Edward I of England

Edward I was born in June 1239, the eldest son of Henry III. He learned statecraft early, briefly backing baronial reformers in 1259 before reconciling with his father and crushing Simon de Montfort at Evesham in 1265. He joined the Ninth Crusade in 1270 and was traveling home when word came of his father's death in 1272; he didn't reach England to be crowned until 1274. He spent years reforming law through statute and expanding royal administration, but his focus shifted to war. He suppressed Wales in the late 1270s, then conquered it outright in 1282-83, building castles and planting English towns. After arbitrating a Scottish succession crisis, he claimed overlordship and invaded, igniting a war that outlasted him. Simultaneous conflict with France over Gascony drained his finances; by the 1290s, heavy taxation sparked resistance at home, and Ireland descended into disorder. In 1290, he expelled all Jews from England. He died in 1307 en route to another Scottish campaign, leaving his son a kingdom at war and deeply in debt.