The Leopard - Chapter 1
ANNOUNCEMENT: I have decided to offer paid subscribers exclusive access to chapters of my first nonfiction effort, THE WARS OF EDWARD I (I): THE LEOPARD 1255-74.
As the title suggests, this is a study of the early military campaigns of Edward I, ‘Longshanks’, before he became king. I first published it back in 2017 and am now in the process of rewriting it. I will post a chapter once a week with teaser excerpts.
Because I am feeling generous, I am offering the first chapter FREE! The stunning artwork is by Matthew Ryan, a very talented cover artist who specialises in historical-themed cover designs.
1. GROWING PAINS: GASCONY AND WALES 1255-63
Edward’s earliest military action took place in the duchy of Gascony. This region of south-west France was all that remained of the Angevin Empire on the continental mainland, which had once stretched from the borders of Scotland to the Pyrenees. King John, Edward’s grandfather, had lost much of the empire to Philip Augustus, the King of France. John’s successor Henry III failed to claw back the losses, and in the Treaty of Paris (1259) formally surrendered his ancestral claim to all lands on the continent save Gascony, which he and his heirs were to hold as a fiefdom of the French crown.
In 1249, a decade before the Treaty of Paris, Henry formally granted Gascony to Edward. His son was still a child at the time, and the grant little more than an empty formality. Effective power was in the hands of Simon Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whom in 1248 Henry had appointed seneschal of the duchy. Gascony was in a state of unrest, and Montfort’s heavy-handed methods of restoring order provoked a long list of complaints. These were soon laid before the king. In 1252 Montfort was placed on trial for his conduct at Westminster, where he and Henry exchanged bitter words. According to the Benedictine monk Matthew Paris, author of the manuscript Chronica Majora, Montfort goaded the king by saying ‘Who could believe that you are a Christian? Have you ever been confessed?’ Henry, a notably pious man, was infuriated by the remark.
Gascony, as both Montfort and Henry well knew, was not an easy land to govern. The towns, especially Bordeaux, were riven by faction, and many of the nobles held their lands freely with no feudal obligation to the king-dukes of England. They jealously defended their local customs and private rights, including the right to wage war. The most powerful of them, such as the lords of Béarn on the southern border, ruled effectively independent lordships. In such a fragmented landscape the authority of the king-dukes could only be exercised via ‘conciliation, respect for urban privilege, and the distribution of fees to the nobility.’
The chaotic state of the duchy was eloquently described by Montfort in a letter to the king from March 1250. Montfort explained he was unable to collect rents, and there was no use sending an army to wage conventional war against the rebellious Gascon nobles:
‘...for they will do nothing but rob the land, and burn and plunder, and put the people to ransom, and ride by night like thieves by twenty or thirty or forty in different parts.’
These noble thieves would then, Montfort explained, tell the king that he was the cause of all this plunder and violence. In 1253 Henry lost patience and went to Gascony himself to put the fractious duchy in order. Edward, still only fourteen, was left behind. Paris described the boy sobbing as he watched the royal fleet sail away, refusing to leave until the ships had vanished over the horizon. The Gascon campaign was a rare military success for Henry, and by the end of September he had retaken every major fortress except Benauges and La Réole. The king needed Montfort’s military expertise and reinforcements to complete his victory, and after some negotiations – from which Montfort profited handsomely – the two men were reconciled. With the aid of his lieutenant, Henry was able to reduce Benauges, though La Réole continued to hold out until August 1254. The king made sure of his triumph by taking hostages, confiscating goods and throwing down castles. Gascony, for the moment, had been secured.
In 1254 Edward was finally given real wealth and status. On 14th February his father granted him a spectacular endowment including Gascony, most of Ireland, large territories in Wales, the Ile d’Oléron (an island off France’s Atlantic coast) and the Channel Isles. All this was granted as the result of pressure from Edward’s prospective father-in-law, the King of Castile, who refused to let Edward marry his daughter unless the former was sufficiently endowed with lands. Paris considered Henry had been too lavish, and turned himself into a ‘mutilated kinglet’. Yet Edward was given no formal title, and his father retained overall sovereignty in all of the territories granted to his son.
Edward arrived in Gascony in June 1254. His administration was already in effect, and he didn’t have to wait long to see action. A complex succession crisis over the lordship of Bergerac had long been brewing. Briefly, the King of England promised the lordship to a cadet branch of the family of Rudell, which had run out of male heirs in the direct line. However, one of the Rudell women married a vassal of the King of France, Renaud Pons, who claimed the lordship by right of his wife. The citizens of Bergerac supported Renaud and took up arms on his behalf. King Henry, who had only just restored his authority in Gascony, responded with force. Renaud was forewarned, and set an ambush to capture Henry’s queen, Eleanor of Provence, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester, when they landed in the duchy. The ambush very nearly succeeded and would have caused Henry severe embarrassment. The enraged king sent troops to lay siege to Bergerac, mustered knights and militia from Gascon towns. He also ordered all goods, wines and people coming from Bergerac to be seized.
Edward was obliged to make an appearance. His itinerary shows he was encamped outside Bergerac from 11th June to 10th July. This was probably his first experience of siege warfare, where he displayed the guile that would often define his later campaigns. At some point during these weeks, in unexplained circumstances, Renaud Pons ‘fell into’ Edward’s custody. However this was achieved, it drew the sting from the rebellion.
The victorious Edward showed a light touch in dealing with Renaud and his supporters. On 16th January 1255 Guillaume Bridwere, a burgess of Bergerac, was pardoned for his role in the revolt, and Renaud himself released from captivity to plead his case before Edward’s court. The succession case rumbled on until 1267, when the Queen of France was invited to arbitrate and found in Renaud’s favour.
The brief siege of Bergerac was not the end of Edward’s military experience in Gascony. After years of disorder, the duchy’s finances were in a dire state, so he decided to levy a tax. This was partially dressed up as a traditional levy on the occasion of his being knighted. The tax coincided with another levied by his father to fund a new crusade, and together they were enough to drive some Gascon nobles into rebellion. Concerned for Edward’s safety, the king cancelled a tournament in England and declared he would send a number of pre-paid knights to Gascony as reinforcements. Edward himself ordered the construction of ships and supplies brought over from his lordship of Ireland.
The records of this short-lived revolt suggest he coped well enough. In July 1255 one of the troublesome lords, Arnaud-Guillaume Gramont, refused to appear in court to justify his claim to Gramont Castle. Edward took this defiance as an opportunity to flex his muscles and laid siege. A reconciliation was soon brought about by Gaston Béarn, lord of Béarn and himself a former rebel who had caused Simon Montfort’s administration no end of trouble. Peace talks were held at the end of July, and by the end of August Edward’s agents were collecting money for building works at the castle.
Elsewhere Edward ordered the construction of military buildings at Cocumont – described as ‘an enclosure and a fortalice in a place of safety’ – and at Labouheyre. Fronsac was reinforced, Guiche occupied and the fortifications at Bayonne improved. These are early examples of Edward’s interest in castle-building and fortifications, later demonstrated to stunning effect in Wales. Edward also demonstrated his willingness to demolish religious houses for military purposes: in September 1254 he ordered the church at La Réole to be destroyed, since it was too near the castle and ‘injurious to it.’