158; Liber de Ant. Leg, p. 29). Llewelyn, the son of Gruffydd, took advantage of the discontent occasioned by these proceedings, and on 1 Nov. invaded the marches, and especially the lands of Edward's men. Edward borrowed four thousand marks of his uncle Richard to enable him to meet the Welsh,though as the winter was wet he was not able to do anything against them. The next year the Welsh invaded the marches with two large armies, and Edward applied to his father for help. 'What have I to do with it?' the king answered; 'I have given you the land,' and he told him to exert himself and strike terror into his enemies, for he was busy about other matters (, v. 614). He made an expedition in company with his son, and stayed a while at Gannoch Castle, but no good was done. Edward, in spite of his large income, was pressed for money to carry on the war, and in 1258 pledged some of his estates to William de Valence, his uncle, a step which was held to promise badly for his future reign, for William was the richest of the host of foreigners who preyed on the country. He also endeavoured to alienate the Isle of Oléron to Guy of Lusignan, but this was forbidden by the king, and he was forced a few days later to revoke his deed (Fœdera, i. 663, 670). The Welsh made an alliance with the Scottish barons, and the war, which was shamefully mismanaged, assumed serious proportions, and added to the general discontent excited by the extravagance of the court and the general maladministration of the government.

This discontent was forcibly expressed in the demand made by the parliament which met at Westminster in April, that the work of reform should be committed to twenty-four barons, and on the 30th Edward joined his father in swearing to submit to their decisions (Ann. Tewk, p. 164). A scheme of reform, which virtually put the government of the kingdom into the hands of a baronial council, was drawn up by the parliament of Oxford. Edward upheld his uncles in their refusal to surrender their castles; he appears to have been constrained to accompany the barons to Winchester, where his uncles were besieged in the castle, and did not swear to observe the provisions of Oxford until after they and the other aliens who held it had been forced to surrender. Four counsellors were appointed for him who were to carry out a reform of his household (Ann, Burt, p. 445). Some disagreement arose between Edward and his father at Winchester, and a reconciliation