+Source.+--_Nicholas Trivet's Annals_, pp. 281-283. (English Historical
Society Publications.)
Edward, King of England, eldest son of Henry the Third by Eleanor,
daughter of the Count of Provence, had completed thirty-three years and
five months of his life on the day when he succeeded his deceased father
on the throne. He was a man of experience and prudence in affairs,
devoted from boyhood to the exercise of arms, in which in different
parts he had gained such fame as a warrior that he easily excelled the
Princes of his time throughout the whole Christian world. In build he
was elegant and of commanding stature, towering head and shoulders above
the people; his hair, which in boyhood turned from a colour wellnigh
silver to yellow, and in youth became black, beautified his old age with
its snowy whiteness. His forehead, like the rest of his face, was broad,
though the drooping of the left eyelid recalled his father's expression.
He spoke with a lisp, but yet did not lack a ready power of persuasion
in argument. His arms were supple, in proportion to his body, and
supremely fitted in the strength of their sinews for the use of the
sword. His girth was greatest round the chest. The length of his lower
limbs enabled him to keep a firm seat in riding and leaping with
spirited horses. When not engaged in feats of arms, Edward indulged in
hawking and hunting, especially the hunting of deer, which he used to
pursue on a fleet racehorse, and when he had come up with them, to
pierce with a sword instead of a hunting-spear....
In spirit he was magnanimous, intolerant of insult, and apt to forget
the presence of danger in his desire for revenge, though his passions
cooled easily on the culprit showing sorrow at his presumption. For
example, when on one occasion he was engaged in the sport of falconry
near a riverbank, he reproved one of his companions for carelessness
regarding a falcon which had caught a duck amidst the willows; but the
other, seeing that there was neither bridge nor ford near, lightly
replied "that it was sufficient for him to have the river between them";
whereat the King's son, exasperated, entered the water on his horse,
though he knew not the depth, forced the animal to swim across, and,
ascending with difficulty the steep opposite bank, hollowed out by the
rush of the waters, drew his sword and pursued his companion, who had
now mounted and ridden off. Finally, the latter, giving up all hope of
escape, wheeled his horse round, bared his head, and offered his neck to
Edward's will. The King's son, however, softened by this surrender,
replaced his sword in its sheath, and the two returned together
peacefully, to attend to the needs of the abandoned falcon.