Edward the Confessor

Life events

1. Born

   Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy.

2. Exiled — 1013

   Following Sweyn Forkbeard's seizure of the English throne in 1013, Edward fled to Normandy with his mother Emma and brother Alfred, spending approximately a quarter of a century in exile there.

3. Other — 1041

   Harthacnut invited Edward back to England in 1041, probably as his heir, and Edward met the thegns of all England at Hursteshever, receiving recognition as king in exchange for an oath to uphold the laws of Cnut.

4. Consecrated — 1043

   Edward was crowned king at the cathedral of Winchester on Easter Sunday, 3 April 1043, restoring the House of Wessex to the English throne after the period of Danish rule under Cnut and his sons.

5. Other

   Edward commenced construction of Westminster Abbey between 1042 and 1052 as a royal burial church — the first Norman Romanesque church in England, closely modeled on Jumièges Abbey — and it was consecrated on 28 December 1065, though he was too ill to attend.

6. Died — 1066

   Edward died at Westminster on 5 January 1066 and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 6 January — the same day Harold Godwinson was crowned as his successor.

7. Other — 1161

   Pope Alexander III issued the bull of canonization on 7 February 1161, the result of aligned interests between Westminster Abbey, King Henry II, and Alexander III; Edward was called 'Confessor' as the designation for one who lived a saintly life but was not a martyr.

8. Translated — 1269

   Henry III translated Edward's remains to a new chapel east of the sanctuary at Westminster Abbey on 13 October 1269; this date — coinciding with the first translation of 13 October 1163 — became his principal feast day in Catholic and Anglican observance.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Edward was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex; his death without an undisputed heir triggered the succession crisis that culminated in the Norman Conquest of 1066. (certain)
• Pope Alexander III canonized Edward on 7 February 1161, making him the only king of England to be canonized by a pope — the result of a conjunction of interests between Westminster Abbey, Henry II, and Alexander III. (certain)
• Westminster Abbey, commenced between 1042 and 1052, was the first Norman Romanesque church in England and closely resembled Jumièges Abbey, built concurrently; Edward's innovative patronage shaped English Romanesque architecture. (likely)
• Edward the Confessor was one of England's national saints until c. 1350, when Edward III established the Order of the Garter with Saint George as patron, displacing Edward's cult from national prominence. (certain)
• Edward is regarded as a patron saint of difficult marriages, a designation connected to the medieval tradition — promoted by Westminster monks — that his own marriage to Edith of Wessex was celibate. (plausible)