5. EDWARD I, THE ENGLISH JUSTINIAN * By Edward Jenks ^ THE few years which followed the conquest of Wales have given Edward his title to immortal fame, a fame earned by that noblest of all royal virtues, a steadfast devotion to the happiness and prosperity of his subjects. Keeping a wary eye on the ominous prospects of the Scottish succession, never forgetting the possibility of a Welsh rising, taking a conspicuous part in the territorial and dynastic problems of the Continent, — the quarrels between France and Aragon in particular, — coquetting with successive Popes on the subject of the proposed Crusade, exacting from Philip of France a due fulfilment of the treaties of Paris and Amiens, his main strength was yet steadily spent in those great internal reforms which mark the change from feudal to industrial England, from the old divided England of the Barons' War J to the united England of the end of the century, from the Middle Ages to modern history. In the winter of 1290, he lost his faithful and beloved wife, Eleanor of Castile; and the event seemed to close the chapter of his prosperity. From that time till his lonely death in 1307, the King was involved in unhappy quarrels — the interminable quarrel of the Scot- tish succession, the quarrel with France, the quarrel with his own nobles, the quarrel with the Church. In all these, the country never lost its faith in the King ; Edward never sank in public esteem as his father and grandfather had sunk. He never lost the power to recall the affections of his sub- jects by a frank appeal to old memories. " Except in
- These passages are taken from "Edward Plantagenet (Edward I),
The English Justinian; or The Making of the Common Law," 1902, pp. 900-997, 339-346 (London and New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons).
- A biographical note of this author is prefixed to Essay No. 2.
139
