Edward ('the Confessor'), King of England 1042-1066

b. circa.1004; d. 5 January 1066

Edward was born within two years of the marriage between his father King Aethelred and Emma of Normandy in 1002. Through out the first decade of his life his father's kingdom was under near constant threat of Danish attack. By 1013 Edward, his mother, father and brother fled to Normandy and Aethelred was replaced by Sweyn of Denmark as king of England. When Sweyn died in the following year the Witan invited Aethelred to regain his crown, but instead of traveling to England himself, Aethelred sent Edward, still a boy, with his messengers to intercede with the council. The risk worked and Edward, who must have been under some threat from factions opposed to Aethelred's return, survived.

Aethelred died in 1016 as did Edmund, Edward's half-brother who had been leading the fight against the Danes. The Dane, Cnut, took the throne and married Edward's mother, and Edward was again forced into exile in Normandy, where he spent the next twenty-five years.

He only returned to England in the reign of his half-brother Harthacnut (r. 1040-42), when he was invited to become co-ruler. So he was well-placed to take the kingship when Harthacnut died in 1042.

One of his first acts as king was to dispossess Emma, his mother, of her lands and treasury. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles suggest that this was caused by Emma's reluctance to share any of her wealth with Edward, but it also thought that Emma was supporting Magnus of Norway in his bid for the English throne. To counter such invasion threats Edward took personal charge of his fleet each year; which suggests Edward learned the lesson from his father's reluctance to lead his forces.

In January 1045, Edward married Edith, the daughter of Godwin of Wessex, the most powerful of the English earls. Relations with the Godwin family were a source of great tension: in 1051 Godwin was exiled, but he returned with an army in the following year and caught Edward's forces by surprise. Edward was forced to reinstate Godwin and his family to their titles and possessions and dismiss his circle of French advisors. Godwin died in 1053 but his family's power, especially in the form of Harold Godwinson, remain strong.

Increasingly, Harold became the leading military commander in the kingdom, with successive victories over the the Welsh king Gruffydd. But, although the childless Edward was prepared for Harold to take responsibility for military issues, it seems he was not happy for Harold to succeed him as king. In 1064, Edward sent Harold to Normandy, and Norman sources suggest that this was to confer Duke William as his heir.

Edward's great project in the latter years of his reign was the construction, on French lines, of West Minster in London. He died on 5 January 1066.

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