Herding cats

In early November 1254 Henry III left Bordeaux and headed for Paris. Now Gascony had been reduced to order – or a semblance of it – he had pressing business elsewhere and left his heir, Edward, to deal with any remaining problems.

Edward wasted no time in asserting himself. In a document drawn up at Bayonne, he had himself declared 'princeps et dominus' – prince and lord – in Gascony, signalling that he was no mere figurehead. Instead he meant to wield power in the duchy as if he ruled in his own right.

His first challenge was to deal with his new father-in-law, Alfonso X of Castile. Since Edward's marriage to Eleanor, the Castilian threat to Gascony had receded. However, Alfonso continued to intervene on behalf of his former allies in the duchy: these were Gascon lords who had broken their fealty to Henry and defected to Castile, before the English king landed in Gascony and whipped them to heel again. Alfonso had appointed Gaston de Béarn, that perpetual nuisance, to take the oaths of fealty from his Gascon allies.

Henry was aware of Alfonso's meddling, and left orders for the terms of the peace treaty to be confirmed without delay; this would deprive Alfonso of any cause for breaking it. Edward threw himself into this task: he multiplied his father's orders, pardoned certain of the Gascon rebels, restored land to others, commanded that the worst offenders be brought to justice.

His next task was to settle the notoriously fractious gentry. This was the most difficult job of all: it had proved completely beyond Simon de Montfort, whose hard-line attitude had only antagonised the Gascon nobility. This was, Simon reported in a letter to Henry, much like herding cats:

“...for they will do nothing but rob the land, and burn and plunder, and put the people to ransom, and ride by night like thieves by twenty or thirty or forty in different parts.”

Edward was required to deal with three major problems. Arnaud Odon, vicomte de Lomagne, was at feud with Géraud, comte d'Armagnac. Henry had summoned them twice to perform homage, but Arnaud had refused. There was also a dispute between Gaston de Béarn and Eschivat de Chabanais, while Arnaud-Guillaume of Gramont had refused to yield up his castle.

The prince dealt with each in turn. In October Géraud was induced to perform the delayed homage to Edward, who also brokered peace between the vicomte and his rival, Arnaud Odon. An enquiry was then set up to investigate their grievances. Shortly afterwards Edward intervened personally between Gaston and Eschivat, and persuaded them to accept his arbitration. The prince took more direct action against Arnaud-Guillaume, and laid siege to the castle at Gramont. However, this also ended in negotiation: Arnaud-Guillaume entered into peace talks with Gaston de Béarn, who persuaded him to surrender and accept the judgement of Edward's court.

Thus, in his first real test, Edward had deployed an effective combination of diplomacy and military action to smooth the feathers of the Gascon nobility. For a man usually perceived as a 'hammer', incapable of the diplomatic arts, he had shown a surprisingly delicate touch. Clichés, however, will always be with us (like that one).