Longshanks, Hammer of the Scots, and contested memory

Edward I was born in 1239, reigned from 1272 to 1307, and was about thirty-three when he became king. The opening gives him the familiar names Longshanks and Hammer of the Scots before warning that his reputation looks different across Britain. A ruler remembered as effective in one part of the country can be remembered very differently elsewhere. The episode asks viewers to keep those competing memories and the romanticism surrounding them in mind before turning to Edward's fear of feuding and power vacuums.