ABSTRACT
Although King Edward I's forces were often at war to subdue the Scots and Welsh, his rule was marked by legal and administrative reforms that weakened feudalism and set the groundwork for a cooperative parliamentary system. By accepting the crown of Sicily, Edward's father, Henry III, became enmeshed in an ugly struggle in 1254 between the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1258, the cost of supporting this and other adventures forced Henry III to turn to the English barons for money. Beginning in 1275, with the help of his chief clerk Robert Burnell, Edward surveyed his possessions for the worth of its produce, both to clarify the tax due to the crown and to eliminate rampant corruption. King Edward I extricated England from the financial and diplomatic mess into which it had fallen during the reign of his father and, in doing so, bureaucratized and, to some degree, democratized the country's administration.
