• Edward was born on 17 June 1239 at Westminster Palace into the House of Plantagenet.

• He was the eldest child of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence.

• He was named after the Saxon King, Edward the Confessor, his father’s favourite saint.

• Being a delicate child, he suffered from a life-threatening illness in 1246. His mother nursed him through this period at Beaulieu Abbey.

• He spoke with a pronounced lisp but possessed the fierce Plantagenet temper in full measure.

• The Song of Lewes described him as a leopard, an animal regarded as particularly powerful and unpredictable.

• He was nick-named “Longshanks” (due to his 1.88m height) and also known as “Hammer of Scots”.

• On 1 November 1254 at age 15, Lord Edward, as he was then known, married his second-cousin, 13 year old Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 1290). She was the daughter of Ferdinand III, King of Castile and his second wife Jeanne, Countess of Ponthieu.

• She bore him 15 or 16 children. First sons John and Henry died in infancy, third son Alphonso died aged 12, so their fourth son Edward became his father’s heir.

• Eleanor died in 1290 aged 49. After embalming, which in the 13th century involved evisceration, Eleanor’s viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral. Her heart was buried in Blackfriars Priory. Her body was buried in Westminster Abbey where a bronze effigy surmounts her tomb.

• Edward remarried at age 60 to 17 year old Princess Margaret of France on 8 Sept 1299 at Canterbury.

• Margaret was the daughter of Phillip III, King of France, and Maria of Brabant.

• They had three children: Thomas of Brotherton Earl of Norfolk, born within the year of Edward’s marriage to Margaret, Edmund of Woodstock Earl of Kent in 1301, and Eleanor, named after Edward’s first wife in May 1306.

• Edward died on 7 July 1307 whilst heading north to deal to the Scots yet again. Suffering dysentery, he died at Burgh On Sands just south of the Scottish border.

• Apprehensive of his son Edward’s ability to continue his work, he was said to have asked that his flesh be boiled from his bones, so that they could be carried with the army on every campaign trip into Scotland.

• Edward was buried in Westminster Abbey. The place where he lies is marked by a simple stone slab that bears the epitaph (translated): Here lies Edward, the Hammer of the Scots. Keep this vow.

• His wife Margaret died aged 36 and buried at Greyfriars Church, Greenwich. She had returned to Marlborough Castle after Edward’s death and never remarried – she is recorded as saying “when Edward died, all men died for me”.

• 467 years after his death (in 1774), Edward’s tomb at Westminster Abbey was opened with permission from the Dean of Westminster. The King’s remains were described as “richly habited, adorned with ensigns of Royalty, and almost entire.” His face and hands seemed intact. He wore a mantle of lush crimson satin and a gilt crown had been placed on his head. In his right hand was a sceptre with a cross. In his left hand was a rod measuring 5 feet long topped with a white enamel dove. So, Edward’s desire to have his flesh boiled from his bones had not been followed through.

Recommended links:

Download the 250-page book Edward The First by Professor T. F. Tout (published in 1896).

Read about King Edward 1 from the official Royal website: www.royal.uk/edward-i-longshanks 

Read about King Edward 1 and Eleanor of Castile from the Westminster Abbey website: www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/edward-i-and-eleanor-of-castile/ 

Watch a documentary about King Edward 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAMT6fjY2PA