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To find English records back beyond 1538 you are very lucky, and generally records were mainly kept by royalty and gentry.
I have traced my paternal gfather back to a marriage in 1675. There are records of the name prior to that but they are undecipherable or impossible to connect. That line were from the North East and drew in a Scottish line along the way. These were mostly educated people, white collar workers.
Maternal gfather came from N Lancs/S Westmorland/Furness area and married into other families in the area. They were mostly labourers of various type and I have found their records going back into the 1700's with most lines.
My grandmothers were closely related, came from the same family, so I only had 1 stem to research. I had found records going back to before 1800 but got no further until a 'cousin' I found pointed me to a document written in 1898 by an American which shows a line going back to William 1st plus other Norman knights. The author thanks a lady for her accurate manuscripts, this was Mum's great aunt, who appears to have known all about this family history.
So if you believe this tree, one of my ancestors with the same surname as Granny was the Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth of York, the widow of Henry 7th.
My DNA indicates mainly western european, including some Scottish/Irish/Welsh, but no English at all.
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976 nine hundred & sevEdward I
1272-1307
Early Years
Often considered the greatest of the Plantagenets, Edward I was born on the evening of 17th June, 1239, at Westminster Palace, the first born child of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. He was named Edward in honour of his father's favourite saint, the Saxon King Edward the Confessor. Edward was a delicate child and suffered from a life threatening illness in 1246, which his devoted mother, Eleanor of Provence, nursed him through at Beaulieu Abbey.
Among Edward's childhood friends was his cousin Henry of Almain, who was the son of Henry III's brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Henry of Almain would remain a close companion of Edward throughout both the civil war that followed, and later during the crusade.
Edward's appearance
Edward I was a tall man of six feet two inches (1.88 metres), with long arms and legs from which his nick-name, Longshanks, was derived. His hair was black like his Provencal mother's, his complexion swarthy and his eyes fiery in anger. He inherited a drooping eyelid from his father Henry III, Edward spoke with a pronounced lisp, but possessed the fierce Plantagenet temper in full measure. The Song of Lewes in 1264 described him as a leopard, an animal regarded as particularly powerful and unpredictable.
King Edward I
It was recorded of Edward that 'He was tall of stature, higher than ordinary men by head and shoulders, and thereof called Longshank; of swarthy complexion, strong of body, but lean; of a comely favour; his eyes in his anger sparkling like fire; the hair of his head dark and curled. concerning his conditions, as he was in war peaceful, so in peace he was warlike, delighting specially in that kind of hunting , which is to kill stags or other wild beasts with spears. In continency of life he was equal to his father; in acts of valour, far beyond him. He had in him the two wisdoms, not often found in any single; both together seldom or never; an ability of judgement in himself, and a readiness to hear the judgement of others. He was not easily provoked into passion, but once in passion not easily appeased.'
Marriage
At the age of fifteen, the Lord Edward as he was then known, was married to his second cousin, the thirteen year old Leonora or Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) on 1st November, 1254, to settle disputes over rights to Gascony. The couple were married at the monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Edward was knighted by Eleanor's half-brother, Alphonso X, to mark the occasion.
Eleanor was the beautiful dark-haired daughter of Ferdinand III, King of Castile and his second wife, Jeanne, Countess of Ponthieu. Eleanor was also descended from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, through their second daughter, Eleanor, who had married Alphonso VIII of Castile. Although their marriage was a political alliance the pair became deeply attached. She bore him sixteen children. The couple's first two sons, Henry and John died in infancy, their third son, Alphonso, the heir to the throne and Eleanor's favourite died at twelve years old, leaving their fourth son, Edward as his father's heir.
The Second Baron's War
The civil war known as the Second Barons' War broke out in England in 1264 , rebel barons led by Henry's French born brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, fought against forces loyal to King Henry III. Montfort wanted to reassert the terms of Magna Carta and force the king to surrender more power to the baronial council. The first of battle of the war took place at Gloucester, which Edward captured from the rebels. Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, came to the assistance of the rebels, Edward negotiated a truce with the earl, the terms of which he later broke.
Edward then took Northampton from de Montfort's son Simon, before embarking on a retaliatory campaign against Derby's lands. The two opposing sides finally met at the Battle of Lewes, which took place on 14 May 1264. Lord Edward commanded the right wing and defeated the London contingent of Montfort's forces. However, he made the mistake of following in pursuit of the fleeing enemy forces, to discover on his return to the battle that the rest of the royal army had been defeated. By an agreement known as the Mise of Lewes, Edward and his cousin Henry of Almain were given up as prisoners to the rebel barons. Montfort appropriated control of the government and a subsequent first representitive parliament was called in 1265.
Edward managed to escape from his captors on 28 May, 1265 and joined the Earl of Gloucester, who had recently defected to Henry III's side. He retook Worcester and Gloucester, in the meantime, Montfort, supported by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, moved east to join forces with his son Simon. Edward mounted a surprise attack at Kenilworth Castle, before moving on to cut off Montfort. The opposing forces met at the Battle of Evesham, which was fought on 4 August 1265. Henry III himself was thrown to the ground during the battle and would have been killed had he not lifted his visor and exclaimed to his assailant "Save me, save me, I am Henry of Winchester!" Montfort was defeated and killed, his body was frenziedly mutilated on the battlefield and his remains were buried secretly at the nearby Evesham Abbey while his head was sent to Wigmore Castle on the Welsh Marches. In December 1265, Edward came to terms with his cousin the younger Simon de Montfort at the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, and in March 1266, led a successful assault on the Cinque Ports. The remaining rebels held out in the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle and did not surrender until the drafting of the conciliatory Dictum of Kenilworth.
The Eighth Crusade
As a young man, Edward, along with his cousin, Henry of Almain, had joined the Eighth Crusade. He was persuaded to participate in the Crusade by the Papal Legate, Cardinal Ottobono, who appealed to Edward and his brother Edmund to take part along with Louis IX of France. Edward embarked from Dover in 1270, taking his young wife Eleanor with him. Perhaps he drew inspiration from the exploits of his famous great-uncle, Richard the Lionheart. Louis died at Carthage before the arrival of the English contingent, Edward and Eleanor spent the winter in Sicily. While attending mass at Chiesa di San Silvestro in Viterbo on 13 March 1271, Henry of Almain was murdered by his cousins Guy and Simon the younger de Montfort, sons of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, in revenge for the beheading of their father and older brother at the Battle of Evesham. Though grieved at Henry's murder, Edward continued on to Acre in Palestine, where he arrived in May 1271, accompanied by his brother Edmund, Edward raided the town of Qaqun, but despite his objections a ten year truce between the Christians and Moslems was negotiated.
In June 1272, an attempt was made to assassinate Prince Edward, a member of the secret society of the Assassins, acting on the instructions of one of the Emirs in negotiation with Edward and feigning he came on secret business, obtained an interview with the English prince, he suddenly attacked Edward with a dagger, wounding his arm. Edward managed to beat him off by kicking him and seized a stool, with which he knocked him down, enabling him to grab the dagger. He was, however further wounded in the forehead. As the dagger was poisoned, the wounds were cause for great concern. However the skills of his surgeon saved his life. Legend relates that his wife Eleanor sucked the poison from the wounds.
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David
It's often the 'middle of the road' people who it's hard to track or verify.
If they were not rich, so left no Wills, but not poor enough to feature in Poor Houses or Settlement certificates and if they were law-abiding so left little or no 'paper trail' it is not nearly so easy.
A lot of my folk seemed to be digging potatoes in either Sussex or Herefordshire.
I have people waiting in the wings, as it were, waiting to be attached to a main branch of my tree. Many people have decided that a Thomas b.about 1775 definitely was the father of my certain ancestor, Henry, but not one has been able to offer any proof. They are quite possibly right, so I have researched back from Thomas, but won't link him and his possible family, at this stage.
With separate JONES and DAVIES to find in Hampshire, Herefordshire and the south Wales valleys and with names like George Jones, labourer, I'm still in the 1820s era on several lines.
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