A History of Britain 04. Nations (2 of 30)

A History of Britain

Welshmen would die in Scotland, Scotsmen would perish in Ireland, the English would kill and be killed everywhere.
For the fight to the death between princes and principles, the battle for the making of a nation would begin in the very heart of England.
One man was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood, and he was England's own home-grown Caesar - Edward I.
In 1774, those made curious by his fearsome reputation opened his tomb.
The man inside was as awesome as contemporaries had recorded, dressed in the purple robe of a Roman emperor, an impressive six foot two tall, fully justifying his nickname, Longshanks.
Upon that stark marble tomb, the only ornamentation reads...
"Edwardus Primus Scottorum malleus hic est." Hammer of the Scots.

After a century of rule by kings who were essentially Frenchmen, Edward can be called the first truly English king - given an old Anglo-Saxon name and imbued with the frightening certainty that it was England's imperial mission to take its rule to the four corners of the British islands.
His many enemies compared him to one of the big cat predators.
Perhaps he will rightly be called a leopard, Leo - brave, proud and fierce, the powered, wily, devious and treacherous.