Edward I's commitment and the French strategic shift

Edward I's decisive advantage came from a different strategic portfolio and a willingness to commit. Earlier English kings had to protect extensive possessions in France while also responding to Wales. Edward's reduced continental holdings made a future French war more discretionary and offensive rather than a constant defense of inherited lands. He could therefore concentrate attention, money, and military resources on Wales with a persistence his predecessors rarely sustained. The book's closing insight ties the preceding reigns together by showing how the removal of one strategic burden made sustained conquest elsewhere more achievable.