factor in the
growth of the nation. Edward I was one of the greatest of English
kings, ranking with Alfred, William the Conqueror, and Henry II. His
conquests of Wales and of Scotland have already been mentioned, and
these with the preparation they involved and a war with France into
which he was drawn necessarily occupied the greater part of his time
and energy. But he found the time to introduce good order and control
into the government in all its branches; to make a great investigation
into the judicial and administrative system, the results of which,
commonly known as the "Hundred Rolls," are comparable to Domesday Book
in extent and character; to develop the organization of Parliament,
and above all to enact through it a series of great reforming
statutes. The most important of these were the First and Second
Statutes of Westminster, in 1275 and 1285, which made provisions for
good order in the country, for the protection of merchants, and for
other objects; the Statute of Mortmain, passed in 1279, which put a
partial stop to injurious gifts of land to the church, and the Statute
_Quia Emptores_, passed in 1290, which was intended to prevent the
excessive multiplication of subtenants. This was done by providing
that whenever in the future any landholder should dispose of a piece
of land it should be held from the same lord the grantor had held it
from, not from the grantor himself. He also gave more liberal charters
to the towns, privileges to foreign merchants, and constant
encouragement to trade. The king's firm hand and prudent judgment were
felt in a wide circle of regulations applying to taxes, markets and
fairs, the purchase of royal supplies, the currency, the
administration of local justice, and many other fields. Yet after all
it was the organization of Parliament that was the most important work
of Edward's reign. This completed the unification of the country. The
English people were now one race, under one law, with one Parliament
representing all parts of the country. It was possible now for the
whole nation to act as a unit, and for laws to be passed which would
apply to the whole country and draw its different sections continually
more closely together. National growth was now possible in a sense in
which it had not been before.

The reign of Edward II, like his own character, was insignificant
compared with that of his father. He was deposed in 1327, and his son,
Edward III, came to the throne as