Book Review: "A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain" by Marc Morris

As you already know by now, I am reading one book about each and every English king and queen from Edward the Confessor all the way up to Queen Elizabeth II. So far, I have covered the following monarchs: Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, William Rufus (William II), Henry I, King Stephen, Empress Matilda, Henry II, Richard I, King John and Henry III. Finally, I am about to move on to the king that everyone seems to unanimously refer to as one of the most evil kings in English history, a man who legitimately frightens the life out of me and a man who I think should not really be given the title of 'great' anything: Edward I. Now to do a throwback review of Marc Morris's A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain as I actually read this book two years' ago (but recently read it once more for reference).

The book covers nearly everything about Edward I, looking at his escape from the 'reign' of Simon de Montfort in the time of his father, Henry III all the way through to the cruelty he inflicted on others and then through to his death. Often Edward I is accredited with sorting out the country from the state his father, Henry III left it in, but I think that is purely a cop-out - this man was through and through pure evil - the way he treated others was just abysmal and horrid, especially when it came to getting land, expelling people from the country and basically committing war crimes. To not refer to him as evil would be, for me, very wrong.

This book is great as it investigates both sides: one is the king of England, the other is a tempermental man with a violent way of doing things that probably does not want to be written down in the history books upon his death. When it covers the efforts Edward made against the Scots, it does go into a lot of political detail, revealing that Edward was adamant in his belief that he was more intelligent than the opposing side. He may have been more intelligent, but the way in which he took them over was brutal and gave him the nickname The Hammer of the Scots. An awful nickname to have.

When I read this book the first time the one thing I noticed is that it didn't shy away from the fact that Edward I was basically a tyrant. Yes, he did restore parliament and yes, he did raise taxes - but he also killed senselessly and made people's lives absolutely miserable. The regime he had in place to expel people from the country would later be adopted by the likes of Hitler and Mussolini in the 20th century and if you don't think that is bad enough - Edward I also proved to be homophobic when he expelled his son's lover, Piers Gaveston, from England.

Marc Morris's book goes into intense detail about the reign of Edward I and unlike most books about him, doesn't turn his back on the bad things he did and the lives he hurt. Ultimately, history needs to remember him as a villain and I think this book definitely pushes that envelope across the table. Many people don't want to accept the fact that basically everything this king did was in his own interest, but that is the way it was. When King Edward I died though, we all know how it goes, the cruelty of his reign backfires on his legacy spectacularly and it all goes down the drain with the gentle soul of King Edward II.