Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 111, laying down the law.

In this episode, we're going to continue our look at the events during the reign of Edward

I. We've already seen that one of Edward's most notable accomplishments as King was

the conquest of Wales, and his desire to extend that authority to the north of Britain

led some to call him the Hammer of the Scots.

But beyond Edward's attempts to rule all of Britain, he is probably most well known for

his legal reforms, including a series of statutes passed in the first decade and a half

of his reign.

Edward's reforms were designed to re-establish royal authority over the justice system,

and as King Edward was the supreme judge of England, there was no appeal from his decisions.

In that regard, Edward thought his legal authority extended to Scotland as well.

He even used that authority to decide a dispute over the kingship of Scotland.

Edward's aggressive policies ultimately led to war with his northern neighbor, and in

many respects, that war was rooted in this dispute over legal jurisdiction.

So this time, we'll explore those events, and we'll see how Edward's legal reforms impacted

the English language.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast at patreon.com slash historyofenglish.

And I haven't mentioned it in a while, but I'm on Twitter at English HIST POD.

By this time, I want to look at Edward's impact on English law.

You might remember that the oldest surviving document in the English language is a legal

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