CHAPTER XV.

Edward I., Longshanks.  A.D. 1272—­1307.

The son of Henry III. returned from the Holy Land to be one of our noblest, best, and wisest kings.  Edward I.—­called Longshanks in a kind of joke, because he was the tallest man in the Court—­was very grand-looking and handsome; and could leap, run, ride, and fight in his heavy armor better than anyone else.  He was brave, just, and affectionate; and his sweet wife, Eleanor of Castille, was warmly loved by him and all the nation.  He built as many churches and was as charitable as his father, but he was much more careful to make only good men bishops, and he allowed no wasting or idling.  He faithfully obeyed Magna Carta, and made everyone else obey the law—­indeed many good laws and customs have begun from this time.  Order was the great thing he cared for, and under him the English grew prosperous and happy, when nobody was allowed to rob them.

The Welsh were, however, terrible robbers.  You remember that they are the remains of the old Britons, who used to have all Britain.  They had never left off thinking that they had a right to it, and coming down out of their mountains to burn the houses and steal the cattle of the Saxons, as they still called the English.  Edward tried to make friends with their princes—­Llewellyn and David—­and to make them keep their people in order.  He gave David lands in England, and let Llewellyn marry his cousin, Eleanor de Montfort.  But they broke their promises shamefully, and did such savage things to the English on their borders that he was forced to put a stop to it, and went to war.  David was made prisoner, and put to death as a traitor; and Llewellyn was met by some soldiers near the bridge of Builth and killed, without their knowing who he was.  Edward had, in the meantime, conquered most of the country; and he told the Welsh chiefs that, if they would come and meet him at Caernarvon Castle, he would give them a prince who had been born in their country—­had never spoken a word of any language but theirs.  They all came, and the king came down to them with his own little baby son in his arms, who had lately been born in Caernarvon Castle, and, of course, had never spoken any language at all.  The Welsh were obliged to accept him; and he had a Welsh nurse, that the first words he spoke might be Welsh.  They thought he would have been altogether theirs, as he then had an elder brother; but in a year or two the oldest boy died; and, ever since that time, the eldest son of the King of England has always been Prince of Wales.

There was a plan for the little Prince Edward of Caernarvon being married to a little girl, who was grand-daughter to the King of Scotland, and would be Queen of Scotland herself—­and this would have led to the whole island being under one king—­but, unfortunately, the little maiden died.  It was so hard to decide who ought to reign, out of all her cousins, that they asked king Edward to choose among them—­ since everyone knew that a great piece of Scotland belonged to him as over-lord, just as his own dukedom of Aquitaine belonged to the King of France over him; and the Kings of Scotland always used to pay homage to those of England for it.