Edward the Confessor (1003–66), king of England. Son of King Ethelred the Unready and his second, Norman wife Emma, he was educated first at Ely, then in Normandy. This exile was necessary because the Scandinavian leaders Sweyn and Cnut became in succession kings of England. Nevertheless, in 1041 Edward was chosen as his successor by Harthacnut and was acclaimed king in 1042. His personality and reign have been variously assessed by historians: some see him as a weak, vacillating individual who paved the way for the Norman Conquest; others stress his tenacity and cunning which enabled him in a situation of near-isolation to preserve peace for over twenty years, while Danish and Norman magnates struggled for power. His reputation for holiness, which began during his life, was based on his accessibility to his subjects, his generosity to the poor, and his supposedly unconsummated marriage with Edith, the daughter of Godwin, earl of Wessex. He was also reputed to have seen visions and cured scrofula (the King's Evil) by his touch. He strengthened the close links between the Old English Church and the Papacy: he sent bishops to Leo IX's councils in 1049–50 and received papal legates in 1061. He promoted secular clerks, sometimes from abroad, to bishoprics, thus diminishing the near-monopoly of monastic bishops.

This did not imply lack of esteem for monasticism. On the contrary he was the virtual founder of Westminster Abbey, to which he devoted at one time as much as one-tenth of his income. He generously endowed it with many grants of land in different counties and built a huge Romanesque church, 300 feet long, with a nave of twelve bays. This was destined to be the place of coronation and burial of kings and queens of England. It was finished and consecrated just before his death, when he was too ill to attend. But he was buried there and his relics are undisturbed to this day.

Divergent contemporary sources claimed that he recognized William of Normandy as his heir but nominated Harold (by sign, if not by word) as his successor on his death-bed. After a period of uncertainty caused by political circumstances, the cult became acceptable to Normans and Anglo-Saxons alike; for the former because William claimed to be Edward's rightful heir, and for the latter because Edward was the last king of the Old English line.

In 1102 the body was found to be incorrupt. Under Stephen in 1138 an attempt was made to obtain formal papal canonization, supported by a new Life by Osbert of Clare. Pope Innocent II delayed a decision, but encouraged the monks of Westminster to collect more information. In 1160 Henry II, related by blood to Edward through his great-grandmother, Margaret of Scotland, again pressed for canonization; by supporting Alexander III against an anti-pope he obtained it in 1161. On 13 October 1163 the relics were solemnly translated. This was a national event; the sermon was preached by Ailred of Rievaulx who wrote another Life of Edward; this day became the principal feast of Edward.

When Henry III rebuilt the choir and sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, yet another translation to a new shrine took place in 1269. It had taken over twenty-five years to build and decorate; the most skilled Italian workmen had been employed, and this shrine was of unparalleled magnificence. It was despoiled at the Reformation but the body remained. Under Queen Mary Westminster was restored as a monastery; Abbot Feckenham also restored the shrine. The gilded wooden feretory, usually attributed to him, probably dates from the reign of Henry VII and may be the work of Torrigiano.

In the Middle Ages Edward was a very popular saint: with Edmund of East Anglia he was widely considered to be England's patron. Thus at the siege of Calais in 1351 English troops, according to William Worcestre, invoked saints Edward (although no soldier himself ) and George together before making their final assault. In the Wilton Diptych (c.1380) Edward and Edmund are depicted presenting the young King Richard II to the Madonna and Child. The high altar, however, of the chapel of Windsor Castle was rededicated to St. George c.1400. At the battle of Agincourt (1415), as described by Shakespeare, St. George appears to be regarded as England's main intercessor, but without excluding Edward; by c.1450 George was regarded as patron of England in the same way as Denys was of France.

The important iconography of Edward is closely connected with his Legend. From the Bayeux Tapestry and his earliest Life there is a constant tradition of his physical appearance: he was a tall man with a long face, ash-blond hair and beard, ruddy complexion and long, thin fingers. Coins and seals of Edward survive (with many writs); there are six scenes from his Life appropriately recorded in the abbreviated Domesday Book (13th century) in the Public Records Office, London. From about the same time dates Matthew Paris's illustrated La Estoire de Seint Ædward le Rei: this is the fullest surviving record of his Life and cult, and includes excellent pictures of the shrine. From it were derived the series of fourteen scenes on the cornice of the screen (c.1441) which separates the presbytery at Westminster Abbey from the chapel of Edward. There are shorter but notable series of Edward paintings in MSS. at Trinity College, Cambridge, both dating from the 15th century: one in an Apocalypse, the other in a Brut Chronicle.

The most famous incident represented is the story of his ring. This legend relates that Edward gave a ring to a beggar near Westminster. Two years later some English pilgrims in the Holy Land (or in India) met an old man who said he was John the Apostle. He gave them the ring and told them to return it to Edward, whom they were charged to warn of impending death in six months' time. The best surviving example is in stained glass (15th century) in the church of Ludlow (Salop). It is also represented on tiles at Westminster Abbey, in the St. John window at York Minster (c.1400), in murals at Faversham (Kent), and in many other places.

Edward also figures frequently in screen-paintings in East Anglia and Devon; both royal patronage and popular devotion contributed to the extension of his cult. At least seventeen ancient churches were dedicated to Edward. His feast was and is 5 January (the day of his death). Medieval Ely had a subsidiary commemoration on 8 January.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• A.S.C., s.a. 1042–66; G.R., i. 271–80; F. Barlow (ed.), The Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster (1992); this and other Lives in H. R. Luard (ed.), Lives of Edward the Confessor (R.S., 1858); M. Bloch, ‘La vie d'Edouard le Confesseur par Osbert de Clare’, Anal. Boll., xli (1923), 5–132; Ailred's Life in P.L., cxcv. 757–90 and ed. by J. Bertram (1990). Vernacular Lives in M. R. James, La Estoire de S. Aedward le Roi (facsimile edn. by Roxburgh Club, 1920); O. Sodergaard, La Vie d'Edouard le Confesseur, poème anglo-norman du XII^e siècle (1948); G. E. Moore, The Middle English Life of Edward the Confessor (1942); C. E. Fell, ‘The Icelandic Saga of Edward the Confessor’, Anglo-Saxon England, i. (1972), 247–58. F. Barlow, Edward the Confessor (1979); id., The English Church, 1000–66 (1965); F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), pp. 555–71; F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs (1952); R. W. Southern, ‘The First Life of Edward the Confessor’, E.H.R., lviii (1943), 385–400; B. W. Scholz, ‘The Canonization of Edward the Confessor’, Speculum, xxxvi (1961), 38–60; L. E. Tanner, ‘Some Representations of St. Edward the Confessor’, J.B.A.A., xv (1952), 1–12; M. Harrison, ‘A Life of St. Edward the Confessor in early 14th century stained glass at Fécamp in Normandy’, Jnl. of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxvi (1963), 22–37

Edward the Confessor (died 1066), the last king of the house of Wessex, ruled England from 1042 to 1066. Attracted to religion and to Norman culture, he was not a vigorous leader. He gained a reputation, not fully deserved, for sanctity and was eventually canonized.

The youngest son of Ethelred the Unready and his Norman wife, Emma, Edward was born sometime after 1002. When Ethelred's authority crumbled in the face of Danish invasions and dissensions among the English nobility, Emma and her children took refuge in 1013 at the court of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. Ethelred died in 1016, and Edward's eldest brother, Edmund Ironsides, succeeded him but died later the same year. Cnut of Denmark was in possession of England, and Edward and his remaining brother Alfred were in exile in Normandy. As he grew up, Edward became thoroughly imbued with Norman manners.

After Cnut's death in 1035, England experienced several years of factional strife, during which Edward's brother Alfred returned to England and was murdered by a powerful earl, Godwin of Wessex. In 1041 Cnut's last surviving son designated Edward his successor, and the following year Edward, with widespread popular support, became king of England.

The first half of Edward's reign was full of uncertainties. Until 1047 England was threatened by a possible invasion by King Magnus of Norway, who claimed the English throne because of an agreement made with Cnut's son. Meanwhile, internal difficulties sprang from the rivalries of the great earls Godwin, Leofric, and Siward (formerly Cnut's councilors) and their ambitious descendants. Godwin, murderer of Edward's brother, was especially troublesome, but Edward, lacking the power to confront him, pacified him for several years. Edward married his daughter Edith in 1045. The match was childless, inspiring a later legend that Edward, in his saintliness, had never consummated it. Edward also met opposition from his mother, whose lands he confiscated in 1043. To counteract his lack of trusted English councilors, Edward invited to his court a number of Norman and Breton knights and clerics, whose presence angered the English magnates.

In 1051 Edward, using as an excuse Godwin's refusal to obey an order, moved against his great rival. He exiled Godwin, banished Edith from the court, designated William, Duke of Normandy, as heir to the throne of England, and arranged that a Norman, Robert of Jumièges, become archbishop of Canterbury. The following year the situation reversed itself. Godwin returned with a large fleet, and he and Edward were officially reconciled to prevent a civil war and resultant Norse invasion. The archbishop and most of the Norman courtiers were banished. Godwin died soon after, in 1053, but his son Harold became Earl of Wessex and Edward's most powerful adviser.

For the rest of his reign Edward, by choice or necessity, did not exercise dominant control over affairs of state, leaving to Harold, to Godwin's other son Tostig (from 1055 to 1065 Earl of Northumbria), and to other powerful nobles the prosecution of wars against the revived power of Wales and the settling of domestic policies. In 1057 Edward's nephew, since 1016 an exile in Hungary, came to visit him but died soon after his arrival in mysterious circumstances. His death made it clear that Edward's successor would be either William of Normandy or the popular Harold of Wessex.

Edward became increasingly interested in religious matters, devoting much of his attention in his later years to the founding of Westminster Abbey. He also loved hunting and was less inclined to ascetic and pious practices than his posthumous reputation, based on a miracle-laden hagiographical biography written soon after his death, suggests. Edward died on Jan. 5, 1066. Harold was quickly chosen his successor, but by the end of the year William of Normandy (known as the "Conqueror") had been crowned at Westminster in the abbey whose construction Edward had supervised with such loving care.

Further Reading

The main historical source for Edward's life and reign is The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited and translated by G.N. Garmonsway (1953). A full-length study is Frank Barlow, Edward the Confessor (1970). The hagiographical The Life of King Edward, edited and translated by Frank Barlow (1962), is not a historical record but testifies to the growth of the cult of Edward after his death. See also F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943; 2d ed. 1947), and C. N. L. Brooke, The Saxon and Norman Kings (1963).

Additional Sources

The life of Saint Edward, king and confessor, Guildford, Surrey: St. Edward's Press, 1990.

Barlow, Frank, Edward the Confessor, London: Eyre Methuen, 1979, 1970.

The life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, New York: AMS Press, 1984, 1962.

For more information on Saint Edward the Confessor, visit Britannica.com.

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King of England from ad 1042, Edward had close links with Normandy and suffered from the unrest of some of his nobles, especially Earl Godwin of Wessex. He was noted for his piety and was later canonized. He was the son of Aethelred II. Died in ad 1066.

d. 1066, king of the English (1042–66), son of Æthelred the Unready and his Norman wife, Emma. After the Danish conquest (1013–16) of England, Edward grew up at the Norman court, although his mother returned to England and married the Danish king Canute. In 1041, Edward was brought to England by his half brother Harthacanute, whom he succeeded as king in 1042. Edward was an able but not very energetic ruler, and he was unable to assert his authority over the great earls of the kingdom. Most powerful of these was Godwin, whose daughter Edith married (1045) the king. Edward's natural inclination to favor the Normans in England—notably Robert of Jumièges, whom he made archbishop of Canterbury in 1051—led to a breach with Godwin. In 1051, after a fracas between the king's brother-in-law, Eustace II, count of Boulogne, and the citizens of Dover, Godwin refused to obey Edward's order to punish the men of Dover and tried to raise a revolt. Edward, however, was supported by Leofric of Mercia and Siward of Northumbria, and he outlawed and banished Godwin and his family. In their absence Edward received William, duke of Normandy (later William I), and apparently made him his heir. In 1052, Godwin and his sons returned and demonstrated their power by forcing Edward to accept Stigand as archbishop of Canterbury instead of Robert. Thenceforth the king took less interest in his realm, becoming absorbed in his religion and in supervising the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. Shortly before his death, Edward named Harold, son of Godwin, as his successor, possibly in the hope of averting the threat of war posed by the rival claims to the throne of William of Normandy and Harold III of Norway. Edward's piety was responsible for his name the Confessor. He was canonized in the 12th cent. Feast: Oct. 13.

Bibliography

See biography by F. Barlow (1970).

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