Edward I, King Of England

EDWARD I, King of England. - Eldest son of Henry III Plantagenet, born at Westminster on June 18, 1239, died at Burgh (Scotland) on July 7, 1307. He participated in the years 1270-72 in the last Crusade and was at Tunis with Louis IX of France, then at Acre.

Succeeding his father in 1272, he initiated important reforms, reorganizing economic and legal administration, and earning the title of the English Justinian. E. I also promoted the formation of Parliament in its modern form, summoning (1295) the representatives of the Commons to collaborate in the legislative work. Although deeply Catholic, E. I was drawn by his centralizing policy into conflict with the Church. A struggle with John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, caused by the statute of "mortmain" (1279), which prohibited the grant of land to religious bodies without the prior license of the king, ended with the limitation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction to purely spiritual causes. A new conflict arose in 1297, when Peckham's successor, Archbishop Winchelsea, relying on the recent bull Clericis laicos, refused the contributions demanded of the clergy by E. I for the Gascony campaign. The king, yielding at first, later succeeded (1306) in exiling Winchelsea, who had been left isolated in the struggle. A year later E. I died during an expedition against rebellious Scotland.