Edward I - English Monarchs Animated History Documentary

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Edward I was King of England from for 35 years from 1272 to 1307.

He’s the fifth of 14 Plantagenet Kings who ruled England between 1154 and 1485. The son of Henry III and the grandson of King John who we covered in previous videos.

He’s best known for bringing the Welsh under English rule and for having Scottish leader William Wallace - the subject of Mel Gibson’s 1995 very very historically accurate film Braveheart - executed and for expelling all Jews from England … an edict that would only be officially overturned under Oliver Cromwell some 350 years later.

Edward was born in 1239. At that point his father Henry III had been King for 23 years - if this seems like a long time, bear in mind Henry had been crowned when he was just nine.

A powerful well built fellow at 6’2” Edward was nicknamed Edward Longshanks (a reference to his long legs).

When he was 15 his father married him off to Eleanor of Castille and he would have 15 children with her, nine of which tragically died in childhood.

His eldest surviving son Edward - who would inherit the crown as Edward II - was the last of his children with Eleanor.

In 1258 his father Henry III was forced to sign the Provisions of Oxford, constitutional reforms designed to limit his powers.

But by the mid 1260s the English barons had got it into their heads that he was about to reclaim these powers - the barons revolted.

Led by the powerful Earl of Leicester Simon de Montford, the rebels declared war on the king.

Prince Edward, by then a powerful warrior, was captured at the Battle of Lewes in 1264.

Incredibly though, the burly prince Edward escaped and killed de Montford at the Battle of Evesham in 1265.

The rebellion over, Edward set off to join the 9th Crusade in 1268 - the latest attempt to capture Jerusalem - leading a military campaign, but almost falling victim to a Syrian assassin.

Finally in 1272, his father King Henry III died and Edward was King.