Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of January 1066, and within a year, England had been torn apart. Three men would claim or hold the throne he left vacant. One of them, Harold Godwinson, was dead by October. Another, the young Edgar Ætheling, was crowned and then peacefully deposed after about eight weeks without ever being properly king at all. The third, William the Conqueror, would reshape the country so thoroughly that we are still sorting out what Edward's England actually was.
Edward had reigned for 24 years, the last king of the ancient House of Wessex. His nickname, the Confessor, marks him as a saint who suffered no martyrdom, in contrast to his uncle, the King Edward who died violently and is remembered as the Martyr. But historians have never agreed on whether the pious image fits the man. Was he genuinely saintly and ineffective, or was he, as biographers Frank Barlow and Peter Rex argue, energetic, resourceful, and sometimes ruthless? The answer may depend on which half of the reign you are looking at.
Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready and the first child of Æthelred's second wife, Emma of Normandy. He had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In the charters of the time, he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, a ranking that made clear how far he stood from the throne.
The world he was born into was one of near-constant Viking pressure. When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the English throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, and Edward and Alfred followed her, then Æthelred himself. Sweyn died in February 1014, and Æthelred was invited back on the condition that he promised to rule more justly than before. He sent Edward ahead with his ambassadors as a gesture of good faith.
Æthelred died in April 1016, and the fight against Sweyn's son Cnut continued under Edward's half-brother Edmund Ironside. Scandinavian tradition holds that Edward fought alongside Edmund; Edward would have been at most thirteen at the time, and the story is disputed. Edmund died in November 1016, Cnut became undisputed king, and Edward went back into exile with his brother and sister.
In 1017 his mother married Cnut, and in the same year Cnut had Edward's last surviving older half-brother, Eadwig, executed. Edward spent roughly a quarter of a century in exile, probably mainly in Normandy, though there is no firm evidence of where he was until the early 1030s. Some support came from his sister Godgifu, who married Drogo of Mantes, count of Vexin, in about 1024. In the early 1030s, Edward witnessed four charters in Normandy, and on two of them he signed as king of England, suggesting that some people were already treating him as the legitimate claimant.
Robert, abbot of the Norman abbey of Jumièges, was among the continental churchmen who supported Edward's claim, and he would later become Archbishop of Canterbury. According to the Norman chronicler William of Jumièges, Robert I, Duke of Normandy attempted an actual invasion of England to place Edward on the throne in about 1034, but the fleet was blown off course to Jersey.
Edward's prospects were not strong, and his ambitious mother was more focused on Harthacnut, her son by Cnut. Cnut died in 1035, and Harthacnut succeeded in Denmark, but he was occupied defending that position and could not come to England. His half-brother Harold Harefoot was appointed regent, while Emma held Wessex on Harthacnut's behalf.
In 1036, Edward and Alfred separately crossed to England. Emma later claimed they had come in response to a letter forged by Harold inviting them to visit her, but historians believe she probably did invite them in an effort to counter Harold's growing popularity. What happened next would mark Edward for the rest of his life. Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who handed him over to Harold Harefoot. Harold had Alfred blinded by forcing red-hot pokers into his eyes to make him unfit for kingship, and Alfred died shortly after from his wounds. Edward fought a skirmish near Southampton and retreated to Normandy. His prudence kept him alive, and he had a reputation in Normandy and Scandinavia as a soldier.
Harold died in 1040. Harthacnut crossed unopposed to take the English throne with his mother beside him. In 1041, probably knowing he would not live long, Harthacnut invited Edward back to England. Edward was received as king at Hursteshever, likely near modern-day Hurst Spit opposite the Isle of Wight, in exchange for his oath to uphold the laws of Cnut. Following Harthacnut's death on the 8th of June 1042, Godwin, the most powerful of the English earls, supported Edward's succession.
Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons, on Easter Sunday, the 3rd of April 1043. Almost immediately, he moved against his own mother. In November 1043, he rode to Winchester with his three leading earls, Leofric of Mercia, Godwin, and Siward of Northumbria, to strip Emma of her property. Her adviser Stigand lost his bishopric of Elmham in East Anglia, though both were soon restored to favour. Emma died in 1052.
Edward's position was structurally weak. Loyalty to the House of Wessex had been worn down by more than two decades of Danish rule, and only Leofric came from a family that had served Æthelred. Siward was probably Danish, and Godwin, though English, was one of Cnut's new men, married to Cnut's former sister-in-law. In his early years, though, Frank Barlow judges Edward to have been vigorous and ambitious, a true son of the impetuous Æthelred and the formidable Emma.
On the 23rd of January 1045, Edward married Godwin's daughter Edith. Her brothers Harold and Beorn Estrithson also received earldoms, and the Godwin family came to rule subordinately all of southern England. But Edward was not simply handing them power unchecked. In 1047 he rejected Godwin's demand to send aid to Sweyn II of Denmark in his struggle with Magnus I of Norway. It was only Magnus's death in October of that year that saved England from a Norwegian invasion and allowed Sweyn to take the Danish throne.
In 1050-51, Edward paid off the fourteen foreign ships that made up his standing navy and abolished the tax raised to pay for them. He had no personal power base and apparently made no effort to build one, which has led historians to very different conclusions about his intentions.
Eustace II of Boulogne, the second husband of Edward's sister Godgifu, visited England in September 1051 and his men caused an affray in Dover. Edward ordered Godwin, as earl of Kent, to punish the town's people. Godwin refused, siding with the burgesses instead. Edward seized the opportunity to move against his over-mighty earl.
Archbishop Robert of Jumièges accused Godwin of plotting to kill the king, just as he had killed Alfred in 1036. Leofric and Siward backed the king. The Godwins raised their own men, but neither side was willing to fight, and Godwin and Sweyn each handed over a son as hostage; those boys were sent to Normandy. As their men refused to fight the king, the Godwins' position collapsed. Edward reportedly jested, through the intermediary Stigand, that Godwin could have his peace if he could restore Alfred and his companions alive and well. Godwin and his sons fled to Flanders and Ireland. Edward repudiated Edith and sent her to a nunnery, possibly because she was childless.
Godwin and his sons returned about a year later with an army and received considerable support. Neither Leofric nor Siward came to the king's side this time. Both parties feared that civil war would invite foreign invasion. Edward was forced to restore the Godwin earldoms. Robert of Jumièges and other Frenchmen fled the country. Edith was restored as queen, and Stigand was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in Robert's place, though Stigand retained his bishopric of Winchester, creating a pluralism that would remain a running dispute with Rome.
Richard Mortimer argues that Godwin's return in 1052 meant the effective end of Edward's exercise of power. The withdrawal was gradual at first, but after a run of deaths among the other great earls between 1055 and 1057, the Godwin brothers controlled all of England subordinately except Mercia.
Malcolm Canmore had lived as an exile at Edward's court after his father Duncan I was killed in battle in 1040 against men led by Macbeth. In 1054, Edward sent Siward to invade Scotland. Siward defeated Macbeth, and Malcolm gained control of southern Scotland as a result. By 1058, Malcolm had killed Macbeth in battle and taken the Scottish throne. He visited Edward in 1059, but by 1061 he had started raiding Northumbria.
In Wales, Edward ordered the assassination of the south Welsh prince Rhys ap Rhydderch in 1053 in reprisal for a raid on England, and Rhys's head was delivered to him. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn established himself as ruler of all Wales in 1055 and allied with Ælfgar of Mercia, who had been outlawed for treason. They defeated Earl Ralph at Hereford. Harold had to draw forces from nearly all of England to push them back. Peace was made, Ælfgar was reinstated, and Gruffydd swore an oath to be a faithful under-king of Edward. When Harold launched a surprise attack on Gruffydd and then joined with Tostig the following year, Gruffydd retreated and was killed by Welsh enemies. Edward and Harold were then able to impose vassalage on some Welsh princes.
The end came from the north. In October 1065, Harold's brother Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, was hunting with the king when his thegns in Northumbria rebelled, claiming his rule had been oppressive, and killed some 200 of his followers. They nominated Morcar, the brother of Edwin of Mercia, as earl and marched south. Tostig accused Harold before the king of conspiring with the rebels. The king and queen demanded the revolt be suppressed, but neither Harold nor anyone else was willing to fight for Tostig. Edward was forced to accept his banishment. The humiliation may have caused a series of strokes that led to his death.
Edward's most lasting physical legacy is Westminster Abbey, which he began between 1042 and 1052 as a royal burial church. It was the first Norman Romanesque church in England, very similar to Jumièges Abbey, which was built at the same time. Robert of Jumièges was likely closely involved in both buildings, though which served as the original model is unclear. The Abbey was consecrated on the 28th of December 1065, just days before Edward died, and he was too ill to attend. It was completed after his death in about 1090 and demolished in 1245 to make way for Henry III's new building, which still stands.
Edward probably entrusted the kingdom to Harold and Edith shortly before he died at Westminster on the 5th of January 1066. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 6th of January, and Harold was crowned the same day.
The succession had been Edward's most dangerously mishandled problem. William the Conqueror was his first cousin once removed; Duke Richard I of Normandy was the grandfather of both Edward (through Emma) and of William. William may have visited Edward during Godwin's exile and received a promise of the succession at that time. Edmund Ironside's son, Edward the Exile, had the strongest hereditary claim, but he returned from Hungary in 1057 and died almost immediately. His son Edgar was brought up at court and given the title Ætheling, meaning throne-worthy, but he was absent from Edward's witness lists and held no substantial land, suggesting he had been marginalized.
In Stephen Baxter's view, Edward's handling of the succession was dangerously indecisive and contributed to one of the greatest catastrophes the English had ever faced. Harold's envoy, before the Battle of Hastings, admitted to William that Edward had promised the throne to William but argued that a deathbed promise to Harold overrode it. William did not dispute the deathbed promise. He simply argued his prior claim took precedence.
Edward the Confessor was the only king of England to be canonised by the pope, but the path to that honour was itself a political operation. About a century after his death, Pope Alexander III issued the bull of canonisation on the 7th of February 1161, the product of an alignment between Westminster Abbey, King Henry II, and a pope who owed Henry gratitude: in 1159 there had been a disputed papal election, and Henry's support had helped secure Alexander's recognition.
The campaign had started earlier, and less successfully. Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster Abbey, began pushing for canonisation in the 1130s, aiming to increase the Abbey's wealth and power. He had by 1138 reshaped the Vita Ædwardi Regis, the life of Edward commissioned by his widow, into a conventional saint's life, seizing on an ambiguous passage to claim that Edward had been celibate throughout his marriage. In 1139, Osbert went to Rome with the support of King Stephen, but Pope Innocent II postponed a decision, saying Osbert lacked sufficient testimonials of Edward's holiness.
Historian Ann Williams observes that in the 11th century Edward did not have the saintly reputation he later enjoyed, and that this reputation was largely the creation of the Westminster monks themselves. With his fits of rage and his love of hunting, most historians regard his canonisation as political rather than credible. Some counter that the cult began early enough that there must have been something genuine behind it.
In the 1230s, Henry III became attached to the cult and commissioned a new life by Matthew Paris. Henry built a grand new tomb for Edward in a rebuilt Westminster Abbey in 1269 and named his eldest son after him. Edward III later preferred the more martial figure of Saint George; in 1348 he established the Order of the Garter with George as its patron, and in 1351 George was acclaimed patron of the English race. At Windsor Castle, the chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor was re-dedicated to Saint George. The shrine of Saint Edward in Westminster Abbey remains where Henry III placed it after the translation of Edward's body on the 13th of October 1269, the date now observed as his feast day by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church.
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Common questions
Who was Edward the Confessor and when did he reign?
Edward the Confessor was King of the English from 1042 until his death on the 5th of January 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex, the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy.
Why is Edward the Confessor called the Confessor?
The title Confessor was applied to saints who lived a holy life without suffering martyrdom. It distinguished Edward from his uncle King Edward the Martyr, who died violently. The epithet reflects Edward's later reputation for piety, though most historians regard his canonisation as politically motivated.
When was Edward the Confessor canonised and by whom?
Pope Alexander III issued the bull of canonisation on the 7th of February 1161, roughly a century after Edward's death. The canonisation resulted from an alignment of interests between Westminster Abbey, King Henry II, and Pope Alexander III, whose recognition Henry had helped secure after a disputed papal election in 1159.
What happened to England after Edward the Confessor died?
Harold Godwinson was crowned on the 6th of January 1066, the day of Edward's burial. Harold was defeated and killed later that year at the Battle of Hastings by the Normans under William the Conqueror. Edward's great-nephew Edgar Ætheling was proclaimed king after Hastings but was peacefully deposed after about eight weeks without ever being crowned.
What is the connection between Edward the Confessor and Westminster Abbey?
Edward began building Westminster Abbey between 1042 and 1052 as a royal burial church and it was the first Norman Romanesque church in England. It was consecrated on the 28th of December 1065, days before his death, and was completed in about 1090. The building was demolished in 1245 to make way for Henry III's new structure, which still stands today.
Why did Edward the Confessor spend so many years in exile?
Edward spent roughly a quarter of a century in exile, mainly in Normandy, after Viking conquests made England dangerous for the sons of Æthelred the Unready. When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the throne in 1013, the royal family fled to Normandy. Cnut became undisputed king in 1016 after the death of Edward's half-brother Edmund Ironside, and in 1017 Edward's mother Emma married Cnut, removing her from any interest in Edward's return.
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7 references cited across the entry
- 1webThe Calendar
- 4webEdwardtide
- 6webHoly Days