K

                                                                                                                                                                            Image from Edward I's great seal

In 1209 Edward expelled the Jews from England. This may be because he owed so much interest on his national loans. They had originally arrived like many of the financiers, with William the Conqueror but now usury was forbidden and Jews were not allowed to act as merchants, France followed England in 1292⁷. Simon Schama, has called this the "first European ethnic cleansing"³ Many were killed in York & Lincoln whilst some were taken in boats down the Thames and left  on sand banks to drown on a rising tide.
Edward having conquered Wales decided that he would emulate the legendary Arthur, whom we are told by a contemporary historian Cath, took a great interest in all things Arthurian, and hence had a desire to unify the whole of Britain. This culminated in yet another revival of the "Round Table" in Edward III's, his grandson's reign and subsequently was used by Henry VIII as a flambouyant show of supposed genealogical supremacy over his noble counterparts.

In 1295 the Model Parliament was established by Edward I. This created a pattern for the House of Commons with two knights from each county and two burgesses from each chartered town⁷. In 1296 John Balliol attacked England, as a result, Edward I's army headed north to Dunbar to quell the disturbance.

The following day Edward with the majority of the English troops moved up to Dunbar, the castle had to submit. This led to the whole of Scotland coming under Edward's control. King John Balliol, surrendered and was stripped of his office. As a result he was nick-named Toom Tabbard or Empty Coat [from the royal arms stripped from his surcoat] . See John Balliol paying homage to Edward I

Edward I managed to travel as far north as Elgin gathering the signatures of the vanquished, removing the "Stone of Destiny" from Scone and the "Black Rood of St. Margaret", supposedly constructed from part of Christ's Cross#, from Edinburgh, whose castle for the first time was garrisoned by English troops. Following the successes at Dunbar, de Warenne was given the wardship of Scotland and he and Sir Hugh Cressingham  the Treasurer for Scotland, were  left as commanders of  the English forces in Scotland whilst Edward took ship to France in August 1297.
Throughout the summer of 1296 sporadic outbreaks had occurred in Scotland, it became the beginnings of a national Scottish uprising. Scotland had not been defeated since the Romans invaded. Edward had the aquiescence of land-owning nobles but not the sporadic resistance under such  manorial lairds as Sir Andrew de Moray [Murray] and William de Waleys [Waleis, le Waleys, Walays, Wallace &c.]. Under their influence most of Scotland north of the Clyde-Forth boundary was gained by the Scots.

WILLIAM WALLACE

Shown at left are the probable heraldic arms of Sir William le Waleys who was knighted in March 1298 following his brilliant success at Stirling Bridge but before his resounding defeat at Falkirk in the following June. Blazon: Gules a lion rampant argent and a bordure compony of the last and azure. The bordure compony, perhaps indicative of Wallace being a second son was later changed to a bordure counter-compony by a Lord Lyon because of its  later medieval associations with illegitimacy. [As with the Beaufort line of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford].                       

         The Book of Wallace vol. 1 [pdf]       The Book of Wallace vol. 2 [pdf]  

These are two worthwhile resources describing the supposed family relationships [based upon Henry the Minstrel or ' Blind Harry's' work] and the  betrayal and death of the Scottish national hero. William Wallace has more recently been identified not as one of the sons of Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, Renfrewshire but as the second son of 'Alani Walais', by Dr. Fiona Watson from William's own seal attached to the Lübeck letter.¹⁰  As Watson has correctly stated, the Wallaces of Elderslie, Renfrewshire cannot be proved before the late 1300's.¹¹ John of Elderslie appears as the son of John 6th lord of Riccarton and his wife, a Lindsay [married 1371], heiress of Craigie. 

Alan may be equated with a crown tenant of Edward I in Ayrshire, 'tenant le Roi du counte de Are'. Alan appears as a signatory to the Ragman Roll* [28th August 1296 at Berwick] as 'Aleyn Waleys'. The Renfrewshire genealogy is garnered from 'Blind Harry's' work, The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, written about 1477 which is likely to be, in part at least, erroneous. * This is apparently the origin for the word 'Rigmarole'.

Interestingly, The Book of Wallace [vol.1, p. 12.] following 'Blind Harry' says that this Alan was 'obviously proprietor of Auchincruive'. Could it be that this is William Wallace's father, Alan?  The lands of the manor of Auchincruive are now occupied by an agricultural college on a steep river bank overlooking the River Ayr. According to the same source, William, by now outlawed, left the residence of an uncle, Sir Reginald de Crawford of Riccarton , the sheriff of Ayr and sought refuge with 'Aleyn', a homager of Edward I at Auchincruive castle. This was possibly a fortified house, which by 1889 was described as an 'ancient mansion'. But Alan fearing repercussions for actively harbouring him allowed William only to reside on the estate in a woodland called 'Laighlyne' or low-lying woods, perhaps part of Brockle Wood today. Here, according to that old walnut 'tradition', Wallace first drew together the nucleus of a Scottish national army in April or May 1297. "Within the forest of Laighlyne, at a bend of the Ayr stream, and close to its bank, is a spot styled the Wallace Seat. Protected overhead by a projecting cliff, it is approachable from one point only, while by a powerful resistance from within an intruder would certainly be precipitated into the surge." [Book of Wallace, vol. 2, p. 105.] Alan's name at Auchincruive may be commemorated today in Mount Allan Wood. 

The location of Ellerslie, Ayrshire, given on a map of 1865 here identified on a modern O.S. map.                                                       

Some of the Wallace family's Ayrshire lands may have been held at Ellerslie north of the River Irvine, a residence not marked on modern O.S. maps but appearing on a map of 1865, a little south east of  Crosshouse. However, Wallace's origins are strongly contested by those loyal to their own geographic areas. One occurrence in support of the Ayrshire origin for Wallace is indicated by a skirmish in 1300 following Wallace's defeat at Falkirk [1298]. Here, Prince Edward, later King Edward II, and Piers Gaveston, under the guidance of Henry de Lacy commanded a section of his father's army. This army was styled 'The Shining Battalion', shining perhaps meaning colourful. This battalion was involved in a skirmish with the Scots on the banks of the River Irvine, near Irvine, Ayrshire. [Littell, E. & Littell, R.S., The Living Age. Making of America Project.1863, p.77] 

In the interim  Edward had formed a treaty with France, and Philip IV abandoned his Scottish allies. By1298 Edward I returned hastily from Flanders and summoned a parliament [French: "parley"] at York, where he was granted money for military engagements in Scotland.

The work of the Welsh archers allowed the mounted knights to enter the defensive structures such that one witness said "that bodies covered the field like snow". Meanwhile, a youth who was to become known as the ballad character, 'Robyn Hode', watched the battle from the hills above Falkirk making mental notes of the efficiency of the longbow. Following this victory, Edward returned to York for another parliament. In the summer of 1300 he had 5,900 Yorkshire-men summoned to serve in the war against Scotland. This would have been like using half of the city of York's population at this time. In 1299 Edward had been forced by circumstances to marry Margaret, the daughter of the king of France, his greatest love Eleanor of Castile having died. Margaret sided against Edward.

By 1304 Stirling Castle had been captured and Edward returned to York. It was felt that the danger from Scotland was over and as a result the Courts of the King's Bench and the Exchequer were removed from the city of York where they had been held for seven years and taken to the city of  London.
For the next eight years until his death, Edward made march after march from Berwick and Carlisle into Scotland, sacking abbeys and besieging castles using huge siege engines with pet names such as "The War Wolf". Even Dunfermline Abbey, a holy site for the Scottish was sacked in 1303 until eventually "The King's Peace" was signed in 1304 at Strathmore. Lairds of manors who pledged loyalty were given their lands back. Wallace is considered to have used 'terrorist methods' ⁸ until his betrayal by his own countrymen when he was taken to London and after a show trial, in 1305, was publicly  executed and disemboweled, such was the cruelty of the day.  
However as one danger from the north disappeared, another in the form of Robert de Bruce [Bruis], Earl of Carrick, of Scottish-Norman descent, appeared as a leader for Scottish Nationalism. De Bruce essentially used  guerrilla tactics, living rough, attacking castles by night, using grappling hooks and setting ambushes. This persisted as murderous raids into northern England well after Edward I's death in 1307. This type of  un-knightly raiding had long been used by the Scottish but De Bruce brought it to a fine art. One of the warnings Northern English mother's would impart to their young sons to prevent them getting into scrapes was 'be careful or The Bruce will get ye".

Some state the Round Table depicts 24 name-places around the table, others 25 spaces [which includes the regent] and yet others, 26 shield blazons and summaries, each named after Arthur's greatest knights. Two blazons are for the regent, one is three gold crowns on a red background and the other is 13 gold crowns on a purple or blue background. The actual  summaries or names in script number 24 but if the alternating coloured  blazons or segments are counted this could be 26, a conundrum created, but also solved by the painting of the regent over possibly two segments. One segment that the regent's image would have to be painted over would be the same colour as its adjacent one, hence it was probably necessary to insert the regent over these two. This gives the painting a slightly "off-centred" appearance. On the regent's left is named Sir Galahad and on his right Sir Mordred. The number of knights invested by Edward III,  Edward I's grandson was also 26, this is believed to be the number of knights in two opposing jousting teams.
But see another possible reason- The Nottingham Coup by Edward III

Under Edward III the concept of knights being called to the Order of the Round Table was compelling following his father's disastrous reign where civil war was the disorder. Under Edward II there could have been no Round Table discussions. To facilitate conflict resolution, from 1344, Edward III appears to have had a House of the Round Table constructed at Windsor Castle. Thomas Walsingham claimed that a structure 200 feet in diameter and capable of seating 300 knights was built here in the castle grounds. In 2007 an archaeological excavation team prepared the way by using ground radar in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Here they found a remarkable circular structure 298 feet in diameter beneath one corner of the upper ward of the castle grounds. This building structure has been interpreted as the remains of the Round Table House.⁹ However, the building may never have been completed because King Edward required money for his French campaigns, particularly the battle of Crecy [1346]. After the siege of Calais in 1347 Edward's advisors seem to have reconsidered the completion of such an elaborate and expensive building which was essentially now purposeless. Instead, Edward created the Order of the Garter whose ceremonies were held in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. When Windsor Castle was undergoing reconstruction in the 1360's  the House of the Round Table seems to have been demolished by the architect William de Wykeham and the remains lay forgotten beneath the castle grounds until their recent discovery.⁹
With the glorious victory over the French at Crecy, the baronial disunity was dissipated and they gladly united behind their 'Perfect King'. From being on their knees to the combined attacks of the Scots and French, the English and their indomitable fighting spirit, under the control of their Norman descendant rulers, emerged as a strong powerful nation.

1307-Edward I died at Carlisle whilst on his way to Scotland. He requested that his flesh be boiled from his bones and that these then be carried with the English army wherever it went in Scotland. To some extent Edward the I had reformed the British Isles into what is today called Britain and achieved the vision of an Arthurian Britain united eventually in the 1700's under one flag.
# Note: Christ's Cross- It has been estimated that if all the pieces claimed to be taken from Christ's Cross as 'Holy relics' were gathered together in one place they could be used to construct a sizeable ship!

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