From "Debrett's Kings and Queens of Britain" by David Williamson, ISBN 0-86350-101-X, p. 72-3:
Acceded 16 Nov 1272
Crowned Westminster Abbey 19 Aug 1274.
Edward I was the outstanding English king of the Middle Ages. A great soldier and a wise statesman, he initiated constitutional reforms that laid the foundations of parliamentary government. Edward who was named after the revered Edward the Confessor, inherited none of his father's weaknesses and took far more after his very able uncle Richard of Cornwall. He also possessed his mother's strength of character without her pleasure-loving frivolity!
The young "Lord Edward" as he was known, loyally supported his father throughout the civil war and Montfort's rebellion. At the age of 15, Edward journeyed to Spain where he received the honor of knighthood from King Alfonso X of Castile and the hand of his half-sister, the Infanta Eleanor. She became the love of his life, and like his father before him, he was a faithful husband. By 1270 peace had been restored to the country and Edward went off on crusades, accompanied by Eleanor. When his father died in Nov 1272, Edward was in Sicily, making his slow way back. England, he felt, was safe under his mother's regency and he did not hurry, arriving in the summer of 1274. He and Eleanor were crowned together at Westminster Abbey on 19 Aug.
Edward's encouragement of 'parliaments' which he used to keep in touch with the problems and needs of the country, had led him to be described as the Father of the Mother of Parliaments." His relentless, but unsuccessful, attempts to assert his overlordship of the Scottish kingdom have earned him the title of 'Hammer of the Scots' which was inscribed on his simple tomb in Westminster. His Welsh campaign was more successful and the country was completely subjugated in two wars, ending with the deaths of LLywellyn and David, the last two native princes. A policy of castle building ensured that Wales remained under English rule and the mighty fortresses of Rhuddlan, Conway, Denbigh, Harlech and Caernarvon still stand.
When campaigning in Scotland Edward captured and took back to England the Stone of Scone with which Scottish kings had always been crowned. This stone was said to be that on which the Patriarch Jacob had slept at Bethel when he has his vision of angels. In many adventures it travelled to Egypt, thence to Spain and to Ireland, where it was set up on the Hill of Tara and became the centre of the inauguration ceremonies of the High Kings of Ireland, being said to utter a groaning noise when the rightful monarch sat on it and to have remained silent under a usurper. Such a stone still stands at Tara, so it must have been a duplicate which, in the continuation of the legend, was taken to Scotland, built into the walls of Dunstaffnage Castle, and finally deposited at Scone by Kenneth MacAlpin in AD850. Edward dedicated the stone to Edward the Confessor, his patron saint, and commissioned Master Walter of Durham to construct a wooden chair to contain it for a fee of one hundred shillings. Since then every English sovereign has been crowned seated in the Coronation Chair, with the exception of Mary II, for who, as joint sovereign, a duplicate chair without the stone was constructed. Both chairs are exhibited in Westminster Abbey near the Confessor's shrine and have been much defaced and vandalized by Westminster schoolboys and others who have carved their initials over the centuries.
Edward's reign was one of architectural flowering and many cathedrals and abbey churches were begun or rebuilt, including Exeter, Lichfield and York Minster, while the first scientific attempt at town planning took place at Winchelsea, which remains a delight to visitors today.
Edward's beloved Eleanor died in 1290 and 9 years later, at the age of 60, he married 20 year old Margaret of France. The marriage was not unhappy, in spite of the great disparity in age, and three more children were born, making Edward the father of more legitimate children than any other English king before or since. In Jun 1307 Edward was again campaigning in the north when he was struck down by dysentery. He died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, near Carlisle, on 7 Jul, having just completed his 68th year.

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Eldest son of Henry III. He was married in 1254 to Eleanor of Castile, and on his marriage was invested with the baronies of Gascony, Ireland, and Wales. During the baronial troubles of his fathers reign, it seemed at first that Edward might side with de Montfort, but from 1259 his loyalty to the King was unswerving. He soon distinguished himself as a soldier, and took a prominent part in the baronial wars. He was blamed for the overthrow of the royalist forces at Lewes, since, by his wild charge which swept the Londoners from the field, he so weakened the royalist forces that on his return from the pursuit he found his father's forces had been defeated, and surrendered. He escaped from prison in 1265, and defeated Simon de Montfort at the battle of Evesham (1265). From c. 1260 Edward's influence over his father increased steadily. In 1270 he set out on a crusade, and, returning to Europe in 1272, learnt of his father's death. Conditions in England were so stable at the end of Henry's reign that Edward had been recognized as his successor, although absent from the country, without question. He was crowned in 1274, having spent the two intervening years settling affairs in France. Edward worked to unify the outlying parts of his kingdom. After the second Welsh war, which ended in the overthrow and death of the last Llewellyn (1282), he was able to annex Wales. The Statute of Rhuddlan made Wales an English possession. Between 1284 and 1290 much new legislation was initiated. Edward was determined to be king not only in name but in reality, and all his legislation tended towards that end. His chief measures in this direction were: the abolition of the office of justiciar, leading to the organization of the three common law courts, the Assize of Winchester (a nation in arms at the disposal of the king), the Statute of Mortmain, and Quia Emptores (a means of preventing subinfuedation). But Edward's greatest ambition was to bring Scotland under his control. In 1286 Alexander III of Scotland had died, leaving as his heir the Maid of Norway, his granddaughter, who was only two years of age. Edward planned a marriage between the Maid and his son, Edward. The marriage was accepted in Scotland, but in 1290 the Maid died and Scottish affairs became chaotic. Edward, as arbitrator, at Nottingham chose John de Baliol as king of Scotland, out of a dozen claimants, the most prominent of whom was Robert Bruce. Baliol did homage to Edward as his overlord, but the Scottish people, resenting keenly the attitude of Edward, forced Baliol into open rebellion, and Edward invaded Scotland. By the end of 1296 he had reduced Scotland, and at Brechin had forced Baliol to surrender the crown. He appointed his own regents for Scotland and departed southward, taking with him the famous Stone of Destiny. In 1297 Scotland, led by William Wallace, was again in rebellion. Northern England was harried, and at Stirling Surrey and Cressingham were totally defeated. Edward hurried back, and in 1298 overthrew Wallace at Falkirk. Between 1297 and 1306 it seemed that Edward was master of Scotland. In 1305 Wallace was captured and executed, but in the following year Bruce murdered John Comyn, and seized the crown of Scotland. Edward hurried northward, but in July 1307 he died at Burgh-by-Sands. On Edward's tomb is inscribed Edwardus Primus Malleus Scotorum hic est (Here lies Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots). He may be best described as a man of stern character, jealous of his honour and of what he conceived to be the honour of his kingdom, true to his word when it suited his end, and only then. When it was necessary Edward did not hesitate to break his pledged oath, and his conduct towards the Welsh and Scots was marked by cunning, duplicity and ruthlessness. When he died the prestige of his kingdom was high and its boundaries much extended; but his wars led to heavy taxation and though his success in Wales was lasting his Scottish policy was, in the last resort, indecisive. His 'Model Parliament' of 1295 in which the three estates of the realm were represented is perhaps his most lasting claim to fame. His first wife died in 1290 and in 1299 Edward married Margaret, sister of the King of France.