If ever king came to his throne with a distinct understanding of the work that lay before him, that king must have been Edward I. The lessons of the last fifteen years of his father’s reign had not been thrown away upon him. He had been trained for the task of reigning, as well by his father’s mistakes and misgovernment as by the means which the nation, under Earl Simon and the barons, had taken to remedy the evils which those mistakes and misgovernment had produced. He must have known that England required sound laws and strong administration, an adequate organization for national defence, and effective methods for preserving internal peace; and the history of the late reign must have taught him not only that without the sympathy and co-operation of the nation at large these ends could not be secured, but that the nation was itself ready, educated sufficiently, and united sufficiently, to give the aid that he required. Earl Simon and his companions had perished, but the great end of their work had been achieved; they had made it impossible for a king again to rule as John had ruled, and as Henry had tried to rule. They had drawn out a plan of reform in the laws which Henry himself had accepted after their death, although he had struggled against it and evaded it whilst they lived; for most of the articles which had been forced upon him at Oxford in 1258, and at Westminster in 1259, he had re-enacted in the great statute of Marlborough, in 1267. He had reformed his expenditure; he had observed the constitutional rule of not taxing without the consent of the national council; he had even on some occasions called together representatives of the towns and counties, as Simon had done, although he had not so far imitated his rival as to make them an integral part of his Parliament. And thus the great contest had immediate effects even under Henry. [Sidenote: Motives determining Edward’s Crusade. ] Edward had learned the deeper lessons; he had conceived the desire of satisfying the more essential needs of his people. Hence, perhaps, in part, his willingness to go on the Crusade. He knew that he had made enemies in the late war; a few years would heal up the old wounds. He knew that the land was exhausted; a few years’ rest would give it time to recruit. If he were likely to be the cause of unrest, he was better away; and even if he should not return until he returned as king, he might begin his new career less hampered than he would otherwise have been by the policy of his father. [Sidenote: Edward’s English policy. ] [Sidenote: Edward’s idea of kingship. ]