King Edward Longshanks, “the Hammer of the Scots,” was one of England's most ruthless kings. He had a deliciously macabre ...

Then I got an excited e-mail from my father about a message he had received from the ancestry website Geni.com: “You are a direct descendant of King Edward I. He is your 22nd-great-grandfather.

Intelligent and impatient, Edward proved to be a highly effective king. The reign of his father ... ideas learnt whilst staying abroad in the family-held territory of Gascony.