This is Part 7 of England's Royal Dynasties, our daily series on the kings and queens of England and Britain, from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to King Charles III.
In Part 6 we saw the Danish kings Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut the Great rule England as part of a North Sea empire, until Cnut's sons died young and the throne returned to the old royal line. This part follows that returning heir, Edward the Confessor. He reigned for almost 24 years, built Westminster Abbey and was later made a saint. Yet the problem he never solved, who would rule after him, led straight to the most famous year in English history: 1066.
How do we know?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is fuller for Edward's reign than for Cnut's, and its different versions sometimes take different sides in the quarrels between the king and the Godwin family. A second key source is the Vita Ædwardi Regis (Life of King Edward), written for his widow, Queen Edith, around the time of the Norman Conquest. The British Library holds the only surviving copy, made around 1100. It is a precious source but not a neutral one: its first half praises Edith's own family, the Godwins, and its second half begins to turn Edward into a saint.
Later images add to the picture. The Bayeux Tapestry, made within a few decades of 1066, shows Edward's death and his funeral procession to the newly built abbey at Westminster. Twelfth-century writers, keen to promote his cult, added miracles and legends.
The exile returns
Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. According to Westminster Abbey he was born at Islip in Oxfordshire, some time between 1002 and 1005. When the Danes conquered England in 1013 he was taken to safety in Normandy, his mother's homeland, and he spent most of the next quarter-century there, while his mother married Cnut and stayed in England.
His half-brother Harthacnut invited him back in 1041, and the next year, when Harthacnut died suddenly, Edward was chosen king in London. One version of the Chronicle says all the people received him "as was his natural right". As was the custom, his coronation was delayed to allow time for guests and diplomacy; he was crowned at Winchester, probably in the Old Minster, on Easter Day, 3 April 1043, by Archbishop Eadsige. In November that year he rode from Gloucester to Winchester with the three great earls, without warning, and took his mother's treasure from her, because, says the Chronicle, she had done less for him than he wished, both before and after he became king.
A king between the earls
Edward had a crown but few followers of his own. Real power lay with three great earls: Leofric of Mercia, Siward of Northumbria and, above all, Godwin of Wessex, the self-made Englishman who had risen under Cnut. In 1045 Edward married Godwin's daughter Edith. The marriage stayed childless.
Edward brought Normans and other foreigners into his court and church, which the English nobles resented. The crisis came in 1051. Edward made the Norman Robert of Jumièges Archbishop of Canterbury. Then Edward's brother-in-law, Count Eustace of Boulogne, had a deadly brawl with the townspeople of Dover, and the king ordered Godwin to punish the town. Godwin refused, and he and his sons raised their men. Leofric and Siward backed the king, and the Godwin family was outlawed and fled abroad. Edward sent Queen Edith away to the nunnery at Wherwell and took her lands. According to one version of the Chronicle, Duke William of Normandy visited Edward that same year.
Edward's victory lasted barely a year. In 1052 Godwin and his son Harold sailed back with a fleet, and Londoners took their side. Archbishop Robert and other Normans fled, the family's lands were restored and Edith returned to court. Godwin did not enjoy his triumph long. At Easter 1053 he collapsed at the king's table at Winchester and died a few days later. His son Harold Godwinson became Earl of Wessex and, increasingly, the king's right-hand man.
Peace, prosperity and a missing heir
The last 15 years of Edward's reign were largely peaceful. The Royal Family's history notes that the population rose to about a million, farming improved and taxation was light, because Edward mostly lived on the income of his own estates, about £5,500 a year, and fought few expensive wars. Earlier, around 1051, he had stopped collecting the army tax that his father had introduced in 1012 to pay Danish mercenaries.
Harold drove back the Welsh, and in 1063 he and his brother Tostig campaigned in Wales until the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn was killed by his own men. Tostig had become Earl of Northumbria in 1055.
The question of the succession grew more urgent. In 1057 Edward brought home his nephew Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, who had grown up in Hungary. He died soon after landing, "to the misfortune of this miserable people", as the Chronicle laments. His young son Edgar Ætheling was the last male of the House of Wessex, but he was only a boy. Meanwhile Duke William of Normandy would later claim that Edward had promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support him on a visit to Normandy. Part 8 will look at those claims.
In 1065 the thanes of Northumbria rose against Tostig, killed his household men and chose Morcar, brother of Earl Edwin of Mercia, in his place. Harold, unable to reconcile them, accepted their demands. Tostig went into exile in Flanders, a bitter enemy of his brother.
Westminster Abbey
Edward's lasting monument is Westminster Abbey. According to the Abbey, Edward had vowed during his exile to go on pilgrimage to Rome if he returned home safely. As king he could not leave, and the Pope released him from the vow on condition that he founded or restored a monastery dedicated to St Peter. Edward chose a small Benedictine monastery beside the Thames, founded around 960 under King Edgar and St Dunstan, next to his new palace at Westminster. He rebuilt its church on a huge scale, in the new Romanesque style he had known in Normandy. It became known as the "west minster", to distinguish it from St Paul's in the City.
The church was consecrated on Holy Innocents' Day, 28 December 1065, but Edward was too ill to attend. He died on 5 January 1066 and was buried the next day before the high altar. On that same day, 6 January, Harold Godwinson was crowned. As the Chronicle puts it, Harold succeeded "even as the king had granted it to him, and men also had chosen him".
Legend vs evidence
Was Edward a saint? He was officially canonised by Pope Alexander III in 1161, almost a century after his death, after a long campaign by the monks of Westminster. In 1163 his body was moved to a new shrine. The Abbey explains that "Confessor" is the title for a saint who suffered for the faith but was not martyred. The evidence for his personal piety is good; the miracle stories mostly come from writers who wanted to promote his cult.
The chaste marriage. Edward and Edith had no children. Later hagiographers explained this as a holy vow of chastity. No contemporary source proves it; the marriage may simply have been childless, or politically cold after the crisis of 1051.
The ring and the pilgrims. A favourite legend tells how Edward gave his ring to a beggar, who turned out to be St John the Evangelist; years later, two English pilgrims in the Holy Land brought the ring back with a message that the king would soon die. It is a medieval legend, carved on a 15th-century screen in the Abbey, not history.
A Norman-minded king? Edward's Norman upbringing is real, and so were his Norman appointments. But he was the son of an English king, ruled through English institutions and never handed England to Normandy in his lifetime. Whether he really promised the crown to William is still debated.
Where to see it today
- Westminster Abbey, London: St Edward's shrine at the heart of the church, rebuilt by Henry III and consecrated in 1269, and the Pyx Chamber in the cloisters, one of the few surviving parts of Edward's own monastery.
- Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire: Edward was crowned at Winchester in 1043, probably in the Old Minster, whose outline is marked out beside today's cathedral.
- The Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux, Normandy: the scenes of Edward's death and funeral.
- Islip, Oxfordshire: the village named as Edward's birthplace.
At a glance
| Rulers | Edward the Confessor, 1042–1066 |
| House | House of Wessex (restored) |
| Predecessor | Harthacnut |
| Successor | Harold II Godwinson |
| Key dates | 1043 crowned at Winchester; 1045 marries Edith; 1051–52 exile and return of the Godwins; 1053 Godwin dies; 1057 Edward the Exile dies; 1065 Northumbrian revolt and abbey consecrated; 5 January 1066 dies |
| Legacy | Westminster Abbey; a peaceful, prosperous kingdom; an unclear succession that led to 1066; canonised in 1161 |
| Next | 1066: Harold Godwinson, Stamford Bridge and Hastings |
Next in the series
In Part 8 we reach 1066. Harold Godwinson is crowned, but two rivals are coming: the Norwegian warrior-king Harald Hardrada, backed by Tostig, and Duke William of Normandy. We follow Harold's victory at Stamford Bridge and his defeat at Hastings, and ask whether he really died with an arrow in his eye. Meanwhile, you can browse more on the Anglo-Saxons and the British monarchy, or go back to the start of the series in Part 1.
Sources
- The Royal Family, Edward III 'The Confessor' (r. 1042–1066)
- Westminster Abbey, Celebrating St Edward
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, eleventh-century entries, Avalon Project, Yale Law School
- Alison Hudson, British Library (2016), And always after that it grew much worse
- Winchester Cathedral, Edward the Confessor's coronation at Easter 1043 (PDF)
- Bayeux Museum, The Bayeux Tapestry
