Treaty of Amiens

"Definitive Treaty of Peace"
James Gillray, The first Kiss this Ten Years! —or—the meeting of Britannia & Citizen François (1803)
Type	Peace treaty
Signed	25 March 1802
Location	Amiens, French Republic
Effective	25 March 1802
Expiration	18 May 1803
Signatories	Joseph Bonaparte for the French Republic Marquess Cornwallis for the United Kingdom José Nicolás de Azara for the Kingdom of Spain Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck for the Batavian Republic
Language	English, French
v t e

The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 (Germinal 4, year X in the French Revolutionary Calendar), by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace". The consequent Peace of Amiens lasted only one year (18 May 1803) and was the only period of peace during the so-called 'Great French War' between 1793 and 1815.^[1] Under the treaty, the United Kingdom (UK) recognised the French Republic; George III had only two years previously dropped England's historical claim to the now-defunct French Kingdom. Together with the Treaty of Lunéville (1801), the Treaty of Amiens marked the end of the Second Coalition, which had waged war against Revolutionary France since 1798.

Early diplomacy[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

The War of the Second Coalition started well for the coalition, with successes in Egypt. After France's victories at Marengo and Hohenlinden, Austria, Russia and Naples asked for peace, with Austria eventually signing the Treaty of Lunéville. Nelson's victory at Copenhagen (2 April 1801) halted the creation of the League of Armed Neutrality and led to a negotiated ceasefire.

The French First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, first made truce proposals to British foreign secretary Lord Grenville as early as 1799. Because of the hardline stance of Grenville and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, their distrust of Bonaparte, and obvious defects in the proposals, they were rejected out of hand. However, Pitt resigned in February 1801 (over King George's unwillingness to support Catholic emancipation in Ireland), and was replaced by the more accommodating Henry Addington. Addington's foreign secretary, Robert Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, immediately opened communications with Louis Guillaume Otto, the French commissary for prisoners of war in London, through whom Bonaparte had made his earlier proposals. Hawkesbury stated that he wanted to open discussions on terms for a peace agreement. Otto, generally under detailed instructions from Bonaparte, engaged in negotiations with Hawkesbury through the summer of 1801. Unhappy with the dialogue with Otto, Hawkesbury sent diplomat Anthony Merry to Paris, who opened a second line of communications with the French foreign minister Talleyrand. By mid-September, written negotiations had progressed to the point where Hawkesbury and Otto met to draft a preliminary agreement. On 30 September they signed the preliminary agreement in London; it was published the next day.

Robert Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, portrait by Thomas Lawrence

The terms of the preliminary agreement required the UK to restore most of the French colonial possessions it had taken, to evacuate Malta (which was to be restored to the Order of St. John, whose sovereignty was to be guaranteed by one or more European Great Powers, to be determined at the final peace), and withdraw from other occupied Mediterranean ports. France was to restore Egypt to Ottoman control, withdraw from most of the Italian peninsula, and to preserve Portuguese sovereignty. Ceylon, previously a Dutch territory, was to remain with the British, Newfoundland fishery rights were to be restored to the status quo ante bellum, and the UK was to recognize the Seven Islands Republic, established by France on islands in the Adriatic Sea that are now part of Greece. Both sides were to be allowed access to the outposts on the Cape of Good Hope.^[2] In a blow to Spain, the preliminary agreement included a secret clause in which Trinidad was to remain with Britain.^[3]

News of the preliminary peace was greeted in the UK with illuminations and fireworks; in Dublin a street was named for the treaty.^[4] Peace, it was thought in Britain, would lead to the withdrawal of the income tax imposed by Pitt, a reduction of grain prices, and a revival of markets.

Final negotiations[link]

In November 1801 the Marquess Cornwallis was sent to France with plenipotentiary powers to negotiate a final agreement. The expectation among the British populace that peace was at hand put enormous pressure on Cornwallis, something Bonaparte realised and capitalised on. His negotiators, his brother Joseph and Talleyrand, constantly shifted their positions, leaving Cornwallis to write, "I feel it as the most unpleasant circumstance attending this unpleasant business that, after I have obtained his acquiescence on any point, I can have no confidence that it is finally settled and that he will not recede from it in our next conversation."^[5] The Batavian Republic, whose economy depended on trade that had been ruined by the war, appointed Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, their ambassador to France, to represent them in the peace negotiations; he arrived in Amiens on 9 December.^[6] The Dutch role in the negotiations was marked by a lack of respect on the part of the French, who thought of them as a "vanquished and conquered" client whose present government "owed them everything".^[7] Schimmelpenninck and Cornwallis negotiated agreements on the status of Ceylon (to remain British), the Cape of Good Hope (to be returned to the Dutch, but open to all), and the indemnification of the deposed House of Orange-Nassau for its losses. However, Joseph Bonaparte did not immediately agree with their terms, presumably needing to consult with the First Consul on the matter.^[8]

Charles Cornwallis, by John Singleton Copley, c. 1795

In January 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte went to Lyon and accepted the presidency of the Italian Republic, a nominally independent client republic covering northern Italy, established in 1797. This act violated the Treaty of Lunéville, in which Bonaparte agreed to guarantee the independence of that and other client republics. He also continued to support the French Gen. Pierre Augereau's reactionary coup d'état of 18 September 1801 in the Batavian Republic, and its new constitution, ratified by a sham election, that brought it into closer alignment with its dominant partner.

British newspaper readers followed the events, presented in strong moralising colours. Hawkesbury wrote of Bonaparte's action at Lyons that it was a "gross breach of faith", exhibiting an "inclination to insult Europe." Writing from London, he informed Cornwallis that it "created the greatest alarm in this country [UK], and there are many persons who were pacifically disposed and who since this event are desirous of renewing the war."^[9]

The Spanish negotiator, the marquis de Azara, did not arrive in Amiens until early February 1802. After some preliminary negotiations he proposed to Cornwallis that Britain and Spain make a separate agreement; Cornwallis rejected this, believing that to do so would jeopardise the more important negotiations with France.^[10]

However, pressure continued to mount on the British negotiators for a peace deal, in part because budget discussions were underway in the UK parliament, and the prospect of continued war was a significant factor. The principal sticking point in the late negotiations was the status of Malta. Bonaparte eventually proposed that the British were to withdraw within three months of the signing, with control passed back to a recreated Order of St. John, whose sovereignty was to be guaranteed by all of the major European powers. Left unspecified in this was the means by which the Order would be reestablished (it had essentially dissolved upon French seizure of the island in 1798); furthermore, none of the other powers had been consulted on the matter.^[11]

Joseph Bonaparte, by Luigi Toro

On March 14, London, under pressure to finalise the budget, gave Cornwallis a hard deadline. Given a treaty representing the last position taken by the French, if he could not reach an agreement within eight days, he was to return to London. Following a five-hour negotiating session that ended at 3 am on March 25, Cornwallis and Joseph Bonaparte signed the final agreement. Cornwallis was unhappy with the agreement, but he also worried about "the ruinous consequences of… renewing a bloody and hopeless war".^[11]

Terms[link]

The treaty, beyond confirming "peace, friendship, and good understanding", called for:

• The restoration of prisoners and hostages.
• The United Kingdom to return the Cape Colony to the Batavian Republic.
• The UK to return most of its captured Dutch West Indian islands to the Batavian Republic.
• The UK to withdraw its forces from Egypt.
• The ceding to the UK of Trinidad, Tobago and Ceylon.
• France to withdraw its forces from the Papal States.
• The borders of French Guiana to be fixed.
• Malta, Gozo, and Comino to be restored to the Hospitallers and to be declared neutral, although the islands remained under the British Empire.
• The island of Minorca be returned to Spain.
• The House of Orange-Nassau was to be compensated for its losses in the Netherlands.

Two days after signing the treaty, all four parties signed an addendum specifically acknowledging that the failure to use the languages of all of the signatory powers (the treaty was only published in English and French) was not prejudicial and should not be viewed as setting a precedent. It also stated that the omission of any individual's titles was unintentional and also not intended to be prejudicial. The Dutch and French representatives also signed a separate convention clarifying that the Batavian Republic was not to be financially responsible for the compensation paid to the House of Orange-Nassau.^[12]

Amiens interlude[link]

Upper-class British visitors flocked to Paris in the summer and autumn of 1802. William Herschel took the opportunity to confer with his colleagues at the Observatoire. In booths and temporary arcades in the courtyard of the Louvre the third French exposition des produits français took place, 18–24 September. According to the memoirs of his private secretary Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Bonaparte "was, above all, delighted with the admiration the exhibition excited among the numerous foreigners who resorted to Paris during the peace."^[13]

Among the visitors was Charles James Fox, who received a personal tour from Minister Chaptal. Within the Louvre, in addition to the display of recent works in the Salon of 1802, visitors could see the display of Italian paintings, J.M.W. Turner filled a sketchbook, and Roman sculptures collected from all over Italy under the stringent terms of the Treaty of Tolentino. Even the four Greek Horses of St Mark, which had been furtively removed in 1797, could now be viewed in an inner courtyard.^[14] William Hazlitt arrived at Paris on 16 October 1802. The Roman sculptures did not move him, but he spent most of three months studying and copying Italian masters in the Louvre.^[15]

Among the stream of British visitors to France was the family party that included Maria Edgeworth, who spent the winter in Paris. She was able to leave France hastily and landed safely at Dover, 6 March 1803; Lovell Edgeworth was not so lucky.^[16] Another author, Frances Burney, travelled to Paris in April 1803 to see her husband, Comte Alexandre d'Arblay, and when hostilities resumed was required to remain until 1815.

The English were not the only ones to profit by the halcyon lull in hostilities. From London Simon Vorontsov noted to a correspondent "I hear that our gentlemen are making extravagant purchases in Paris. That fool Demidov has ordered a porcelain dinner service every plate of which costs 16 gold louis."^[17]

For those who could not get there, Helmina von Chézy collected her impressions in a series of vignettes contributed to the journal Französische Miscellen,^[18] and F.W. Blagdon^[19] and John Carr^[20] were among those who brought up to date curious English readers, who had felt starved for unbiased accounts of "a people under the influence [ ] of a political change, hitherto unparalleled.... During a separation of ten years, we have received very little account of this extraordinary people, which could be relied on" Carr noted in his Preface.

A number of French emigrés returned to France under the terms of relaxed restrictions upon them.^[21] French visitors also came to England. Wax artist Marie Tussaud came to London and established an exhibition similar to one she had in Paris. The balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin staged displays in London, and made a balloon flight from London to Colchester in 45 minutes.^[22]

The Spanish economy, which had been badly affected by the war, began to recover with the advent of peace.^[23] Much as it had been at the start of the wars in 1793, Spain remained diplomatically caught between Britain and France. King Carlos IV had been unhappy with France's unwillingness to negotiate the cession of Trinidad to Britain.^[24] Spanish economic interests were further concerned when Bonaparte, as conditions deteriorated in early 1803, sold Louisiana to the United States, whose merchants competed with those of Spain.^[25] Following that sale, Carlos wrote that he was prepared to throw off alliance with France: "neither break with France, nor break with England."^[26]

Breakdown[link]

The British government balked at implementing certain terms of the treaty, such as evacuating their naval presence from Malta. After the initial fervour, objections to the treaty quickly grew in the UK, where it seemed to the governing class that they were making all the concessions and ratifying recent developments. Prime Minister Addington did not undertake military demobilization, but maintained a large peacetime army of 180,000.^[27]

Actions taken by Bonaparte after the treaty was signed heightened tensions with Britain and signatories to the other treaties. He used the time of peace to consolidate power and reorganize domestic administration in France and some of its client states. However, his effective annexation of the Cisalpine Republic and his decision to send French troops into the Helvetian Republic (to put down unrest against French-dominated rule) in October 1802, another violation of Lunéville, raised eyebrows in London and St. Petersburg, where concerns were voiced over Bonaparte's appetite for conquest.^[28][29] Tsar Alexander had just congratulated Bonaparte for withdrawing from there and other places, but the action increased the belief in his cabinet that Bonaparte was not to be trusted. Bonaparte met British protests over the action with belligerent statements again denying Britain's right to be formally involved in matters on the continent, pointing out that Switzerland had been occupied by French troops at the time of the treaty signing at Amiens.^[30] He also went so far as to demand the British government censor the strongly anti-French British press, and expel French expatriates from British soil; these demands were perceived in London as affronts to British sovereignty.^[31] Bonaparte also took advantage of the loosening of the British blockade of French ports to organize and dispatch a naval expedition to regain control over revolutionary Haiti and to occupy French Louisiana. These moves were perceived by the British as a willingness by Bonaparte to threaten them on a global stage.^[31]

Britain refused to remove troops from Egypt or Malta as agreed upon in the treaty.^[32] Bonaparte formally protested the continuing British occupations, and in January 1803 published a report by Horace Sebastiani that included observations on the ease with which France might capture Egypt, alarming most of the European powers.^[32][33] In an interview in February 1803 with Lord Whitworth, the UK's French ambassador, Bonaparte threatened war if Malta was not evacuated, and implied that he could have already retaken Egypt.^[34] The exchange left Whitworth feeling he was given an ultimatum. In a public meeting with a group of diplomats the following month, Bonaparte again pressed Whitworth, implying that the British wanted war since they were not upholding their treaty obligations.^[34] The Russian ambassador, Arkadiy Ivanovich Morkov, reported this encounter back to St. Petersburg in stark terms; the implicit and explicit threats contained in the exchange may have played a role in Russia's eventual entry into the Third Coalition.^[35] Morkov also reported rumors that Bonaparte would seize Hamburg as well as Hanover if war was renewed.^[36] Although Alexander wanted to avoid war, this news apparently forced his hand; he began collecting troops on the Baltic coast in late March.^[37] The Russian foreign minister wrote of the situation, "The intention already expressed by the First Consul of striking blows against England wherever he can, and under this pretext of sending his troops into Hanover [and] Northern Germany... entirely transforms the nature of this war as it relates to our interests and obligations."^[38]

After Bonaparte's private exchange with Whitworth, the British government informed Bonaparte that they would only evacuate Malta if he gave up his expansionist activities; they also increased recruiting for the Royal Navy.^[39] The public exchange prompted an exodus of foreigners from France. Bonaparte's rejection of a British offer involving a ten-year lease of Malta prompted the reactivation of the British blockade of the French coast; Bonaparte, who was not fully prepared to resume the war, made moves designed to show renewed preparations for an invasion of Britain.^[40] Matters reached a diplomatic crisis point when the British rejected the idea of mediation by Tsar Alexander, and instead on 10 May ordered Whitworth to withdraw from Paris if the French did not accede to their demands in 36 hours.^[41] Last minute attempts at negotiation by Talleyrand failed, and Whitworth left France on 13 May. Britain declared war on France on 18 May.^[42]

War[link]

Not long after the British war declaration, the Royal Navy captured two French ships. In response, on 22 May 1803 (2 Prairial, year XI), the First Consul suddenly ordered the imprisonment of all British males between the ages of 18 and 60 in France, trapping many travelling civilians.^[43] This act was denounced as illegal by all the major powers. Bonaparte claimed in the French press that the British prisoners he had taken amounted to 10,000, but French documents compiled in Paris a few months later show that the numbers were 1,181. It was not until the abdication of Bonaparte in 1814 that the last of these imprisoned British civilians were allowed to return home.

Addington proved an ineffective prime minister in wartime, and was replaced on 10 May 1804 with William Pitt, who started the Third Coalition. Pitt has been alleged^{[by whom?]} to have been behind assassination attempts on Bonaparte's life by Cadoudal and Pichegru.

Napoleon, now emperor, assembled armies on the coast of France to invade Great Britain, but Austria and Russia, the UK's allies, were preparing to invade France. The French armies were christened La Grande Armée and secretly left the coast to march against Austria and Russia before those armies could combine. The Grande Armée defeated Austria at Ulm the day before the Battle of Trafalgar, and Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz effectively destroyed the Third Coalition. In 1806 Britain retook the Cape Colony from the Batavian Republic; Napoleon abolished the Republic later that year in favour of the Kingdom of Holland, ruled by his brother Louis.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Blok, Petrus Johannes (1912). History of the People of the Netherlands. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's. OCLC 1721795. http://books.google.com/books?id=gf8bAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA341#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Bryant, Sir Arthur (2009) [1942]. The Years of Endurance 1793–1802. Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4446-0013-1. OCLC 2745823. 
• Burke, Edmund (ed) (1803). Annual Register, Volume 44. London: Longman and Greens. OCLC 191704722. 
• Dorman, Robert Marcus Phipps (1902). A history of the British empire in the nineteenth century, Volume 1. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, and Trüber. OCLC 633662790. http://books.google.com/books?id=DRELAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA281#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Grainger, John (2004). The Amiens truce: Britain and Bonaparte, 1801–1803. Woodbridge, NJ: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-041-2. OCLC 265440368. 
• Hume, Mark Andrew Sharp (1900). Modern Spain 1788–1898. New York: G. P. Putnam's. OCLC 2946787. http://books.google.com/books?id=AbgNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA62#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Kagan, Frederick W (2006). The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe 1801–1805 (paperback ed.). Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-306-81137-1|0-306-81137-1]]. 
• Pocock, Tom (2005). The Terror Before Trafalgar: Nelson, Napoleon, And The Secret War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-681-0. OCLC 56419314. 
• Schneid, Frederick C (2005). Napoleon's Conquest of Europe: the War of the Third Coalition. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98096-2. OCLC 57134421. 

Further reading[link]

Wikisource has the original text of the treaty: Treaty of Amiens

• Cobbett's Annual Register 1803 contains much of the correspodence, principally involving French or UK participants
• Cobbett's Annual Register 1802 contains the treaty text
• Napoleon's British visitors contains accounts of British visits to France during the interlude

Daniel François Esprit Auber

Daniel François Esprit Auber (French pronunciation: [daɲɛl fʁɑ̃swa ɛspʁi obɛːʁ]) (29 January 1782 – 12/13 May 1871) was a French composer.

Biography[link]

The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments. His first teacher was the Tirolean composer, Josef Alois Ladurner (1769–1851). At the age of 20 Auber was sent to London for business training, but he was obliged to leave England in 1804 when the Treaty of Amiens was breached.

Daniel François Esprit Auber

Auber had already attempted musical composition, and at this period produced several concertos pour basse, modeled after violoncellist Lamarre, in whose name they were published. The praise given to his concerto for the violin, which was played at the Paris Conservatoire by Mazas, encouraged him to undertake a resetting of an old comic opera, Julie (1811). He also began to study with the renowned Luigi Cherubini.

In 1813 the unfavourable reception of his one-act debut opera Le Séjour militaire put an end for some years to his attempts as composer. But his failure in business, and the death of his father in 1819, compelled him once more to turn to music. He produced another opera, Le Testament et les billets-doux (1819), which was no better received than the former. But he persevered, and the next year was rewarded by the complete success of La Bergère châtelaine, an opera in three acts.

This was the first in a long series of brilliant successes. In 1822 began his long association with librettist Eugène Scribe. Their first opera, Leicester, shows evidence of the influence of Gioacchino Rossini in its musical style. Auber soon developed his own voice, however: light, vivacious, graceful, and melodious—characteristically French. Le maçon (1825) was his first major triumph, staying in the repertory until the 20th century, with 525 performances at the Opéra-Comique alone. An ensemble from the latter found its way into Herold's ballet La Somnambule (source of Bellini's La sonnambula) as an air parlante (a way of explicating the plot through the words of a relevant operatic aria or salon piece).

Portrait of D.F.E. Auber from sheet music for Lestocq (Boston: William H. Oakes, 19th c.)

Auber achieved another triumph in La muette de Portici, also known as Masaniello after its hero. Produced in Paris in 1828, it rapidly became a European favorite, and the foundation work of a new genre, grand opera, that was consolidated by Rossini's Guillaume Tell the following year. Its characteristic features are a private drama staged in the context of a significant historical event in which the chorus is dramatically engaged as a representative of the people, varied and piquant musical textures, grandiloquent marches, spectacular scenic effects and a statutory ballet. The duet from La Muette, Amour sacré de la patrie (meaning "Sacred Love of the Homeland"), was welcomed as a new Marseillaise; its performance at Brussels on 25 August 1830, in which Adolphe Nourrit sang the leading tenor role, engendered a riot that became the signal for the Belgian Revolution that drove out the Dutch. La Muette broke ground also in its use of a ballerina in a leading role (the eponymous mute), and includes long passages of mime music.

Official and other dignities testified to the public appreciation of Auber's works. In 1829 he was elected a member of the Institute. Fra Diavolo,which premiered on 28 January 1830, was his most successful opera. That same year, 1830, he was named director of the court concerts. Next year, on 20 June 1831, he had another big success, with Le Philtre, starring the great tenor, Adolphe Nourrit. The libretto was translated into Italian and set by Donizetti as L'elisir d'amore, one of the most successful comic operas of all time.

Two years later, on 27 February 1833, Gustave III, his second grand opera, also triumphed and stayed in the repertory for years. The libretto was to be used twice more, first by Saverio Mercadante for Il reggente, with the action transferred to Scotland, and, next by Giuseppe Verdi, as Un ballo in maschera. He enjoyed several more successes, all at the Opéra-Comique. These were Le cheval de bronze (1835), L'Ambassadrice (1836), Le domino noir (1837), Les diamants de la couronne (1841) and La part du diable (1843).

Daniel François Esprit Auber (1869)

In the meantime, in 1842, at the wish of King Louis Philippe, he succeeded Cherubini as director of the Conservatoire. Auber was also a member of the Legion of Honour from 1825, and attained the rank of commander in 1847. That year also saw the premiere of Haydée, another opéra comique, even though it was on a serious subject. The tenor lead in Haydée was sung by the same Gustave Roger who, two years later, created the title role in Meyerbeer's Le Prophète at the Opéra. Napoleon III made Auber his Imperial Maître de Chapelle in 1857.

In his later years, Auber's output slowed down considerably. The 1850s were marked by Manon Lescaut, an opéra comique with a tragic end (1856), and revisions of Le cheval de bronze and Fra Diavolo (both 1857). He had one major success in the 1860s: Le premier jour de bonheur (Opéra comique, 1868). Despite his slowdown in composing, he remained a well-loved figure, known for witty sayings and personal generosity. He survived the German siege of Paris in 1870–71, but died during the upheaval of the Paris Commune on 12 or 13 May 1871.

Today, the Rue Auber leads up to the Paris Opera House and the nearest RER station is called Auber.

Works[link]

See List of operas by Auber

References[link]

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Daniel Auber at findagrave.com
• Kohut, Adolph, Auber, in Musiker Biographien Leipzig, Volume XVII, 1895.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Daniel-François-Esprit Auber

• Free scores by Daniel Auber at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Daniel Auber in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

Edward I Longshanks
Portrait in Westminster Abbey, thought to be of Edward I
King of England (more...)
Reign	16 November 1272 – 7 July 1307
Coronation	19 August 1274
Predecessor	Henry III
Successor	Edward II
Spouse	Eleanor of Castile m. 1254; dec. 1290 Margaret of France m. 1299; wid. 1307
among others Issue
John Henry Eleanor, Countess of Bar Joan, Countess of Hertford Alphonso, Earl of Chester Margaret, Duchess of Brabant Mary of Woodstock Elizabeth, Countess of Hereford Edward II of England Thomas, Earl of Norfolk Edmund, Earl of Kent
House	House of Plantagenet
Father	Henry III of England
Mother	Eleanor of Provence
Born	17/18 June 1239 Palace of Westminster, London, England
Died	7 July 1307(1307-07-07) (aged 68) Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England
Burial	Westminster Abbey, London, England
Religion	Roman Catholic

Edward I (17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (from Latin: Malleus Scottorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons. In 1259, he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provisions of Oxford. After reconciliation with his father, however, he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Second Barons' War. After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was hostage to the rebellious barons, but escaped after a few months and joined the fight against Simon de Montfort. Montfort was defeated at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and within two years the rebellion was extinguished. With England pacified, Edward left on a crusade to the Holy Land. The crusade accomplished little, and Edward was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died. Making a slow return, he reached England in 1274 and he was crowned king at Westminster on 19 August.

He spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law. Through an extensive legal inquiry, Edward investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties, while the law was reformed through a series of statutes regulating criminal and property law. Increasingly, however, Edward's attention was drawn towards military affairs. After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a second rebellion in 1282–83 with a full-scale war of conquest. After a successful campaign, Edward subjected Wales to English rule, built a series of castles and towns in the countryside and settled them with Englishmen. Next, his efforts were directed towards Scotland. Initially invited to arbitrate a succession dispute, Edward claimed feudal suzerainty over the kingdom. In the war that followed, the Scots persevered, even though the English seemed victorious at several points. At the same time there were problems at home. In the mid-1290s, extensive military campaigns required high levels of taxation, and Edward met with both lay and ecclesiastical opposition. These crises were initially averted, but issues remained unsettled. When the king died in 1307, he left to his son, Edward II, an ongoing war with Scotland and many financial and political problems.

Edward I was a tall man for his era, hence the nickname "Longshanks". He was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship, as a soldier, an administrator and a man of faith. Modern historians have been more divided on their assessment of the king; while some have praised him for his contribution to the law and administration, others have criticised him for his uncompromising attitude to his nobility. Currently, Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III, establishing parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming the law through statutes. At the same time, he is also often criticised for other actions, such as his brutal conduct towards the Scots, and issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England. The Edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages, and it would be over 350 years until it was formally overturned in 1656.

Early years[link]

Childhood and marriage[link]

Early fourteenth-century manuscript initial showing Edward and his wife Eleanor. The artist has perhaps tried to depict Edward's blepharoptosis, a trait he inherited from his father.^[1]

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night of 17–18 June 1239, to King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence.^[2] Although the young prince was seriously ill on several occasions, in 1246, 1247, and 1251, he grew up to be strong and healthy.^[3] Edward was in the care of Hugh Giffard — father of the future Chancellor Godfrey Giffard — until Bartholomew Pecche took over at Giffard's death in 1246.^[4] Among his childhood friends was his cousin Henry of Almain, son of King Henry's brother Richard of Cornwall.^[3] Henry of Almain would remain a close companion of the prince, both through the civil war that followed, and later during the crusade.^[5]

In 1254, English fears of a Castilian invasion of the English province of Gascony induced Edward's father to arrange a politically expedient marriage between his fourteen-year-old son and Eleanor, the half-sister of King Alfonso X of Castile.^[6] Eleanor and Edward were married on 1 November 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile.^[7] As part of the marriage agreement, the young prince received grants of land worth 15,000 marks a year.^[8] Though the endowments King Henry made were sizeable, they offered Edward little independence. He had already received Gascony as early as 1249, but Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, had been appointed as royal lieutenant the year before and, consequently, drew its income, so in practice Edward derived neither authority nor revenue from this province.^[9] The grant he received in 1254 included most of Ireland, and much land in Wales and England, including the earldom of Chester, but the king retained much control over the land in question, particularly in Ireland, so Edward's power was limited there as well, and the king derived most of the income from those lands.^[10]

From 1254 to 1257, Edward was under the influence of his mother's relatives, known as the Savoyards,^[11] the most notable of whom was Peter of Savoy, the queen's uncle.^[12] After 1257, Edward increasingly fell in with the Poitevin or Lusignan faction — the half-brothers of his father Henry III — led by such men as William de Valence.^[13] This association was significant, because the two groups of privileged foreigners were resented by the established English aristocracy, and they would be at the centre of the ensuing years' baronial reform movement.^[14] There were tales of unruly and violent conduct by Edward and his Lusignan kinsmen, which raised questions about the royal heir's personal qualities. The next years would be formative on Edward's character.^[15]

Early ambitions[link]

Edward had shown independence in political matters as early as 1255, when he sided with the Soler family in Gascony, in the ongoing conflict between the Soler and Colomb families. This ran contrary to his father's policy of mediation between the local factions.^[16] In May 1258, a group of magnates drew up a document for reform of the king’s government — the so-called Provisions of Oxford — largely directed against the Lusignans. Edward stood by his political allies and strongly opposed the Provisions. The reform movement succeeded in limiting the Lusignan influence, however, and gradually Edward’s attitude started to change. In March 1259, he entered into a formal alliance with one of the main reformers, Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. Then, on 15 October 1259, he announced that he supported the barons' goals, and their leader, Simon de Montfort.^[17]

The motive behind Edward's change of heart could have been purely pragmatic; Montfort was in a good position to support his cause in Gascony.^[18] When the king left for France in November, Edward's behaviour turned into pure insubordination. He made several appointments to advance the cause of the reformers, causing his father to believe that his son was considering a coup d'état.^[19] When the king returned from France, he initially refused to see his son, but through the mediation of the Earl of Cornwall and the archbishop of Canterbury, the two were eventually reconciled.^[20] Edward was sent abroad, and in November 1260 he again united with the Lusignans, who had been exiled to France.^[21]

Back in England, early in 1262, Edward fell out with some of his former Lusignan allies over financial matters. The next year, King Henry sent him on a campaign in Wales against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, with only limited results.^[22] Around the same time, Simon de Montfort, who had been out of the country since 1261, returned to England and reignited the baronial reform movement.^[23] It was at this pivotal moment, as the king seemed ready to resign to the barons' demands, that Edward began to take control of the situation. Whereas he had so far been unpredictable and equivocating, from this point on he remained firmly devoted to protecting his father's royal rights.^[24] He reunited with some of the men he had alienated the year before — among them his childhood friend, Henry of Almain, and John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey — and retook Windsor Castle from the rebels.^[25] Through the arbitration of King Louis IX of France, an agreement was made between the two parties. This so-called Mise of Amiens was largely favourable to the royalist side, and laid the seeds for further conflict.^[26]

Civil war[link]

The years 1264–1267 saw the conflict known as the Second Barons' War, in which baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort fought against those who remained loyal to the king.^[27] The first scene of battle was the city of Gloucester, which Edward managed to retake from the enemy. When Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edward negotiated a truce with the earl, the terms of which he later broke. Edward then captured Northampton from Montfort's son Simon, before embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby's lands.^[28] The baronial and royalist forces finally met at the Battle of Lewes, on 14 May 1264. Edward, commanding the right wing, performed well, and soon defeated the London contingent of Montfort's forces. Unwisely, however, he followed the scattered enemy in pursuit, and on his return found the rest of the royal army defeated.^[29] By the agreement known as the Mise of Lewes, Edward and his cousin Henry of Almain were given up as prisoners to Montfort.^[30]

Medieval manuscript showing Simon de Montfort's mutilated body at the field of Evesham

Edward remained in captivity until March, and even after his release he was kept under strict surveillance.^[31] Then, on 28 May, he managed to escape his custodians and joined up with the Earl of Gloucester, who had recently defected to the king's side.^[32] Montfort's support was now dwindling, and Edward retook Worcester and Gloucester with relatively little effort.^[33] Meanwhile, Montfort had made an alliance with Llywelyn and started moving east to join forces with his son Simon. Edward managed to make a surprise attack at Kenilworth Castle, where the younger Montfort was quartered, before moving on to cut off the earl of Leicester.^[34] The two forces then met at the second great encounter of the Barons' War — the Battle of Evesham, on 4 August 1265. Montfort stood little chance against the superior royal forces, and after his defeat he was killed and mutilated on the field.^[35]

Through such episodes as the deception of Derby at Gloucester, Edward acquired a reputation as untrustworthy. During the summer campaign, though, he began to learn from his mistakes, and acted in a way that gained the respect and admiration of his contemporaries.^[36] The war did not end with Montfort's death, and Edward participated in the continued campaigning. At Christmas, he came to terms with the younger Simon de Montfort and his associates at the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, and in March he led a successful assault on the Cinque Ports.^[37] A contingent of rebels held out in the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle and did not surrender until the drafting of the conciliatory Dictum of Kenilworth.^[38] In April it seemed as if Gloucester would take up the cause of the reform movement, and civil war would resume, but after a renegotiation of the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth, the parties came f.^[39] Edward, however, was little involved in the settlement negotiations following the wars; at this point his main focus was on planning his upcoming crusade.^[40]

Crusade and accession[link]

Edward took the crusader's cross in an elaborate ceremony on 24 June 1268, with his brother Edmund and cousin Henry of Almain. Among others who committed themselves to the Ninth Crusade were Edward's former adversaries—like the earl of Gloucester, though the earl did not ultimately participate.^[41] With the country pacified, the greatest impediment to the project was providing sufficient finances.^[42] King Louis IX of France, who was the leader of the crusade, provided a loan of about £17,500.^[43] This, however, was not enough; the rest had to be raised through a tax on the laity, which had not been levied since 1237.^[43] In May 1270, Parliament granted a tax of a twentieth,^[44] in exchange for which the king agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta, and to impose restrictions on Jewish money lending.^[45] On 20 August Edward sailed from Dover for France.^[46] Historians have not determined the size of the force with any certainty, but Edward probably brought with him around 225 knights and all together less than 1000 men.^[42]

Originally, the Crusaders intended to relieve the beleaguered Christian stronghold of Acre, but Louis had been diverted to Tunis. The French king and his brother Charles of Anjou, who had made himself king of Sicily, decided to attack the emirate to establish a stronghold in North Africa.^[47] The plans failed when the French forces were struck by an epidemic which, on 25 August, took the life of King Louis himself.^[48] By the time Edward arrived at Tunis, Charles had already signed a treaty with the emir, and there was little else to do but return to Sicily. The crusade was postponed until next spring, but a devastating storm off the coast of Sicily dissuaded Charles of Anjou and Louis's successor Philip III from any further campaigning.^[49] Edward decided to continue alone, and on 9 May 1271 he finally landed at Acre.^[50]

Operations during the Crusade of Edward I

By then, the situation in the Holy Land was a precarious one. Jerusalem had fallen in 1244, and Acre was now the centre of the Christian state.^[51] The Muslim states were on the offensive under the Mamluk leadership of Baibars, and were now threatening Acre itself. Though Edward's men were an important addition to the garrison, they stood little chance against Baibars' superior forces, and an initial raid at nearby St Georges-de-Lebeyne in June was largely futile.^[52] An embassy to the Mongols helped bring about an attack on Aleppo in the north, which helped to distract Baibar's forces.^[53] In November, Edward led a raid on Qaqun, which could have served as a bridgehead to Jerusalem, but both the Mongol invasion and the attack on Qaqun failed. Things now seemed increasingly desperate, and in May 1272 Hugh III of Cyprus, who was the nominal king of Jerusalem, signed a ten–year truce with Baibars.^[54] Edward was initially defiant, but an attack by a Muslim assassin in June forced him to abandon any further campaigning. Although he managed to kill the assassin, he was struck in the arm by a dagger feared to be poisoned, and became severely weakened over the following months.^[55]

It was not until 24 September that Edward left Acre. Arriving in Sicily, he was met with the news that his father had died on 16 November.^[56] Edward was deeply saddened by this news, but rather than hurrying home at once, he made a leisurely journey northwards. This was partly due to his health still being poor, but also due to a lack of urgency.^[57] The political situation in England was stable after the mid-century upheavals, and Edward was proclaimed king at his father's death, rather than at his own coronation, as had until then been customary.^[58] In Edward's absence, the country was governed by a royal council, led by Robert Burnell.^[59] The new king embarked on an overland journey through Italy and France, where among other things he visited the pope in Rome and suppressed a rebellion in Gascony.^[60] Only on 2 August 1274 did he return to England, and was crowned on 19 August.^[61]

Reign[link]

Administration and the law[link]

Groat of Edward I (4 pence)

Upon returning home, Edward immediately embarked on the administrative business of the nation, and his major concern was restoring order and re-establishing royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father.^[62] To accomplish this, he immediately ordered an extensive change of administrative personnel. The most important of these was the appointment of Robert Burnell as chancellor, a man who would remain in the post until 1292 as one of the king's closest associates.^[63] Edward then replaced most local officials, such as the escheators and sheriffs.^[64] This last measure was done in preparation for an extensive inquest covering all of England, that would hear complaints about abuse of power by royal officers. The inquest produced the set of so-called Hundred Rolls, from the administrative subdivision of the hundred.^[65]

The second purpose of the inquest was to establish what land and rights the crown had lost during the reign of Henry III.^[66]

The Hundred Rolls formed the basis for the later legal inquiries called the Quo warranto proceedings. The purpose of these inquiries was to establish by what warrant (Latin: Quo warranto) various liberties were held.^[67] If the defendant could not produce a royal licence to prove the grant of the liberty, then it was the crown's opinion – based on the writings of the influential thirteenth-century legal scholar Bracton – that the liberty should revert to the king.

By enacting the Statute of Gloucester in 1278 the king challenged baronial rights through a revival of the system of general eyres (royal justices to go on tour throughout the land) and through a significant increase in the number of pleas of quo warranto to be heard by such eyres.

This caused great consternation among the aristocracy, who insisted that long use in itself constituted license.^[68] A compromise was eventually reached in 1290, whereby a liberty was considered legitimate as long as it could be shown to have been exercised since the coronation of King Richard I, in 1189.^[69] Royal gains from the Quo warranto proceedings were insignificant; few liberties were returned to the king.^[70] Edward had nevertheless won a significant victory, in clearly establishing the principle that all liberties essentially emanated from the crown.^[71]

The 1290 statute of Quo warranto was only one part of a wider legislative effort, which was one of the most important contributions of Edward I's reign.^[3] This era of legislative action had started already at the time of the baronial reform movement; the Statute of Marlborough (1267) contained elements both of the Provisions of Oxford and the Dictum of Kenilworth.^[72] The compilation of the Hundred Rolls was followed shortly after by the issue of Westminster I (1275), which asserted the royal prerogative and outlined restrictions on liberties.^[73] In the Mortmain (1279), the issue was grants of land to the church.^[74] The first clause of Westminster II (1285), known as De donis conditionalibus, dealt with family settlement of land, and entails.^[75] Merchants (1285) established firm rules for the recovery of debts,^[76] while Winchester (1285) dealt with peacekeeping on a local level.^[77] Quia emptores (1290) – issued along with Quo warranto – set out to remedy land ownership disputes resulting from alienation of land by subinfeudation.^[78] The age of the great statutes largely ended with the death of Robert Burnell in 1292.^[79]

Welsh wars[link]

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd enjoyed an advantageous situation in the aftermath of the Barons' War. Through the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, he officially obtained land he had conquered in the Four Cantrefs of Perfeddwlad and was recognised in his title of Prince of Wales.^[80][81] Armed conflicts nevertheless continued, in particular with certain dissatisfied Marcher Lords, such as the earl of Gloucester, Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.^[82] Problems were exacerbated when Llywelyn's younger brother Dafydd and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of Powys, after failing in an assassination attempt against Llywelyn, defected to the English in 1274.^[83] Citing ongoing hostilities and the English king's harbouring of his enemies, Llywelyn refused to do homage to Edward.^[84] For Edward, a further provocation came from Llywelyn's planned marriage to Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort.^[85] In November 1276, war was declared.^[86] Initial operations were launched under the captaincy of Mortimer, Lancaster (Edward's brother Edmund) and William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.^[87] Support for Llywelyn was weak among his own countrymen.^[88] In July 1277 Edward invaded with a force of 15,500 — of whom 9,000 were Welshmen.^[89] The campaign never came to a major battle, and Llywelyn soon realised he had no choice but to surrender.^[89] By the Treaty of Aberconwy in November 1277, he was left only with the land of Gwynedd, though he was allowed to retain the title of Prince of Wales.^[90]

When war broke out again in 1282, it was an entirely different undertaking. For the Welsh, this war was over national identity, enjoying wide support, provoked particularly by attempts to impose English law on Welsh subjects.^[91] For Edward, it became a war of conquest rather than simply a punitive expedition, like the former campaign.^[92] The war started with a rebellion by Dafydd, who was discontented with the reward he had received from Edward in 1277.^[93] Llywelyn and other Welsh chieftains soon joined in, and initially the Welsh experienced military success. In June, Gloucester was defeated at the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr.^[94] On 6 November, while John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, was conducting peace negotiations, Edward's commander of Anglesey, Luke de Tany, decided to carry out a surprise attack. A pontoon bridge had been built to the mainland, but shortly after Tany and his men crossed over, they were ambushed by the Welsh and suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Moel-y-don.^[95] The Welsh advances ended on 11 December, however, when Llywelyn was lured into a trap and killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge.^[96] The conquest of Gwynedd was complete with the capture in June 1283 of Dafydd, who was taken to Shrewsbury and executed as a traitor the following autumn.^[97]

Caernarfon Castle, one of the most imposing of Edward's Welsh castles.