A crash-course in treachery...

Click here Rewind. Let's go straight back to the start of Edward I's career in Gascony and Wales – the details of the former in particular tend to be passed over in Anglo histories, which is a pity because Edward's behaviour suggests he prized Gascony over Wales in this period: one of the many ironies and contradictions of this very peculiar Plantagenet. The man who would one day conquer Wales couldn't wash his hands of the place fast enough as a youth.

Thanks to French histories, especially Trabut-Cussac, it is possible to trace Edward's first stint in Gascony in detail. He arrived in the duchy on 10 June 1254, accompanied by his mother Eleanor of Provence, his brother Edmund and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward was just fifteen years old.

They arrived at the tail-end of Henry III's expedition to Gascony, where the king had successfully crushed a rebellion of the local gentry. The king was engaged in mopping up the last dregs of resistance, in particular a complicated local revolt centred on Bergerac in the Dordogne. Briefly, the citizens of Bergerac chose to support one Renaud de Pons, a vassal of the King of France who laid claim to the lordship. Henry could not afford to let the French get their tentacles into Bergerac, so he mustered knights and militia from Gascony and laid siege to the town. He also ordered all goods, wines and people coming from Bergerac to be seized.

Edward's first taste of politics was a crash-course in treachery, direct military action and the tangled politics of Gascony. Renaud apparently set a trap for Edward and his family when they landed in the duchy: his intention was to take them prisoner and force Henry to break off the siege. If his attempt had succeeded, he might well have sold his royal hostages to the French. This was audacious stuff, but it didn't come off. Somehow the royal party was warned in time and evaded the trap: they moved quickly, and within 24 hours of arrival Edward was with his father at Meilhan (now the Landes department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine).

The prince was quickly put to work. No sooner had he arrived than Edward confirmed his father's appointment of Stephen Longespée as constable of the castle of Bourg, an important stronghold on the Gironde in northern Gascony. Henry may have intended to show the Castilians that he had a capable heir, worthy of marriage to Alfonso X's daughter, Eleanor. This was important: if the wedding went ahead, that would neutralise the Castilian interest in Gascony and remove any threat of invasion from that quarter. Thus Edward had to be paraded about a bit, like a prize stallion.

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