434 EDWARD I. EDWARD II. of Gulenne, his right to that province was dis- puted by Alfonso X. of Castile, who renounced his claim in consequence of Edward's marry- ing his sister. In 1254 he received the lord- ship of Ireland and of the provinces which had been seized in the reign of John Lackland by the king of France. He supported the throne against the revolted barons, and with his father and his uncle Richard, king of the Romans, was made prisoner at the battle of Lewes, May 13, 1264. He recovered his liberty in 1265, defeated and slew Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, at Evesham, and in 1267 conquered the last of the insurgents in the isle of Ely. Shortly after he joined the cru- saders, and served two years in the East. Nearly two years after his father's death he was crowned without opposition at Westminster, and began to signalize his ability both as a warrior and legislator. His arms were first directed against Llewellyn, prince of the Welsh, whom he reduced, but who rebelled again, and was slain in single combat by an English knight immediately after the army of Edward had reappeared in that country. -He established corporate bodies of merchants in the princi- pal towns of Wales, and introduced the juris- prudence of the English courts. Edward, as the chroniclers have it, had promised to ap- point as prince of Wales a person born in the principality, and who could not speak English. His queen Eleanor, being delivered of a son in the castle of Carnarvon, the Eng- lish king maintained that his son fulfilled the conditions, and declared him prince of Wales, a title which has ever since been borne by the eldest son of the sovereign. In 1289 he resolved upon the subjugation of Scotland, to whose crown there were at this time 13 claimants. Being invited to the office of arbi- trator, he took possession of many of the Scotch fortresses, and then conferred the crown upon John Balliol, who soon renounced his alle- giance. Edward marched again across the Tweed, gained a great victory at Dunbar in 1296, sent Balliol into exile, bore away the Scotch sceptre and crown, and left the highest offices in the hands of Englishmen, under the earl of Surrey, who received the title of guar- dian of the kingdom. The Scots rallied in 1297 under the chieftain William Wallace, and drove the English out of their kingdom, totally de- feating them in the battle of Stirling, Sept. 10. Edward hastily finished the war which he had meanwhile undertaken in France, advanced again to the Forth, and defeated the insurgents with the loss of from 20,000 to 40,000 men near the forest of Falkirk, July 22, 1298. Wallace himself escaped. The rebellion again broke out in 1303, and again Edward overran the king- dom, its temporary subjugation being comple- ted by the surrender of the strong castle of Stirling. Wallace was soon after surprised and captured, and was hanged in Sjnithfield (1305). In 1306 the war was again kindled by Robert Bruce, who was elected king, and, though at first unsuccessful, at length gained a decisive victory over the earl of Pembroke. Edward marched again to the north, but was surprised by death on the frontier at Burgh- rn-Sands. The most enduring results of reign of Edward were the reforms which he introduced in the administration of govern- ment, of justice, and of the finances, which had gained for him the title of the "English Justinian." He ameliorated the laws, con- firmed and finally established the two great charters, gave to the parliament the form it has since retained, and is said to have first instituted justices of the peace. The Jews during his reign were cruelly despoiled, and in 1290 ordered under penalty of death to quit England for ever before a certain day. See " History of the Life and Times of Edward I.," by William Longman (2 vols., London, 1869). EDWARD II., king of England, son and suc- cessor of the preceding, born in Carnarvon, April 25, 1284, ascended the throne in 1307, and was murdered Sept. 21, 1327. From his childhood he had lived in close intimacy with Piers de Gaveston, the son of a gentleman of Guienne, who was at length banished from the kingdom as a corrupter of the prince. Edward I. on his deathbed forbade his son under pain of his paternal malediction to allow the vicious favorite to return ; yet the first act of the new king was to recall Gaveston, whom he created earl of Cornwall and married to his own niece, and to the scandal of the whole kingdom appointed him regent while himself went to France to marry the princess Isabella. A for- midable league under the earl of Lancaster drove Gaveston into exile; but he was ap- pointed lieutenant of Ireland by his royal friend. He returned soon after, when an ar- my raised by confederate powerful barons and commanded by the earl of Lancaster pursued him to the north; he was besieged at Scar- borough, captured, and put to death at War- wick, June 19, 1312. Edward then turned his attention to the revolted Scots. At the head of an immense army he crossed the frontier, but after losing the battle of Ban- nockburn (1314) fled from the kingdom with a body of Scottish cavalry at his heels. In 1321 he was again defeated at Blackmoor, and pursued to the walls of York. The pub- lic discontent was increased by the honors which the king bestowed upon Hugh le De- spenser, a new favorite, and an armed insur- rection of the barons under the earls of Lan- caster and Hereford caused the Despensers to be banished ; but on their return Lancaster was seized and put to death. In 1323 Ed- ward negotiated a truce for 13 years with Scotland. The triumph of the Despensers was complete, but the partiality of the king for his favorites alienated not only his subjects but his queen. To arrange some differences be- tween her husband and her brother she went to France, where she found a great number of English fugitives, the friends of Lancaster,
