Louis Francis Salzman

"The workings of the mysterious influence of heredity present few greater puzzles than the characters of the English kings. It is indeed strange that Edward I should have been the son of the pious but incapable Henry III and father of the equally incapable Edward II."

"In the first place it must be borne in mind that before the extinction of its independence Wales was a geographical expression rather than a nation."

"That it was the king’s intention to govern the parts of Wales that were now under his control with justice and gain the goodwill of the inhabitants cannot be doubted. There is also reason to believe that he was in some considerable measure successful so far as the common people were concerned, but the chieftains and petty lords were too long accustomed to that form of license which they called liberty to accept the restraints of English law even if administered with strict impartiality, and from what we know of contemporary English officials in their own country we may feel fairly sure that cases of maladministration and oppression were not lacking."

"So far as the popes were concerned it was Edward I’s habitual practice to become enthusiastic over crusading propositions whenever he was in want of money and thereby to obtain grants of clerical subsidies, which he promptly applied to other purposes."

"There may have been some connection between his convalescent vow of crusade and the arrest by his orders, in May 1287, of all those enemies of the Christian faith, the Jews, in England. Their subsequent release on payment of a fine of 20,000 marks is evidence that he did not allow religion to interfere with business principles."

"Although he must have seen that the position was serious it was impossible for him to realise the disastrous effect that the death of the Maid of Norway was to have upon the history of England. The discussion of hypothetical history is not very profitable, but it may be pointed out that if the marriage planned between Maid of Norway and Edward had been consummated the union of England and Scotland might have been anticipated by several centuries, the wearisome and disastrous wars between those two kingdoms would at least have been avoided, and also the Hundred Years’ War with France, arising out of Edward’s actual marriage with Isabel of France. Had Maid of Norway lived Bannockburn, Crécy and Agincourt would never have been fought."

"Eleanor of Castile is the most attractive personality in the long list of English queens, her only rival being Philippa of Hainault."

"Eleanor of Provence was a kindly, narrow and commonplace woman, devout to a degree which to modern ideas would seem bigoted but was admirable in the eyes of her contemporaries, affectionate, and even devoted, to her husband, children and relations."

"No more was heard of the proposal for this extraordinary extension of popular control, but the attacks on the Treasurer, instigated by Winchelsey, were renewed a year later when Sir John de Lovetot accused him of infringements of most of the Ten Commandments and of a few other offences, such as simony, which had been overlooked by the compilers of the Decalogue. As a result Treasurer was suspended and compelled to pay a visit to the papal court, where, after he had been well fleeced, his innocence was established in June 1303. By way of showing his own zeal for the good governance of the Church the Pope at the same time authorised the slandered Treasurer to bestow benefices upon two of his nephews who had reached the mature ages of ten and twelve years respectively."

"The Prince, now at the end of his seventeenth year, had been with his father on the last Scottish campaign and had on several occasions acted as his father’s representative but seems already to have been showing signs of the frivolous and unworthy character which distinguished him in later life, and the evidence of these characteristics accumulates rapidly during the next few years even before they are exposed to the fierce light that beats upon a throne."

"Faithfulness to those whom he had once admitted into the rather narrow circle of his friendship was, indeed, a mark of his character. Those whom he had once found loyal and capable as ministers, soldiers or diplomats retained, as a rule, his confidence to the end."

"Remarkable as was the resemblance in some ways between Edward I and his great-grandfather Henry II the difference in their attitude towards religion was as great as the difference in appearance between the tall, dark, wiry Plantagenet and the short, stout, ruddy Angevin. Henry was as nearly an agnostic as even a king dared be in the twelfth century, while Edward was a man of very sincere piety."

"The most famous and popular of all English saints, St. Thomas of Canterbury, could not be ignored but Edward does not seem to have shown any great affection for him and one cannot help feeling that he was too conscious of the parallel between Becket and his own troublesome archbishops to display any great devotion towards the martyr."

"As a warrior his reputation was well established and well deserved, not the least important of his qualifications being that mysterious attribute known as luck, an attribute inspiring alike to the possessor and to those serving under him."

"While Edward I maintained a becoming magnificence of state he was in his personal tastes simple and averse to display, dressing plainly and rightly relying upon his character and personality rather than upon kingly trappings to uphold his dignity."

"The renewal and confirmation of their charters granted to many towns under Edward I, as in all other reigns, so far from being a mark of his favor may with equal justice be read as reminders to the citizens that they held their privileges by grace of the crown—a grace for the continuation of which they had to pay."

"It was from the maladministration, peculation and corruption of the officials, from the Chief Justices of the Bench down to the catchpolls of the manor courts, that the people suffered rather than from the weakness or badness of the laws."

"Had his son and successor resembled him in character and ability a despotic autocracy might have been established which would have altered the whole history of English constitutional history, and it is questionable whether we owe a greater debt to the strength of Edward I, which curbed the baronial oligarchy, or to the weakness of Edward II, which shook the power of the throne and saved England from a despotism."

"Law, considered historically, may be divided into two branches, Theory or Legislation, and Practice or Administration."

"The theoretical supremacy of the king in legal matters was so far practical that his prolonged absence, in Gascony, Wales or Scotland, usually coincided with the periods of greatest lawlessness."