The Last Days of Edward I

Here's an unpublished article I wrote some years ago about Edward I's stay at Lanercost Priory during the last few months of his life. It's lately been included with fourteen other essays in my ebook, Kings and Castles. (I really can't emphasize enough that this book is a collection of essays and articles.)

By the start of 1306, Edward I had lived longer, travelled further, and achieved more than any previous king of England. At 66 years old, he had visited not only every corner of Britain but also France, Belgium, Italy, Sicily, Spain, Sardinia, Cyprus, North Africa and the Holy Land. And, in the eyes of his contemporaries, he had performed the most praiseworthy deeds. He had fought against the infidels on crusade; he had, as one chronicler put it, ‘expelled the faithless multitude of Jews from England’, and he had – also to the great rejoicing of his English subjects – conquered Wales.

The great chain of castles that the king constructed to cement his victory over the Welsh are his most enduring architectural legacy. Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris, to name just the four most famous, are collectively recognized today as a World Heritage Site, and are a must-see for anyone even marginally interested in the medieval past. They are not, however, the focus of this present story, which is devoted to the last few months of Edward’s life, and a ruined monastic church in Cumbria, now in the care of English Heritage.

Lanercost Priory lies on the Anglo-Scottish Border, close to Hadrian’s Wall, which might seem a foolhardy place for anyone to have planted a religious community. Most people assume that during the Middle Ages England and Scotland existed in a state of perpetual hostility. But, in fact, for a century and more after Lanercost was founded in 1169, the two kingdoms had been getting on famously. English merchants and monks had emigrated to Scotland, helping to found new towns and monasteries; the aristocracies of the two realms had intermarried, and so too had their royal families: Edward I’s aunt, Joan, and his sister, Margaret, were both married to consecutive kings of Scots. The line of the Border on which Lanercost lies was fixed by treaty in 1237. Far from being a hostile frontier, this was a place where two cultures met and merged on peaceful terms and for mutual profit.

But all this changed in the 1280s, when a series of tragic deaths wiped out the Scottish royal family, leaving the Scottish throne with no obvious heir. Edward I was invited to help decide between the various claimants, but used the opportunity to browbeat the Scots into accepting him as their superior lord. Having found in favour of one candidate (John Balliol), he forced him to perform a humiliating act of homage, and repeatedly required him to appear in Westminster. Eventually the new Scottish king and his subjects decided that they would stand for no more, and sought to reclaim their lost independence. For the first time in over eighty years, the two countries went to war.

Naturally, this was bad news for those living at Lanercost. Within days of the war’s outbreak in 1296, the priory had been raided by the Scots – ‘dastardly thieves’, as the local chronicler described them – and the following year it was attacked again, this time by none other than William Wallace (‘that bloody man’, said the same chronicler). In general, however, this was a war in which the English had the best of the fighting. In 1304, after eight years of devastating English invasions, the Scots surrendered. The following year Wallace was captured and sent to London to be executed. Edward erected a new government in Scotland, to be overseen by an English governor. Scotland was declared to be a kingdom no longer, and was to have no new king.

Which brings us back to the start of 1306. Just when Edward thought his life’s work was complete, news came out of the north of a new Scottish rebellion, led by Robert Bruce, who resurrected his country’s claim to independence by having himself crowned king. Inevitably this meant the resumption of war, and within weeks a new English army was advancing into Scotland. But Edward I was not there to lead it. News of Bruce’s revolt coincided with (and thus possibly triggered) a sharp decline in his health. When the English king eventually set out northwards that summer, he had to be carried on a litter. His intended destination was Carlisle, but after three agonizing months he was forced to stop just twelve miles short of the city – at Lanercost Priory.

Religious houses were accustomed to receiving the kings of England from time to time as they toured their domains. Such stays, however, were always kept short, for the royal household was a monstrous and all-devouring beast. Edward arrived at Lanercost on 29 September 1306 with almost 200 people in tow – mostly grooms, cooks, carters, clerks and huntsmen – and that was just the core of his entourage. He would have been attended in addition by military men coming and going from the field, and also by the merchants, beggars and prostitutes that his household invariably drew in its wake. Lanercost had been once again been invaded by an army, albeit a friendly one.

But it was quite clear that, on this occasion, the army was going nowhere. Edward’s condition meant that he could not be moved, so his household proceeded to ensconce itself in the priory for the long haul. Soon teams of carpenters, plumbers and glaziers were arriving to build new chambers for the king, the queen and their manifold servants. Surviving household rolls reveal the considerable extent of the work. The priory precinct may appear peaceful and empty today; but in the winter of 1306 it must have resembled nothing less than a small town, crammed with new timber buildings and innumerable tents.

Edward’s household rolls also reveal something of his existence that winter. He travelled with vast quantities of gold and silver plate, including a pair of table knives with crystal handles. Food was obtained in huge quantities: scores of oxen and pigs, and cartloads of almonds, rice, sugar and bread. The other great expense was medicine: the king’s doctors ordered a cornucopia of spices, herbs and oils in their effort to prolong his life. Edward also had the benefit of the chests of holy relics with which he habitually travelled – a hoard that included a fragment of Christ’s cross appropriated from Wales, a piece of St Andrew’s cross taken from the Scots, as well as a saint’s tooth ‘effective against lightning and thunder’.

In the spring of 1307, Edward finally left Lanercost, but he never recovered his health. Soon after reaching Carlisle he fell sick again, and the rumour arose that he was already dead. In a grand gesture of defiance, the king gave up his litter, mounted his war-horse and led his army out of the city towards Scotland. Ten days later he died at Burgh by Sands on the Cumbrian coast, having advanced barely six miles.

Lanercost never recovered either. In 1292 its estates had been valued at a healthy £200 a year, but at the time of the Dissolution in 1536 that figure had shrunk to just £85. This decline in prosperity was due in part to the long centuries of hatred that Edward I had engendered by his attempt to conquer Scotland. But the decisive turning point in the priory’s fortunes had come in the winter of 1306­–7, when for five months its resources had been decimated by the magnificent court of a dying English king.