Customer Reviews:
 A Great and Terrible King: Edward 1 and the Forging of Britain June 13, 2008
GILPING (norfolk uk)
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
For the person like myself with a sketchy knowledge of medieval Britain and her Kings this excellent book filled a lot of gaps especially the chapters dealing with Wales
Edwards Legacy May 2, 2008
Viscount Geordie of Tynedale (U.K)
26 out of 40 found this review helpful
As a long term student of Edward 1st, I have to say I found this a superb, and highly readable account, of an era, and a king who continues to exert a profound, and I would go as far to say, malign influence, on the four corners of the U.K. Unlike the previous biography by Michael Prestwich, this is not a biography aimed at an academic audience, more it is aimed at a general audience who have an interest in the subject.
To 21 century sensibilties with our focus on human rights, the casual and bloody brutality, not to mention anti semitism, comes as a shock. One can only imagine the reaction, of the son of Simon de Montfort, arriving late at the battle of Evesham, to see his fathers head being paraded around the battlefield, on the end of a spear, or the way in which the author describes the execution of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. ( In truth the last true Prince of Wales) to see that life in 13/14 c England was nasty, brutal and short.
More shocking still is Edward's treatment of the Jews. From taxing them out of existence, to fund the Crusades, and the Welsh wars, until their final explusion in 1290, the story is one of increasing attempts to hound the Jewish community out of public life, often with the tacit if not unconditional backing of the papacy.
This is a highly readable and very well illustrated account of an era, whose consequences, are still being felt across the four nations of the U.K. Does history resonate down the ages? Yes very much so.
 The first ruler of an united Britain - but only for a short time April 28, 2008
Klaus Meyer (Berlin, Germany)
13 out of 23 found this review helpful
It is for a long time that I have some difficulties forming an opinion abut a book I have finished. Usually latest after the first 100 pages one does like or dislike a book, but here it was difficult. Till the very end I am not sure what to think and even now while writing I am not sure.
After the recent interest in the life of Edward II, his lover and his Queen this interest was bound to spill over to the reign of his father, Edward I. who seem to have been to contemporaries of Edward II the role model for a king. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that young Edward when heir to the throne was quite at odds with his father and rather festering his own nest than thinking of the monarchy as such. His reign turned out to be a rollercoaster. As the reign of Henry III of rather of catastrophic nature, the start of Edwards's reign was well received and things improved. However, that was not to last and in the end - except for a view years - there was constant warfare: Wales, Scotland, and Gascony and even internally. To be honest I never admire the so-called military heroes as war means death, lots of it. Whatever the reason for war are, in the end it is always death. For the first time in history Edward was - even if only for a short period - the first king of an united Britain, but at least Scotland regained its independence. Forced conquest do not last -neither today nor then. Edward managed in overall terms to restore the authority of the monarchy which had badly suffered during his fathers rule. But even here it was an up and down. So one gets quite a good picture of his reign. However, as his reign ended kind on a "high" while the "low" was already approaching, one is left with the unanswered question where the monarchy really stood at the end of his reign. Was it indeed as strong as it seems or was the monarchy actually much weaker than it seemed and therefore being - at least in part - a cause for the turbulent rule of his son, especially with regards to the relationship of monarch and his lords.
But there are more drawbacks: the book is pretty weak on his relationships with his Queens and his family. While stating the well known fact of his love for his first Queen Eleanor there is hardly anything to give us an insight into the royal couple's relationship. Even less is said about his second Queen, the "spoils of a peace treaty" and becoming quickly pregnant. The relationship with his son and heir is even less explored. Often, the aspects like the wars in Wales and Scotland seem to be too detailed (maybe less is more would have been appropriate) and therefore a bit too scholarly for my taste. Furthermore, the chapters are far too long and therefore often not easy to read.
The book is missing the great flow and one is not getting "sucked into this book". While giving one an inside, one does not finish this book feeling that one really got to know this Edward I. I honestly have to say that I could neither develop a "passion" for this book nor the subject. I have read far better biographies.
All in all, it is a quite a mixed bag.
A Great and Terrible King March 13, 2008
mgir
44 out of 60 found this review helpful
Last year the 700th anniversary of the death of Edward I passed largely unnoticed. His father, Henry III's 800th birthday was marked by a two day conference at King's College, London and services in Westminster Abbey. but at least we have a new biography of Edward.
Marc Morris, who has made his name as a skilled TV presenter with his series, Castle, and as a serious academic scholar with his book on the Bigod Earls of Norfolk, takes up the challenge of a new overview of this astonishing king. It is twenty years since Michael Prestwich's magisterial life of Edward I. Can Marc Morris bring any thing new? Well, he uses much of the new research of the last two decades and finds new insights. He is particularly good on the public ceremony and processions that surrounded the King and on his Arthurian enthusiasms. He writes engagingly and has some great one-liners. His page-turning description of the Welsh wars had me gripped even though I well knew the outcome. Morris is just to most of the participants although I fear that, whilst he puts the expulsion of the Jews in its context showing that Edward was in line with, and pandering to, the prejudices of his people, he goes too far to accuse Edward of a pogrom. On the other hand, Morris refuses to react in an anachronistic way to the sack of Berwick. I liked the way that he poses interesting questions. Why did the King and Queen go to Quennington and Down Ampney in the springtime so often and what was he doing in East Anglia in 1285 when he should have been getting ready for negotiations in France? Skilful use of charter witness lists and the king's itinerary prompt such questions. Morris never forgets where the King was.
In the end, this a tragic tale. In early 1306, every thing seemed to going well. The threat of Welsh invasions into the Marches was over and the new, more conciliatory dispensation in Scotland seemed to have resolved the outbreak of enmity between the two peoples. The period of mutual tolerance and good relations when the queens of Scotland were English, might have been re-established. The years of dreadful cross-border savagery would have ben avoided. The last days of the King are told in a moving way. The proud, determined old man struggling to move north, abandoning his litter for a war horse to impress his men, only to fail again and to die within sight of Scotland.
A very readable and thought-provoking book which will be useful and enjoyable to both the academic historian and the wider reading public.
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