ESTIMATES OF THE ENGLISH KINGS.

IX.—EDWARD I.

THE descent of character from generation to generation is- liable to great surprises,' and full of strange seeming caprices of nature, but never in the course of history has there- been a more singular contrast presented in the characters of a father and son than in the case of Henry III. and Edward L. With Henry the intellectual calibre of the Plantagenets seemed to have sunk to the lowest point, just as with John the moral type had been most deeply degraded. With Edward, the intellectual capacity rose again almost, if not quite, to the highest standard of the family, while morally there was a corresponding and nearly equal elevation of tone. If we do not assign to Edward. the rank of absolutely the greatest of our mediaeval kings, it is not on account of any deficiency in the breadth and nobleness of his ultimate ends, but on account of a certain. narrowness in his conceptions of social relations which in the latter years of his life became more and more apparent in the measures to which he bad recourse, and which tarnished his reputation with something of the spasmodic violence of unskilful statesman- ship. Still, this was only a shortcoming in a truly grand career, an imperfection in an otherwise remarkable combination of mental and moral greatness,—a blot on one of the fairest escutcheons that has ever hung in the armoury of kingly achievements. We feel that to do justice to a character so strong and so distinctly marked in its main features, and yet so complex as a constituent whole, is. no easy task ; and we give our estimate with some hesitation, and with a sense of being open to misunderstanding on the part of our readers, from the difficulty we have experienced in making the- matter clear to our own mind.

Edward succeeded to the throne in the very prime of manhood,. not as an untried man, but well known (so far as his character had as yet developed itself) to a nation towards which he bad performed the two functions of repression and conciliation, and filled the successive positions of the enemy to insurrection for liberty, and the moderator of a triumphant reaction. He may as well perhaps be introduced to us in the words written after his career was run, but while the memory of his person and the general fashion of his life was still fresh in the minds of English- men. A contemporary—John of London—thus describes him in a " Commemoratio " addressed to Edward's widow, Queen Margaret, and though allowance must be made for flattering exaggeration, the

the underlying stratum of his personal character. another his strong personal identification with the Law gave to

Edward stands out in contrast to the Sovereigns who had imme- even his most unsympathizing acts something of the effect of a diately preceded him in the distinctive character of a Founder, personal contact between his mind and that of each of the subjects Since the Conqueror there had been no King of England possessing of his administration. Thus while he sank Person in System, he so good a title to that epithet; for though there was much in Henry personified System itself, and to obey the Law became a synonym II. which belonged to the same type of intellect, yet, owing, no in the minds of all for obedience to Edward.

doubt, in part to the peculiar circumstances of his reign, he did That his legality and systematizing should have been thus blended not inaugurate any organic change in English society that was with intense personality arose, no doubt, from another side of so permanently influential as that which we owe to the personal Edward's character—that in which be presents himself to us as characteristics of Edward. Henry, indeed, re-established social a self-willed man, with strong, absolutist tendencies—imperious, order and a system of administrative justice ; but the ideas which impatient of restraints, with all the insensibility to suffering in lay at the root of his government belonged to a transitional era in others of one who is strong in endurance himself. That there was civilization, while those on which the polity of Edward was built this element—to some extent a conflicting element—in the charac- up still form constituent elements in our social and political con- ter of Edward there can be little doubt. It was decidedly in the stitution at the present day. If to the Barons in the time of ascendant during the first and during the last periods of his life— John and Henry III. we are indebted for the preservation of the before experience, and the study of his great master and enemy, earlier landmarks of our national liberties, and the progressive De Montfort, had sobered him into statesmanship, and again, in conservatism of our national spirit, and if to Simon de Montfort advancing age, when bodily infirmities and disappointed scheming in particular we owe the first emphatic recognition of the bodies of had weakened and embittered his mind. But in the prime of his our representative government, it is to Edward I. that we must in life, which includes the largest portion of his reign, Edward's justice refer the first regular operation of our present constitutional mind was a happy union of these two strangely-coupled elements, system as the established order of things, recognized as such, each of which supplemented and connected the other. He was not however unwillingly, by the King as well as by the other bodies of quite unbearably systematic, because he was also so strongly per- the State. Thenceforward the Constitutional system in England sonal in his acts. He was not too imperiously absolutist in his gained a vantage-ground of precedent from which not all the ideas, because he had so strong a feeling as to the established anarchy and misgovernment of succeeding generations were able to rights of others. He was not implacable or unforgiving in many of dislodge it, and with this reign the history of the "English Con- the great crises of his career, because he was personally so strong stitution," as distinctively so called, may be said to begin, and self-reliant as to scorn thn feebleness of revenge on those who There was much in Edward's character to render him peculiarly were for the time powerless. He had too strong an association in qualified to undertake the great office of the inaugurator of a system his mind between wise mercy and justice itself to be wantonly or of government. He combined the excessive regard for prescriptive willingly cruel. It is a fact, that if we except the few last years of rights and precedents, which is our national characteristic, with the his life, there is scarcely one, if one, of our English Kings who can love of system and the administrative martinetism of our French compare with the poet's "ruthless King" in acts of leniency and neighbours. The excessive legality of his mind has been remarked repeated forgiveness of injuries. That the fiercer spirit was only upon,* and was at once its strength and its weakness. He chained, not permanently exorcized, became too apparent ere his worshipped precedent, and prescriptive rights found in him a reign closed ; but the provocation which led to the snapping of

the restraining bonds had been very great, and while we con-

• we are indebted for our reference to this essential point in the character of demn and deplore the actual outbreak, we must give additional Edward to Mr. Pearson, whose sketch of the reign of that king forms the most able portion of his valuable "History of England." credit to the nobler nature which had so long kept the evil main features of the portrait seem reliable :—" Ilia head spherical, willing and active supporter ; and his administrative system, his eyes round, and gentle and dovelike when he was pleased, but whether the mere executive of these, or springing from his own con- fierce as a lion's and sparkling with fire when he was disturbed ; ceptions of right, was always clothed most scrupulously in the rigid his hair black and crisp ; his nose prominent and rather raised in forms of legal precision. So far as he himself was responsible for this the middle. His chest was broad ; his arms were agile ; his thighs system,' it was generally actuated by wise and always by anxiously long ; his feet arched ; his body was firm and fleshy, but not fat. just intentions, though this justice was not unfrequently lost or dissi- He was so strong and active that with his hand he could leap into pated amidst the inexorable logic and unbending formalities of the his saddle. Passionately fond of hunting, whenever he was not administrative procedure through which it was sought to carry it engaged in war he amused his leisure with his dogs and falcons. out. In this point of view, his mind was almost too constructive, He was rarely indisposed, and did not lose either his teeth or sight for it rested with a sense of almost equal importance on the sym- by age. Temperate by habit, he never devoted himself to the merry and perfection of the details, and on the main object to be luxuries of his palace. He never wore his crown after the day of achieved. This respect for precedent, this love of orderly proce- his coronation, thinking it rather a burden than an honour. He dare, and this strong sense of justice, were no doubt the results of declined the royal garments of purple, and went about in the plain a reaction in Edward's character from the irregularity of the pre- and common dress of a plebeian. Being once asked why he did ceding reign, in which he had been an impatient but not unob- not wear richer apparel, he answered, with the consciousness of true servant spectator, and at first a rather turbulent actor. The loose greatness, that it was absurd to suppose that he could be more and undisciplined state of society during that reign had faithfully estimable in fine than in simple clothing. No man was more reflected the nerveless and limp constitution of his father's mind. acute in counsel, more fervid in eloquence, more self-possessed in Unstrung both in his moral and intellectual organization, Henry danger, more cautious in prosperity, more firm in adversity. had been the kindly, well-intentioned agent of manifold in- Those whom he once loved he scarcely ever forsook ; but he rarely justices, which destroyed that respect for authority which is the admitted into his favour any that had excited his dislike. His foundation of social order. Edward's mind was only too rigidly liberalities were magnificent." It would appear that Edward's strung, and in his excessive desire to prevent licentious irregu- hair as a child was of a light yellow colour, but became dark as larities, as well in the administrator as in the subject, he sometimes he grew older. He was considerably above the average height, forgot to allow for the free play of those popular feelings by a and very majestic in his bearing. " His left eye had the same regard to which the wisest theory must (to be efficacious) be more singularity of the oblique fall of the eyebrow which had marked or less limited in its mode of operation. But an excess on this side his father's countenance." His speech was hesitating, but in the was perhaps called for by the circumstances of the time, and was fervour of his earnestness it sometimes rose into irresistible certainly welcome to a people tired of oscillations between licence eloquence. His personal courage extended to rashness, and even and tyranny. The feeling which Edward managed to impress on the in the chase he wilfully encountered the risk of piercing the stags mind of the nation, that however severe 'or even unjust might be with his sword when they were seized, instead of using the safer the operation of his administrative system, he himself was upright hunting-spear. We do not know anything of the studious and in his intentions and purposes, tended to calm the troubled waters literary side of his daily life, and perhaps in this respect he fell of society, and to establish a sense of permanent legal government, below the average standard of the Plantagenets, but we gather the recollection of which was never again thoroughly lost. There from a casual notice that he took some pleasure in the perusal of was the great simplicity of true earnestness in the King's desire to the chivalrous romances of his day. The learning of the cloister, do what was right by his people, and this, no doubt, had the effect with which several of his ancestors had been conversant, seems to of taking away from his systematizing the uncongenial imperson- have had as little attraction for him as the clergy themselves had ality which often attends the assertion of orderly law. He was a while he yet remained in the unimpaired vigour of his natural lawyer in the keen precision of his intellect, but withal a man of capacity. Such was the man in the external features of his life, strong sensibilities as well as strong personal will. If in one re, and with this picture before us, we come to the consideration of spect he represented in himself the rigid inflexibility of Law, in

the underlying stratum of his personal character. another his strong personal identification with the Law gave to

Edward stands out in contrast to the Sovereigns who had imme- even his most unsympathizing acts something of the effect of a diately preceded him in the distinctive character of a Founder, personal contact between his mind and that of each of the subjects Since the Conqueror there had been no King of England possessing of his administration. Thus while he sank Person in System, he so good a title to that epithet; for though there was much in Henry personified System itself, and to obey the Law became a synonym II. which belonged to the same type of intellect, yet, owing, no in the minds of all for obedience to Edward.

doubt, in part to the peculiar circumstances of his reign, he did That his legality and systematizing should have been thus blended not inaugurate any organic change in English society that was with intense personality arose, no doubt, from another side of so permanently influential as that which we owe to the personal Edward's character—that in which be presents himself to us as characteristics of Edward. Henry, indeed, re-established social a self-willed man, with strong, absolutist tendencies—imperious, order and a system of administrative justice ; but the ideas which impatient of restraints, with all the insensibility to suffering in lay at the root of his government belonged to a transitional era in others of one who is strong in endurance himself. That there was civilization, while those on which the polity of Edward was built this element—to some extent a conflicting element—in the charac- up still form constituent elements in our social and political con- ter of Edward there can be little doubt. It was decidedly in the stitution at the present day. If to the Barons in the time of ascendant during the first and during the last periods of his life— John and Henry III. we are indebted for the preservation of the before experience, and the study of his great master and enemy, earlier landmarks of our national liberties, and the progressive De Montfort, had sobered him into statesmanship, and again, in conservatism of our national spirit, and if to Simon de Montfort advancing age, when bodily infirmities and disappointed scheming in particular we owe the first emphatic recognition of the bodies of had weakened and embittered his mind. But in the prime of his our representative government, it is to Edward I. that we must in life, which includes the largest portion of his reign, Edward's justice refer the first regular operation of our present constitutional mind was a happy union of these two strangely-coupled elements, system as the established order of things, recognized as such, each of which supplemented and connected the other. He was not however unwillingly, by the King as well as by the other bodies of quite unbearably systematic, because he was also so strongly per- the State. Thenceforward the Constitutional system in England sonal in his acts. He was not too imperiously absolutist in his gained a vantage-ground of precedent from which not all the ideas, because he had so strong a feeling as to the established anarchy and misgovernment of succeeding generations were able to rights of others. He was not implacable or unforgiving in many of dislodge it, and with this reign the history of the "English Con- the great crises of his career, because he was personally so strong stitution," as distinctively so called, may be said to begin, and self-reliant as to scorn thn feebleness of revenge on those who There was much in Edward's character to render him peculiarly were for the time powerless. He had too strong an association in qualified to undertake the great office of the inaugurator of a system his mind between wise mercy and justice itself to be wantonly or of government. He combined the excessive regard for prescriptive willingly cruel. It is a fact, that if we except the few last years of rights and precedents, which is our national characteristic, with the his life, there is scarcely one, if one, of our English Kings who can love of system and the administrative martinetism of our French compare with the poet's "ruthless King" in acts of leniency and neighbours. The excessive legality of his mind has been remarked repeated forgiveness of injuries. That the fiercer spirit was only upon,* and was at once its strength and its weakness. He chained, not permanently exorcized, became too apparent ere his worshipped precedent, and prescriptive rights found in him a reign closed ; but the provocation which led to the snapping of

the restraining bonds had been very great, and while we con-

• we are indebted for our reference to this essential point in the character of demn and deplore the actual outbreak, we must give additional Edward to Mr. Pearson, whose sketch of the reign of that king forms the most able

passion impotent. If Scotland can justly cast up against him the treatment of Wallace and the determined ignoring of that national will, which found an organ at last in Robert Bruce, we must remember that there is another side to the tale of the Scotch negotiations, in which Edward appears as the wise and punc- tiliously scrupulous arbitrator between conflicting factions in that country, called in by all parties, and acknowledged as Suzerain by all who at that time were considered as entitled to a voice in the decision of Scotland's destinies. As far as the barons and clergy of Scotland are concerned, the case of Edward seems irresistibly strong, and we can have as little sympathy, in that point of view, with Bruce as with Balliol or Comyn, or any other of the selfish semi-feudal and semi-patriarchal chiefs who alternately invited and deceived the English King. It is only when we look at the national feeling of Scotland, as it found vent gradually, first through the rising but little estimated burghs, and then through the leadership of a simple country gentleman, that we feel that our sympathies ought to change sides, and that Edward, in ignoring this feeling and refusing to see any but unauthorized insurgents outside the pale of feudal law, was carried away by an unfortunate combination of his excessive legality of mind with his imperious spirit, checked as it was at the moment of the realization of his wise and long-cherished wish for a peaceful consolidation of the two portions of the island. He never suc- ceeded in realizing the idea so finely expressed by Wordsworth :—

" The power of armies is a visible thing, Formal and circumscribed in time and space ; But who the limits of that power shall trace, Which a brave people into light can bring, Or hide at will,—for freedom combating, By just revenge inflamed ?"

Wales, which has been a fertile source of invective against Edward, might well instead claim him as her greatest bene- factor. So far as he himself is concerned, his conduct to- wards her and her faithless princes seems to have been unexcep- tionable, and his leniency towards the conquered and his frequent forgiveness of the treacheries with which he was requited, are as indisputable as the justice and liberality of his administra- tion of the Principality, when conquered, is confessedly remarkable. That he turned his attention to the consolidation of the island under one system of government, instead of frittering away the national strength on Continental projects, is a great merit, and not the less so because the extent to which he had committed himself to this idea brought on him the severest internal struggle be- tween him and his people that he experienced during his reign.

The retention of the province of Guienne had so completely ceased to be an object of national ambition, that when Edward's sense of duty to his Continental subjects called him imperatively to their aid, he was crippled and nearly ruined in his enterprise by the refusal of his feudal vassals to follow him beyond seas, and he found himself, under cover of armed resistance to his demands, compelled at last, though the act was wrung from him as if drawn from his very life-blood, to grant such concessions and make such solid renunciations of illegal practices, that the contest between Constitutionalism and Absolutism in England was closed for his lifetime, and (through the force of the precedent) virtually decided for ever.

The mention of this struggle leads us to the point in Edward's character in which the two sides of it are least easily harmonized. It must be remembered that he had received during his early life a strong bias against concessions of disputed branches of the Royal prerogative, particularly when attempted to be extorted by force of arms. As a King's son, he in his heart believed in the justice of the pretensions of the Crown in these cases, and willing as ho was to concede to other classes their just rights, he was as unwilling to give up what he imagined to be his own. Like a really true man, he resisted the more and the longer because it was his intention to keep the promise he had once made. He did, indeed, more than once infringe on rights which he had virtually promised to respect ; but be did so under the strong impulse of national preservation, and when his breach of faith was cast in his teeth by the assembled Barons, he was affected to tears at the imputation on his honour, and excused himself so earnestly, on the plea of the urgency of the necessity, that his deprecatory eloquence moved the hostile gathering not merely to condoning the offence, but to an addi- tional grant of supplies as its constitutional supplement. As a rule, indeed, almost without exception, Edward's promise was kept sacred by him, and, if given with reluctance, might be safely relied upon. And a far greater amount of exaction and severity of administration than his would have been endured, while this safe- guard remained assured in the national mind.

Edward, however, failed in one respect (and to this, as we have seen, he owed his miscarriage in Scotland),—he had a great respect for national opinion where he understood the nation to be really re-

presented, but none for the popular effervescence which cannot find a legal or constitutional channel, but yet represents forces in the heart of the nation which no wise ruler should disregard. By this irregular outburst of sentiment, both the legal and the absolutist sides of Edward's character were deeply offended. A demagogue and a popular meeting, in our sense of the term, would be equally incomprehensible and detestable to him. He had no excessive love for his feudal vassals, but he respected their legitimate position, as he did that of the civic corporations. But he could not under- stand or tolerate the position of a Wallace, who had no legal or social status as a leader of public opinion in the eyes of the men of that century. He resented this spirit of unauthoritative self-asser- tion even in the instance of the great Corporation of London, when it seemed to put itself forward as a separate power in the State, and to dictate terms alike to King and Barons. Much more would he resent a less formal representation of popular wishes and feelings. He was in his feelings perhaps the most undemocratic of all our Kings, though the consolidation of popular rights is really owing more to him than to any English Sovereign from the Conquest to the great Civil War.

We have said he loved the Clergy but little. Yet he really saved the English Church from entire subserviency to Rome, and ulti- mately from pecuniary spoliation by the Holy See. Nor was he less careful of what he considered to be the just rights and interests of the clergy than of any other body of his subjects. But he was determined to destroy for ever the semblance of a dependency of the English Crown on the Court of Rome ; he would suffer no co-ordinate authority in England with that of the English law, and he was bent on extending the obligations of law and public service over all clerics equally with all laymen. In this he was supported by the rest of the nation very heartily, and he felt so assured of the isolation of the clergy, and so convinced of the baselessness of their claims to exemption, and of the danger of allowing this insurgent spirit to go uncrusbed, that he instructed a knight to address the Convocation in the following terms :—" Reverend fathers, if there be anyone among you who dares to contradict the Royal will, let him stand forth, that his person may be known and noticed as of one who has broken the King's peace." And on another occasion, a clergyman deputed by his brethren to present their remonstrance to the King died of fright at the awful face of wrath with which the King received him. By the Statute of blortmain Edward laid the axe to the root of the tree of clerical aggrandize- ment, and placed an insurmountable barrier to the subjection of the State to the Church, which at one time seemed imminent.

In his expulsion of the Jews, Edward did not rise above, but he faithfully represented, the wishes of all classes of his subjects; and if the act detracts from his reputation on a wider platform, it can- not be said to have sprung from any special or exceptional cha- racteristic of his own. He may have hated them always, as a zealous Crusader; but as a King he showed no exceptional animosity towards them ; —indeed, he raised the murmurs of his subjects by alleviating to the utmost of his power the circumstances of their banishment ; and by that banishment he, as King, lost a great amount of extraordinary and indefinite contributions of money.

The private life of Edward, at least from the time he attained manhood, was pure and high-toned. It is recorded that in his youth he loved to gather around him some of the free-lances and loose buckler-companions of those disordered times, and gave them great licence. This, perhaps, was the origin of the stories of his rencontres and personal contests and courtesies with Robin Hood and other outlaws of popular fame. But as a husband Edward's relations were happy and truly worthy of his great character.

His first wife, a Castilian princess, was one of the best and most devoted of those who have borne the title of Queen, and the affec- tion of that stern and resolute man towards her was as deep and enduring. But the nature which was not too stern to be full of gentle affection towards a high-minded wife became, unfortunately, hard and unsympathetic towards an unworthy and effeminate son, and England probably suffered not a little from those passionate outbursts of indignation which destroyed all confidence between father and son, and hence all influence for good on the character of the latter.

We have endeavoured to point to some leading aspects of the character of Edward I., but his mind was so many-sided that we

cannot hope to have fully expressed the Man, although we may have given some idea of the King. He has been frequently called the English Justinian, and he certainly combined in himself the presence and strong will of an Emperor with the instincts and genius of a Legislative Founder.