How Edward I Trolled Wales With a Baby Prince and Accidentally Created a 700-Year Royal Tradition

On February 7, 1301, Edward of Caernarfon—the future Edward II of England—became the first English Prince of Wales in a ceremony that was essentially medieval political theater at its finest, wrapped in the thinnest veneer of Welsh legitimacy. Edward I, having thoroughly conquered Wales and killed its last native prince, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, nineteen years earlier, decided the best way to pacify the Welsh was to give them a "Prince of Wales" of their own. The story goes that he promised the Welsh nobles a prince "born in Wales, who spoke no English," then presented his infant son—born at Caernarfon Castle mere months earlier—who presumably could only gurgle in proto-English at best. Whether this cheeky bit of sophistry actually occurred is disputed by serious historians, but it's too delightful not to mention. What's undeniable is that on this February day, the sixteen-year-old Edward was formally invested with the title, establishing a tradition that would endure for over seven centuries. The irony, of course, is that this young man who became the symbol of English dominion over Wales would grow up to be one of England's most spectacularly unsuccessful monarchs—more interested in his male favorites than governance, eventually deposed and meeting a gruesome end that medieval chroniclers describe with considerable anatomical creativity. The title he received, however, proved far more durable than his reign, becoming the official designation for the heir apparent to the English throne—a position currently held by William, who received it in 2022. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.