Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Cultural depictions of Edward I of England

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Edward I of England has been portrayed in popular culture a number of times.

Contents

Literature

Edward's life was dramatised in the Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First, a Renaissance theatrical play by George Peele.

Edward is unflatteringly depicted in several novels with a contemporary setting, including the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet by Edith Pargeter, The Reckoning and Falls the Shadow by Sharon Penman, The Wallace and The Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Tranter, and the Brethren trilogy by Robyn Young, a fictional account of Edward and his involvement with a secret organisation within the Knights Templar.

The subjection of Wales and its people and their staunch resistance was commemorated in a poem, "The Bards of Wales", by the Hungarian poet János Arany in 1857 as a way of encoded resistance to the suppressive politics of Austria over Hungary after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

Film and television

Edward is portrayed by Patrick McGoohan as a cruel, hard-hearted tyrant in the 1995 film Braveheart, in which he is falsely proclaimed a 'pagan'. He was played, as an idealist seeking to unite Norman and Saxon in his kingdom, by Brian Blessed, in the 1996 film The Bruce. He has also been portrayed by Michael Rennie in the 1950 film The Black Rose, based on the novel by Thomas B. Costain, and by Donald Sumpter in the 2008 BBC TV comedy-drama Heist.

Video Games

Edward is featured as the main antagonist in the cutscenes of the tutorial campaign of the 1999 video game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.

References

Cultural depictions of Edward I of England Wikipedia