As a boy he was once in the middle of a game of chess with one of 
          his knights in a vaulted room when suddenly, for no apparent reason,  
          he got up and walked away. Seconds later, a massive stone, which would
          have completely crushed anyone who happened to be underneath it, fell 
          from the roof on to the very spot where he had been sitting.          
              With his mother's strength but without her frivolity, Edward I    
          became a great statesman and an able soldier. He supported his weak   
          father, King Henry III, during the civil wars inflicted upon England  
          by the Barons.                                                        
              He was only fifteen when he went to Spain to be knighted by King  
          Alfonso X of Castile and to marry that king's half-sister, Eleanor.   
          This marriage, like that of his parents, was a happy one and produced 
          fifteen children, but of which only six reached adulthood.            
              After peace was restored in England, Edward, accompanied by       
          Eleanor, went on crusade in 1270. In June 1272 a member of the secret 
          society of the Assassins (fanatics whose name became synonymous with  
          murderers) who was employed by one of the Emirs in negotiation with   
          Edward, obtained a private interview with him under pretence of       
          important secret business, then suddenly attacked him with a dagger,  
          wounding him in the arm. Edward repelled him with a vigorous kick and,
          seizing a stool, knocked him down and snatched the dagger from him. In
          doing this, however, he wounded himself in the forehead and, the      
          dagger being poisoned, Edward's wounds gave cause for great anxiety;  
          so he made his will, appointing executors and guardians for his       
          children. However, it was the skills of his surgeon that saved his    
          life.                                                                 
              In November 1272, when they were in Sicily and on their way back, 
          Edward's father died. As they knew Edward I's mother to be a capable  
          regent, they did not hurry and so did not arrive in England until the 
          summer of 1274. Edward I and Eleanor were then crowned together in    
          Westminster Abbey on 19 August 1274.                                  
              In 1279 he proclaimed an edict to the effect that clipped money   
          should no longer be circulated, nor should anyone be forced to accept 
          it. He then designated a small number of places where money could be  
          exchanged and within a short time no one would consider accepting it. 
             Edward I kept in touch with and encouraged the parliament, but his 
          continuous if unsuccessful attempts to rule Scotland as well earned   
          him the name of "Hammer of the Scots". However, his sojourns into     
          Wales were more successful and, after the death of the last two native
          princes, Llywellyn and David, Edward I created his son and heir Prince
          of Wales in February 1301.                                            
              In 1290 Eleanor died and nine years later he married Margaret of  
          France. This marriage was not unhappy and produced three more         
          children. In 1296, while campaigning in Scotland, Edward I removed the
          Stone of Scone on which the Kings of Scots had always been crowned. He
          ordered a wooden chair to be made which from then on contained the    
          stone and was to be used for the coronation of English and British    
          monarchs.                                                             
              In 1298 Edward was to meet William Wallace at the battle of       
          Falkirk and so the night before he slept on the ground, his shield for
          a pillow and his horse beside him. However, the horse stepped on his  
          royal master as he lay asleep and, in the confusion of darkness, the  
          alarm spread that the king was wounded. Only slightly hurt, Edward    
          went into battle in the morning but his victory that day was never    
          followed up.                                                          
              Having survived the murderous attack in Palestine, there were     
          still more miraculous escapes. In Paris lightning passed over his     
          shoulders and slew two of his attendants; at Winchelsea, when his     
          horse leapt the town wall, he was uninjured; at the siege of Stirling 
          a bolt from a crossbow struck his saddle as he rode unarmed and a     
          stone from a mangonel brought his horse to the ground. Even illness   
          seemed to pass him by until, while on a military campaign, he became  
          ill with dysentery and died aged sixty-eight. In his last word he was 
          still the warrior, "Carry my bones before you on your march. For the  
          rebels will not be able to endure the sight of me, alive or dead."

Source: Leo van de Pas