While Edward was still abroad, his friend Gregory X. held from May to July, 1274, the second general council at Lyons, wherein there was much talk of a new crusade, and an effort was made, which came very near temporary success, towards healing the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches.  At Gregory’s request Edward put off his coronation, lest the celebration might call away English prelates from Lyons.  When the council was over, he at last turned towards his kingdom.  At Paris he was met by the mayor of London, Henry le Waleis, and other leading citizens, who set before him the grievous results of the long disputes with Flanders, which had broken off the commercial relations between the two countries, and had inflicted serious losses on English trade.  Edward strove to bring the Flemings to their senses by prohibiting the export of wool from England to the weaving towns of Flanders.  The looms of Ghent and Bruges were stopped by reason of the withholding of the raw material, and the distress of his subjects made Count Guy of Flanders anxious to end so costly a quarrel.  On July 28 Edward met Guy at Montreuil and signed a treaty which re-established the old friendship between lands which stood in constant economic need of each other.  There was no longer any occasion for further delay, and on August 2 Edward and his queen crossed over to Dover.  Received with open arms by his subjects, he was crowned at Westminster on August 19 by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Kilwardby, philosopher, theologian, and Dominican friar, whom Gregory X. had placed over the church of Canterbury, despite the vigorous efforts which Edward made to secure the primacy for Robert Burnell.  He had been absent from England for four years.

Edward’s sojourn in France was fruitful of results which he was unable to reap for the moment.  Conscious of the inveterate hostility of the French king, he strove to establish relations with foreign powers to counterbalance the preponderance of his rival.  When the death of Richard of Cornwall reopened the question of the imperial succession, Charles of Anjou had been anxious to obtain the prize for his nephew, Philip III., on the specious pretext that the headship of Christendom would enable the King of France to “collect chivalry from all the world” and institute the crusade which both Gregory X. and Edward so ardently desired.  But the most zealous enthusiast for the holy war could hardly be deceived by the false zeal with which the Angevin cloaked his overweening ambition.  It was a veritable triumph for Edward, when Gregory X., though attracted for a moment by the prospect of a strong emperor capable of landing a crusade, accepted the choice of the German magnates who, in terror of France, elected as King of the Romans the strenuous but not overmighty Swabian count, Rudolf of Hapsburg.  As Alfonso of Castile’s pretensions were purely nominal, this election ended the Great Interregnum by restoring the empire on a narrower but more practical basis.  Though Gregory strove to reconcile the French to Rudolf’s accession, common suspicion of France bound Edward and the new King of the Romans in a common friendship.