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 Edward was
born in 1003. He was the last Saxon king to rule (for more than a few
months) in England. He is called "Edward the Confessor" to distinguish him
from another King of England, Edward the Martyr (c962-979), who was
assassinated (presumably by someone who wished to place Edward's younger
half-brother on the throne), and who came to be regarded, on doubtful
grounds, as a martyr for the faith. In Christian biographies, the term
"confessor" is often used to denote someone who has born witness to the
faith by his life, but who did not die as a martyr. Edward was the son of
King Ethelred the Unready. This does not mean that he was unprepared, but
rather that he was stubborn and wilful, and would not accept "rede," meaning
advice or counsel.
Ethelred was followed by several Danish kings of England, during whose rule
young Edward and his mother took refuge in Normandy. But the last Danish
king named Edward as his successor, and he was crowned in 1042. Opinions on
his success as a king vary. Some historians consider him weak and
indecisive, and say that his reign paved the way for the Norman Conquest.
Others say that his prudent management gave England more than twenty years
of peace and prosperity, with freedom from foreign domination, at a time
when powerful neighbors might well have dominated a less adroit ruler. He
was diligent in public and private worship, generous to the poor, and
accessible to subjects who sought redress of grievances.
While in exile, he had vowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome if his family
fortunes mended. However, his council told him that it was not expedient for
him to be so long out of the country. Accordingly, he spent his pilgrimage
money instead on the relief of the poor and the building of Westminster
Abbey, which stands today (rebuilt in the thirteenth century) as one of the
great churches of England, burial place of her kings and others deemed
worthy of special honor.
He died on 5 January 1066, leaving no offspring; and after his death, the
throne was claimed by his wife's brother, Harold the Saxon, and by William,
Duke of Normandy. William defeated and slew Harold at the Battle of Hastings
(14 October 1066), and thereafter the kings and upper classes of England
were Norman-French rather than Anglo-Saxon. Edward is remembered, not on the
day of his death, but on the anniversary of the moving ("translation") of
his corpse to a new tomb, a date which is also the anniversary of the eve of
the Battle of Hastings, the end of Saxon England.
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