Introduction to Edward
Edward , the name of a number of English kings.
Edward the Elder
(870?–924), king of the Angles and Saxons, ruled 899–924. The son of Alfred the Great, he continued his father's policy of unifying England. Edward began the conquest of the Danelaw, the northeastern part of England held by the Danes. He also annexed Mercia, a vassal kingdom in central England. The rulers of Northumbria and of Scotland acknowledged Edward as their overlord.
Edward the Martyr (963?–978)
reigned 975–78. He succeeded his father Edgar the Peaceful (Alfred's grandson). Because Edward was only 12 when he took the throne, many of the affairs of state were handled by his advisers, notably Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward was murdered, probably by order of his stepmother, Aelfthryth. Her son Ethelred II, called the Unready, became king.
Edward the Confessor (1002?–1066)
ruled 1042–66. He was the last king of Alfred's line. Edward was called “the Confessor” because of his extreme religious devotion. When the Danes invaded England in 1013. Edward's family fled to Normandy. He lived there until 1041, when he returned to England. In 1042, Hardecanute, the last of the Danish rulers, died. Edward, supported by Godwin, earl of Wessex, was chosen king by the Witan, a council of lay and ecclesiastic leaders. Godwin gained influence in Edward's court by arranging marriage between his daughter and the king.
Edward surrounded himself with Norman advisers, who had come to England with him when he returned from exile in 1041. Godwin opposed some of the king's policies, and at the instigation of the Normans Edward drove him into exile in 1051. With the support of powerful English nobles, he returned in 1052 and expelled the Normans. Edward then concentrated on his religious interests and left governing to Godwin. During this time, he founded Westminster Abbey. After Godwin's death, his son Harold became the king's chief adviser.
Edward had no children. The Witan elected Harold as Edward's successor in 1066. Later that same year, Edward's cousin, William, duke of Normandy, claimed the throne and conquered England.
Edward was proclaimed a saint by Pope Alexander III in 1161. His feast day is October 13.
Edward I
(1239–1307) ruled 1272–1307. He was the son of Henry III. Edward was called “Longshanks” because of his height. An able general and statesman, he is considered the greatest of the Plantagenet kings of England.
Edward IAs prince, Edward joined his father in the struggle against the growing power of Simon de Montfort and the French barons who supported him. At the Battle of Lewes in 1264, the royal army was routed and Edward and his father became prisoners of Montfort. Edward escaped and raised an army, which defeated Montfort's forces at Evesham in 1265. In 1270 he planned to join in what proved to be the last crusade in the Holy Land, but he arrived after the campaign had ended. While returning to England in 1272, Edward became king upon the death of his father.
In the late 1270's, Edward carried out many legal reforms. He strengthened the royal government, reformed the royal courts, restricted the feudal courts of the barons, and compelled the church courts to confine their work to church cases. Because of these reforms, historians have called him the “English Justinian.”
Edward forbade further grants of land to the church without royal consent. In 1290 he ordered all Jews to leave England.
Edward had to make concessions to his people to get money for his wars in Wales, Scotland, and France. In 1295 he called together not only the barons and prelates but also representatives of the lower clergy and of the counties and boroughs. This assembly was later called the Model Parliament because it was the base for the future development of England's parliamentary system. Edward confirmed the Magna Charta, which King John had signed in 1215, and agreed not to collect taxes without the consent of Parliament.
For 200 years, the Welsh had resisted English attempts to rule their country. In 1284, Edward defeated the Welsh and made Wales an English principality. He introduced English laws and encouraged commerce.
When the throne of Scotland became vacant in 1290 the Scottish leaders asked Edward to choose a king from among the claimants. He appointed a group of judges who chose John Baliol, who then did homage to the English king. The Scots resented Edward's overlordship and revolted in 1296. Edward invaded Scotland and carried off the Scottish coronation stone (the Stone of Scone) to Westminster Abbey. The Scots revolted again, under William Wallace. Wallace was captured in 1305 and was beheaded as a traitor. The Scots found a new leader in Robert Bruce. In 1307 Edward led his army to the Scottish border, but he died before the beginning of the campaign.
Edward II
(1284–1327) reigned 1307–27. He was the son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile. In 1301 he was given the title “Prince of Wales,” the first English prince to bear this title. Edward, unlike his father, was weak and incompetent, always steered by others. One of these was his favorite, Peter Gaveston, who was murdered in 1312 on the order of one of Edward's cousins, Thomas of Lancaster.
In 1314 Edward tried to complete the conquest of Scotland started by his father. He was thoroughly beaten by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn. Within England, there was much strife among the barons, and between king and barons. Edward found new favorites in the powerful Despenser family. Their influence was undermined by Edward's wife, Queen Isabelle, a native of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer. Isabelle and Mortimer forced Edward to abdicate in favor of his young son, who became Edward III. A few months later, they had Edward II murdered.
Edward III
(1312–1377) ruled 1327–77. Edward was placed on the throne at the age of 14 after his father, Edward II, was forced to abdicate. For several years Isabelle, the queen mother, and her lover Mortimer were the real rulers. In 1330 the young king arrested his mother, had Mortimer put to death on the charge of murdering Edward II, and began to rule in his own right.
Edward renewed the old war with Scotland, and fighting dragged on for many years. However, he gave most of his attention to war with France. Edward laid claim, through his mother, to the French throne. Philip VI of France wished to drive Edward from his duchy of Aquitaine in southwestern France. The long series of conflicts called the Hundred Years' War opened in 1337. In 1346 Edward's army won a complete victory over the French at Crécy, and in 1347 took the port of Calais. In 1356 the king's son, Edward the Black Prince, defeated the French at Poitiers and captured King John II of France, Philip's successor. By the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) King Edward gained undisputed sovereignty over Aquitaine.
Meanwhile the Black Death struck England in 1348 and 1349, causing the death of one-third or more of the people. As workers became scarce, prices and wages rose. Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers in an attempt to freeze prices and wages. The law was hard to enforce, however.
During Edward's reign the people of England became unified in language. After the Norman Conquest of 1066 the upper classes spoke French, while the common people used Anglo-Saxon, or Old English. In 1362 Parliament passed a law requiring the use of English in law courts.
Edward IIIBecause Edward was more interested in the conduct of war than in domestic affairs, Parliament gained new powers during his reign and became established as a permanent part of the government. The House of Lords and the House of Commons began to take their present forms.
Edward's reign ended in failure. After the war with France broke out again in 1369 the English armies were defeated. When a truce was arranged in 1375, Edward held only a few small possessions in France. Within England there was sharp division between two parties, which were led by the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, sons of the king. The Black Prince died in 1376. When Edward III died in 1377 he was succeeded by the oldest son of the Black Prince, who became Richard II.
Edward IV
(1442–1483) ruled 1461–70 and 1471–83. He was king during most of the civil war called the Wars of the Roses, a long struggle between the rival houses of Lancaster and York. Edward was the son of Richard, duke of York, the Yorkist leader. From 1422 to 1461 the throne was occupied by a Lancastrian, Henry VI, who became insane. Various nobles tried to get control of the king and rule in his name. The duke of York became regent for two periods. In 1460 York openly claimed the crown, and was promised the succession, but soon was killed at the Battle of Wakefield.
Edward IVEdward then claimed the crown, defeated the Lancastrians in battle, deposed Henry, and had himself crowned. He had the support of Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, “the Kingmaker,” who became the real ruler. In 1464 Edward crushed a Lancastrian revolt and massacred many of his enemies. While Warwick was trying to arrange a marriage between the king and a French princess, Edward secretly married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Woodville, Earl Rivers. Edward showered favors on his father-in-law and gave him high office.
In 1469 Warwick led a revolt, defeated and captured the king, and put Woodville to death. The next year, however, Warwick was forced into exile, but he soon returned with a Lancastrian army. Henry VI was restored, and Edward fled to the Netherlands. Edward returned in 1471, defeated his enemies, killed Warwick, and regained the crown. Henry was sent to the Tower of London and died there. Edward's power was then secure. In 1475 Edward engaged in war with France but made peace when he was offered a subsidy.
Edward obtained money by demanding benevolences (forced gifts) from his subjects. Since he did not need to ask Parliament for taxes he had little reason to summon it, and Parliamentary power suffered a decline during his reign.
Edward V
(1470–1483) reigned in 1483. When his father, Edward IV, died, the 12-year-old boy became Edward V. Edward IV's brother Richard, duke of Gloucester, was named protector of the kingdom. Before the young king could be crowned, Parliament proclaimed the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville invalid and their children illegitimate. Gloucester became king as Richard III.
The fate of Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, duke of York, is not known. Tudor historians accused Richard III of imprisoning them in the Tower of London and having them killed. In 1502 Richard's successor, Henry VII, had Sir James Tyrrell beheaded as punishment for taking part in a conspiracy. Henry announced that Tyrrell, just before his death, confessed to having the princes killed on Richard's order. Many modern scholars doubt the confession was made. In 1674 two skeletons were found in the Tower. Scientific studies made in 1933 showed the skeletons could have been those of the princes. But there is still debate as to whether Richard or Henry had the children killed.
Edward VI
(1537–53) reigned 1547–53. He was the son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour. Because of Edward's youth, a protector advised the king on matters of government. The protector and the privy council were the real rulers during Edward's reign. The first protector was the king's uncle, Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset. He was driven from power in 1549 by the privy council and was later put to death. The second protector was the duke of Northumberland. He purged the Catholic influences from the doctrine of the Church of England and helped prepare a Book of Common Prayer to standardize the service.
Edward VIEdward died of complications arising from tuberculosis. Northumberland persuaded the dying king to sign a will excluding his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth from the succession and leaving the throne to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey (who was Northumberland's daughter-in-law). Parliament and the English people, however, supported Mary, and she became queen.
Edward VII
(1841–1910) reigned 1901–10. He was king of Great Britain and Ireland and of “all the British Dominions beyond the Seas,” and emperor of India. Edward was the monarch of the British Empire when it was at the height of its power. Edward was the son of Queen Victoria and the prince consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Edward was made Prince of Wales soon after his birth. He was educated by private tutors, and later studied at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge universities. He visited Canada and the United States in 1860. Later he traveled through India and other parts of the British Empire, toured Palestine and other lands of the Middle East, and visited many countries of Europe. In 1863 he married Alexandra, daughter of Christian IX of Denmark. They had five children. Their oldest son, Albert, died in 1892. The second son became George V.
In 1863 Edward was admitted to the Privy Council and as duke of Cornwall took his seat in the House of Lords. However, Victoria excluded him from state affairs until shortly before her death in 1901. Edward gave most of his time to sport and travel. He was popular in social circles, was a patron of the arts and theater, and was fond of yachting, horse racing, shooting, cricket, and other sports. He was harshly criticized by some for his love affairs, which were especially shocking in view of the stern moral views of the era.
Edward filled his mother's place at many public affairs when she began to spend much of her time in retirement. He became noted for his tact and kindly disposition.
When Edward came to the throne in 1901 he was nearly 60. He reigned as a constitutional monarch, but still exerted a great influence over his ministers by the warmth of his personality.
By 1901 the traditional British policy of “splendid isolation” had left Great Britain without any close allies among the great powers. King Edward visited many of the European capitals and came to be called the “Peace-maker” because he helped create a favorable atmosphere for friendly relations with other powers. His efforts helped pave the way for the Triple Entente, an informal alliance between Great Britain, France, and Russia. Edward's efforts to ease the strained relations between Great Britain and Germany by trying to develop a rapport with his nephew Kaiser William II were not successful.
Edward VIII
(1894–1972), later known as Duke of Windsor, reigned for 11 months during 1936. He was the only king in British history to give up the throne voluntarily. Edward was the oldest son of George V and Queen Mary. He was educated by private tutors and studied at the Royal Naval College and Oxford University. After his father came to the throne in 1910 Edward became duke of Cornwall and soon afterwards was made Prince of Wales. During World War I he was with the army in France, Belgium, Egypt, and Italy. He wanted his full share of danger and resented the restrictions on his activities.
After World War I Edward became a “traveling ambassador” of good will. He made a series of royal tours that took him around the world visiting parts of the British Empire. In 1919 he also stopped in the United States. He showed concern for the working classes and the underprivileged at home and abroad. He was an enthusiastic sportsman. As a bachelor Prince of Wales, he was the center of many matrimonial rumors.
Edward reigned from January 20 to December 11, 1936, but was never crowned. He abdicated in order to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Warfield Simpson. (The British government opposed this union because of the king's role as titular head of the Church of England; the church forbade divorced persons to remarry and would not recognize his marriage to Mrs. Simpson.) After his abdication he was made Duke of Windsor by his brother, George VI. Edward married Mrs. Simpson in June, 1937. During World War II he served briefly as a major general with British forces in France. He was governor of the Bahama Islands, 1940–45, then lived mostly in France.
Edward's memoirs, A King's Story (1951), later became the basis for a documentary film of the same title.