Edward The Confessor, king of the English

Edward the Confessor,

Parents: Æthelred and Emma de Normandie.

No children.

LINKS

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor

MEDIEVAL LANDS

EADWARD ([1005]-Palace of Westminster 5 Jan 1066, bur Westminster Abbey[1845]). "Eadweard clito/filius regis" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 1005 and 1015[1846]. He is named after his half-brother Eadgar in all documents in which the two are mentioned together, consistent with Edward being the junior of the two. Edward fled England for Normandy with his mother in 1013 after the invasion of Svend King of Denmark.

Anointed king of England during the lifetime of his father[1847], probably in 1015 when his older half-brother, later King Edmund, was in dispute with their father over his unauthorised marriage. This assumes that Edward returned to England from Normandy with his father.

According to Orderic Vitalis, Edward and his brother Alfred were living in exile in Normandy when Duke Robert left on pilgrimage for Jerusalem in [1035][1848]. "…Hetwardi, Helwredi…" witnessed the charter dated to [1030] under which Robert II Duke of Normandy donated property to the abbey of Fécamp[1849].

After the appointment of Harold "Harefod/Harefoot" as regent of England in 1036, Edward landed along Southampton Water to rejoin his mother who, on hearing of the fate of her other son Alfred, sent Edward back to Normandy[1850]. "…Hatuardus Rex…" witnessed the charter dated to [1042] under which Guillaume II Duke of Normandy donated "nostras insulas Serc et Aurrene, propter medietatem Grenere" to the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, supported by "Rannulfo filio Anschitilli"[1851]. He returned to England in 1041 and was "sworn in as future king" according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle[1852]. On his half-brother's death, he was elected EDWARD "the Confessor" King of England in London, crowned at Winchester Cathedral 3 Apr 1043[1853].

His relations with his mother were strained as she appears to have supported the claim of Magnus King of Norway to the English throne on the death of King Harthacnut[1854].

Whatever the truth of this, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that King Edward confiscated her treasury in 1043[1855]. Godwin Earl of Wessex enjoyed a position of power during King Edward's reign, marrying his daughter to the king in 1045. However, the king's relations with Earl Godwin became tense after a dispute over the appointment of a new archbishop of Canterbury in 1050. In 1051, Earl Godwin refused the king's order to punish an affray at Canterbury, in which one of Eustache Comte de Boulogne's men was killed. The dispute escalated, and 1 Sep 1051 Godwin made a show of force against the king with his two older sons near Tetbury. Leofric Earl of Mercia and Siward Earl of Northumbria supported King Edward, and battle was avoided. Godwin and his family were given five days' safe conduct to leave the country by the king's council 8 Sep 1051[1856].

It was probably about this time that Edward promised the throne to Guillaume II Duke of Normandy, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the duke's visit to England in 1051[1857]. Earl Godwin was restored in 1052, after another show of force.

After Godwin's death in 1053, his son Harold assumed his earldom and became as powerful in the kingdom as his father had been. It appears that King Edward gradually withdrew from active government, becoming more involved in religious matters and especially planning the construction of Westminster Abbey, which was finally consecrated 28 Dec 1065 although Edward was by then too infirm to attend. Despite his earlier promise of the succession to Guillaume Duke of Normandy, on his deathbed King Edward bequeathed the kingdom to Harold Godwinson Earl of Wessex, a choice which was accepted unanimously by the members of the council.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the king's death "on the vigil of…Epiphany" and his burial in Westminster abbey the next day[1858]. King Edward was canonised 7 Feb 1161, his feast day is 13 Oct[1859].

m (23 Jan 1045) EADGYTH, daughter of GODWIN Earl of Wessex & his wife Gytha ([1020/22]-Winchester 18 Dec 1075, bur Westminster Abbey).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 1045 "king Edward took to wife Edith the daughter of Earl Godwin, ten days before Candlemas"[1860]. Her husband confined her to Wherwell Abbey in 1051 when the rest of her family was banished, but she was brought back to court when her father was restored the following year. She commissioned the Vita Ædwardi Regis from a foreign clerk, probably from Saint-Omer, setting out the history of her family. She continued to live around Winchester after the Norman conquest, and appears to have been treated well by King William I[1861].

Florence of Worcester records the death "XIV Kal Jan" in [1074] of "Edgitha regis Haroldi germana quondam Anglorum regina" at Winchester and her burial at Westminster[1862].

Edward the Confessor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint King Edward the Confessor (c. 1003/1004 – 5 January 1066),[1] son of Ethelred the Unready, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death.[2] His reign marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the aggrandisement of the great territorial earls, and it foreshadowed the country's later connection with Normandy, whose duke William I was to supplant Edward's successors Harold Godwinson and Edgar Ætheling as England's ruler.

He succeeded his half-brother Harthacanute, who had successfully regained the throne of England after being dispossessed by his half-brother, Harold Harefoot. Edward and his brother Alfred the Ætheling, both sons of Emma of Normandy by Ethelred the Unready, had previously failed to depose Harold in 1036. When Edward died in 1066 he had no son to take over the throne so a conflict arose as three people claimed the throne of England.

Edward was canonised in 1161 and is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, which regards Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses, and by the Church of England and other Anglican Churches. From the reign of Henry II of England to 1348 he was considered the patron saint of England, and he has remained the patron saint of the Royal Family.

Early years

Edward was born c. 1003 in Islip, Oxfordshire. His palace was in Brill, Buckinghamshire. In 1013, he and his brother Alfred were taken to Normandy by their mother Emma of Normandy, sister of Normandy's Duke Richard II, to escape the Danish invasion of England. Despite his piety, it seems that he was tough warrior. The Norse Flateyisbok describes him fighting in London against Canute in fierce urban warfare. He is said to have attacked Canute, who was saved by Thorkell the Tall pulling him from his horse. The book relates that Prince Edward broke through the saddle and killed the horse with his axe. Edward is traditionally said to have developed an intense personal piety in his quarter-century of Norman exile (disputed by Howarth in 1066: The Year of the Conquest), during his most formative years, while England formed part of a great Danish empire. His familiarity with Normandy and its leaders would also influence his later rule: the refuge he was given in Normandy, vis a vis the disregard the Normans paid him whilst he was there, would leave him both grateful and bitter towards his kinsmen there.[3] It is believed that when Duke Robert, who was his cousin, went on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land (where he died) that Edward was named as one of the guardians of his son William.

After an abortive attempt with Alfred in 1036 to displace Harold Harefoot from the throne, Edward returned to Normandy. Alfred, however, was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex who then turned him over to Harold Harefoot, who blinded him to make him unsuitable for kingship. Alfred died soon after as a result of his torture. This murder of his brother is thought to be the source of much of his later hatred for the Earl and played a major part in the reason for his banishment in autumn 1051; Edward said that the only way in which Godwin could be forgiven was if he brought back the murdered Alfred, an impossible task.[4]

The Anglo-Saxon lay and ecclesiastical nobility invited Edward back to England in 1041; this time he became part of the household of his half-brother Harthacanute (son of Emma and Canute), and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was sworn in as king alongside him. Following Harthacanute's death on 8 June 1042, Edward ascended the throne. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle indicates the popularity he enjoyed at his accession — "before Harthacanute was buried, all the people chose Edward as king in London". Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons on 3 April 1043.

Reign

Edward's reign was marked by peace and prosperity, but effective rule in England required coming to terms with three powerful earls: Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who was firmly in control of the thegns of Wessex, which had formerly been the heart of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy; Leofric, Earl of Mercia, whose legitimacy was strengthened by his marriage to Lady Godiva, and in the north, Siward, Earl of Northumbria. Edward's sympathies for Norman favourites frustrated Saxon and Danish nobles alike, fuelling the growth of anti-Norman opinion led by Godwin, who had become the king's father-in-law in 1045. The breaking point came over the appointment of an archbishop of Canterbury: Edward rejected Godwin's man and appointed the bishop of London, Robert of Jumièges, a trusted Norman.

Matters came to a head over a bloody riot at Dover between the townsfolk and Edward's kinsman Eustace, count of Boulogne. Godwin refused to punish them, Leofric and Siward backed the King, and Godwin and his family were all exiled in September 1051. Queen Edith was sent to a nunnery at Wherwell. Earl Godwin returned with an army following a year later, however, forcing the king to restore his title and send away his Norman advisors. Godwin died in 1053 and the Norman Ralph the Timid received Herefordshire, but his son Harold accumulated even greater territories for the Godwins, who held all the earldoms save Mercia after 1057. Harold led successful raiding parties into Wales in 1063 and negotiated with his inherited rivals in Northumbria in 1065, and in January 1066, upon Edward's death, he was proclaimed king.

Aftermath

The details of the succession have been widely debated: the Norman position was that William had been designated the heir, and that Harold had been publicly sent to him as emissary from Edward, to apprise him of Edward's decision. Harold's party asserted that the old king had made a deathbed bestowal of the crown on Harold. However, Harold was approved by the Witenagemot who, under Anglo-Saxon law, held the ultimate authority to convey kingship.

Edward had married Godwin's daughter Edith on 23 January 1045, but the union was childless. The reason for this is the subject of much speculation. Possible explanations include Edward, having taken vow of chastity, considering the union a spiritual marriage, the age difference between Edward and Edith engendering a filial rather than spousal relationship, Edward's antipathy toward Edith's father (Barlow 1997), or infertility.

Edward's nearest heir would have been his nephew Edward the Exile, who was born in England, but spent most of his life in Hungary. He had returned from exile in 1056 and died not long after, in February the following year. So Edward made his great nephew Edgar Atheling his heir. But Edgar had no secure following among the earls: the resultant succession crisis on Edward's death without a direct "throneworthy" heir — the "foreign" Edgar was a stripling of fourteen — opened the way for Harold's coronation and the invasions of two effective claimants to the throne, the unsuccessful invasion of Harald Hardrada in the north and the successful one of William of Normandy.

William of Normandy, who had visited England during Godwin's exile, claimed that the childless Edward had promised him the succession to the throne, and his successful bid for the English crown put an end to Harold's nine-month kingship following a 7,000-strong Norman invasion. Edgar Ætheling was elected king by the Witan after Harold's death but was brushed aside by William. Edward, or more especially the mediæval cult which would later grow up around him under the later Plantagenet kings, had a lasting impact on English history. Westminster Abbey was founded by Edward between 1045 and 1050 on land upstream from the City of London, and was consecrated on 28 December 1065. Centuries later, Westminster was deemed symbolic enough to become the permanent seat of English government under Henry III. The Abbey contains a shrine to Edward which was the centrepiece to the Abbey's redesign during the mid-thirteenth century. In 2005, Edward's remains were found beneath the pavement in front of the high altar. His remains had been moved twice in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the original tomb has since been found on the central axis of the Abbey in front of the original high altar.

Historically, Edward's reign marked a transition between the 10th century West Saxon kingship of England and the Norman monarchy which followed Harold's death. Edward's allegiances were split between England and his mother's Norman ties. The great earldoms established under Canute grew in power, while Norman influence became a powerful factor in government and in the leadership of the Church.

It was during the reign of Edward that some features of the English monarchy familiar today were introduced. Edward is regarded as responsible for introducing the royal seal and coronation regalia. Also under Edward, a marked change occurred in Anglo-Saxon art, with continental influences becoming more prominent (including the "Winchester Style" which had become known in the 10th century but prominent in the 11th), supplanting Celtic influences prominent in preceding painting, sculpture, calligraphy and jewellery (see Benedictional of St. Æthelwold for an example of the Winchester Style). His crown is believed to have survived until the English Civil War when Oliver Cromwell allegedly ordered it to be destroyed. Gold from it is understood to have been integrated into the St. Edward's Crown, which has been used in coronations since Charles II of England in 1661.

[edit]Canonisation

When Henry II came to the throne in 1154, he united in his person at last the English and Norman royal lines. To reinforce this new warrant of authenticity, the cult of King Edward the Confessor was promoted. Osbert de Clare was a monk of Westminster, elected Prior in 1136, and remembered for his lives of saints Edmund, Ethelbert and Edburga, in addition to one of Edward, in which the king was represented as a holy man, reported to have performed several miracles and to have healed people by his touch. Osbert was, as his surviving letters demonstrate, an active ecclesiastical politician, and went to Rome to advocate the cause for Edward to be declared a saint, successfully securing his canonisation by Pope Alexander III in 1161.

In 1163, the newly sainted king's remains were enshrined in Westminster Abbey with solemnities presided over by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. On this occasion the honour of preparing a sermon was given to Aelred, the revered Abbot of Rievaulx, to whom is generally attributed the vita in Latin, a hagiography partly based on materials in an earlier vita by Osbert de Clare and which in its turn provided the material for a rhymed version in octasyllabic Anglo-Norman, possibly written by the chronicler Matthew Paris. At the time of Edward's canonisation, saints were broadly categorised as either martyrs or confessors: martyrs were people who had been killed for their faith, while confessors were saints who had died natural deaths. Edward was accordingly styled Edward the Confessor, partly to distinguish him from his canonised predecessor Edward the Martyr.

The Roman Catholic Church regards Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages and separated spouses. After the reign of Henry II, Edward was considered the patron saint of England until 1348 when he was replaced in this role by St. George. He remained the patron saint of the Royal Family.

Edward's reign is memorialized in an eight panel stained glass window within St Laurence Church, Ludlow, England.

The shrine of Saint Edward the Confessor remains where it was after the final translation of his body in the 13th century - at the heart of Westminster Abbey, where the date of that translation, 13 October, is observed as a major feast.

13 October was the date assigned to his liturgical commemoration when it was introduced in 1679 into the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Because of his limited importance on a worldwide scale, it was omitted from this in 1969.[5] Since then, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates his feast day on 5 January, the day of his death.[6]

Edward the Confessor is referenced by characters in Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth as the saintly king of England.

[edit]See also

House of Wessex family tree.

[edit]Notes

^ According to some sources the date was 4 January.

^ The numbering of English monarchs starts anew after the Norman conquest, which explains why the regnal numbers assigned to English kings named Edward begin with the later Edward I (ruled 1272–1307) and do not include Edward the Confessor (who was the third King Edward).

^ "1066: The Year of the Conquest", David Howarth

^ "1066: The Year of the Conquest", David Howarth

^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 142

^ Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7)

[edit]References

Barlow, Frank (1997). Edward the Confessor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor

Edward the Confessor (Old English: Ēadƿeard se Andettere; French: Édouard le Confesseur; c. 1003 – 5 January 1066), son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 (technically the last being Edgar the Ætheling who was proclaimed king briefly in late 1066, but was deposed after about eight weeks.) His reign marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the advancement in power of the earls. It foreshadowed the country's domination by the Normans, whose Duke William "the Conquerer" of Normandy was to defeat Edward's successor, Harold II, and seize the crown.

Edward had succeeded Cnut's son Harthacnut, restoring the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut had conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066 he had no son to take over the throne so a conflict arose as three men claimed the throne of England.

Edward was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III, and is commemorated on 13 October by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and other Anglican Churches. He is regarded as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. From the reign of Henry II to 1348, he was considered to be the patron saint of England. During the reign of Edward III he was replaced in this role by Saint George, though St Edward has remained the patron saint of the Royal Family.

Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 – 5 January 1066), son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 (technically the last being Edgar the Ætheling who was proclaimed king briefly in late 1066, but was deposed after about eight weeks.) His reign marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the advancement in power of the earls. It foreshadowed the country's domination by the Normans, whose Duke William of Normandy was to defeat Edward's successor, Harold II, and seize the crown.

Edward had succeeded Cnut's son Harthacnut, restoring the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut had conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066 he had no son to take over the throne so a conflict arose as three men claimed the throne of England.

Edward was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III, and is commemorated on 13 October by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and other Anglican Churches. He is regarded as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. From the reign of Henry II of England to 1348 he was considered to be the patron saint of England, when he was replaced in this role by Saint George, and he has remained the patron saint of the Royal Family.

Early years

Edward was born c. 1003 in Islip, Oxfordshire. Edward and his brother Alfred were sent to Normandy for exile by their mother. Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edward's older half brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against the Danes until his own death seven months later at the hand of Canute, who next became king and married Edward and Alfred's mother, Emma. According to Scandinavian tradition, Edward, by then back in England, fought alongside his brother, and distinguished himself by almost cutting Canute in two, although as Edward was at most thirteen years old at the time, the story is highly unlikely.

Edward then returned to Normandy, and although he is traditionally said to have developed an intense personal piety in his quarter-century of Norman exile, during his most formative years, while England formed part of a great Danish empire, some modern historians dispute this claim. His familiarity with Normandy and its leaders would also influence his later rule: the refuge he was given in Normandy, vis-à-vis the disregard the Normans paid him whilst he was there, would leave him both grateful and bitter towards his kinsmen there. It is believed that, when Duke Robert, who was his cousin, went on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land (where he died), Edward was named as one of the guardians of his son William.

Harthacnut had been considered the legitimate successor following Canute's death in 1035, but his half-brother, Harold Harefoot, usurped the crown. Edward and his brother Alfred unsuccessfully attempted to depose Harold in 1036. Edward then returned to Normandy, but Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex who then turned him over to Harold Harefoot, who blinded him to make him unsuitable for kingship. Alfred died soon after as a result of his wounds. This murder of Edward's brother is thought to be the source of much of Edward's later hatred for the Earl and one of the primary reasons for Godwin's banishment in autumn 1051; Edward said that the only way in which Godwin could be forgiven was if he brought back the murdered Alfred, an impossible task. Harthacnut succeeded on Harold's death in 1040, just as Harthacnut was preparing an invasion.

The Anglo-Saxon lay and ecclesiastical nobility invited Edward back to England in 1041; this time he became part of the household of his half-brother Harthacnut (son of Emma and Canute), and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was sworn in as king alongside him. Following Harthacnut's death on 8 June 1042, Edward ascended the throne. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle indicates the popularity he enjoyed at his accession — "before he [Harthacnut] was buried, all the people chose Edward as king in London." Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons on 3 April 1043.

Reign

A sealed writ of Edward the Confessor

Edward's reign began in 1042 on the death of his half brother Harthacanute. Edward's reign was marked by peace and prosperity, but effective rule in England required coming to terms with three powerful earls: Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who was firmly in control of the thegns of Wessex, which had formerly been the heart of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy; Leofric, Earl of Mercia, whose legitimacy was strengthened by his marriage to Lady Godiva, and in the north, Siward, Earl of Northumbria. Edward's sympathies for Norman favourites frustrated Saxon and Danish nobles alike, fuelling the growth of anti-Norman opinion led by Godwin, who had become the king's father-in-law in 1045. The breaking point came over the appointment of an archbishop of Canterbury. Edward rejected Godwin's man and appointed the bishop of London, Robert of Jumièges, a reliable Norman of Normandy.

Matters came to a head over a bloody riot at Dover between the townsfolk and Edward's kinsman Eustace, count of Boulogne. Godwin refused to punish them, Leofric and Siward backed the King, and Godwin and his family were all exiled in September 1051. Queen Edith was sent to a nunnery at Wherwell. Earl Godwin returned with an army following a year later, however, forcing the king to restore his title and send away his Norman advisors. Godwin died in 1053 and the Norman Ralph the Timid received Herefordshire, but his son Harold accumulated even greater territories for the Godwins, who held all the earldoms save Mercia after 1057. Harold led successful raiding parties into Wales in 1063 and negotiated with his inherited rivals in Northumbria in 1065, and in January 1066, upon Edward's death, he was proclaimed the king.

Edward and his mother

Edward's mother was Emma of Normandy, second wife of his father, Æthelred the Unready. She married King Cnut the Great shortly after Æthelred's death in April 1016. By this time, Edward, his brother Alfred, and their sister Goda had been sent away to Emma's family in Normandy. Their half brother, Edmund Ironside, the son of their father by his first wife, Ælfgifu of York, briefly divided England with Cnut, until Edmund died (possibly by assassination), on 30 November 1016. Another half brother, Harthacnut, Emma's son by Cnut, preceded Edward as king of England.

At the time that Edward ascended to the throne, Queen Emma supported another candidate, Magnus the Noble, and Edward had his mother arrested. Later she survived trial by ordeal on a trumped up charge of adultery with a bishop. Emma died in 1052.

Aftermath

The details of the succession have been widely debated. The Norman position was that William the Conqueror had been designated the heir, and that Harold had been publicly sent to him as emissary from Edward, to apprise him of Edward's decision. However, even William's eulogistic biographer, William of Poitiers, admitted that the old king had made a deathbed bestowal of the crown on Harold. On Edward's death, Harold was approved by the Witenagemot which, under Anglo-Saxon law, held the ultimate authority to convey kingship.

Edward had married Godwin's daughter Edith on 23 January 1045, but the union was childless. The reason for this has been the subject of much speculation. Within a few years of Edward's death, and possibly in his old age, rumours were circulating that he had not consummated his marriage, either because he had taken a vow of chastity for religious reasons, or because of hostility to the Godwin family. However, in the view of Edward's biographer, Frank Barlow, it is extremely unlikely that Edward's childlessness was due to deliberate abstention from sexual relations.

Edward's nearest heir would have been his nephew Edward the Exile, who was born in England, but spent most of his life in Hungary. He had returned from exile in 1056 and died not long after, in February the following year. So Edward made his great nephew Edgar Atheling his heir. But Edgar had no secure following among the earls. The resultant succession crisis on Edward's death without a direct "throneworthy" heir — the "foreign" Edgar was a stripling of fourteen — opened the way for Harold's coronation and the invasions of two effective claimants to the throne, the unsuccessful invasion of Harald Hardrada in the north and the successful one of William of Normandy.

Edward's cousin's son, William of Normandy, who had visited England during Godwin's exile, claimed that the childless Edward had promised him the succession to the throne, and his successful bid for the English crown put an end to Harold's nine-month kingship following a 7,000-strong Norman invasion. Edgar Ætheling was elected king by the Witan after Harold's death but was brushed aside by William. Edward, or more especially the mediæval cult which would later grow up around him under the later Plantagenet kings, had a lasting impact on English history. Westminster Abbey was founded by Edward between 1045 and 1050 on land upstream from the City of London, and was consecrated on 28 December 1065. Centuries later, Westminster was deemed symbolic enough to become the permanent seat of English government under Henry III. The Abbey contains a shrine to Edward which was the centrepiece to the Abbey's redesign during the mid-thirteenth century. In 2005, Edward's remains were found beneath the pavement in front of the high altar. His remains had been moved twice in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the original tomb has since been found on the central axis of the Abbey in front of the original high altar.

Historically, Edward's reign marked a transition between the 10th century West Saxon kingship of England and the Norman monarchy which followed Harold's death. Edward's allegiances were split between England and his mother's Norman ties. The great earldoms established under Cnut grew in power, while Norman influence became a powerful factor in government and in the leadership of the Church.

It was during the reign of Edward that some features of the English monarchy familiar today were introduced. Edward is regarded as responsible for introducing the royal seal and coronation regalia. Also under Edward, a marked change occurred in Anglo-Saxon art, with continental influences becoming more prominent (including the "Winchester Style" which had become known in the 10th century but prominent in the 11th), supplanting Celtic influences prominent in preceding painting, sculpture, calligraphy and jewelry (see Benedictional of St. Æthelwold for an example of the Winchester Style). His crown is believed to have survived until the English Civil War when Oliver Cromwell allegedly ordered it to be destroyed. Gold from it is understood to have been integrated into the St. Edward's Crown, which has been used in coronations since Charles II of England in 1661.

Canonization

When Henry II came to the throne in 1154, he promoted the cult of King Edward the Confessor. Osbert de Clare was a monk of Westminster, elected prior in 1136, and remembered for his lives of Saints Edmund, Æthelberht and Edburga, in addition to one of Edward, in which the king was represented as a holy man, reported to have performed several miracles and to have healed people by his touch. Osbert was, as his surviving letters demonstrate, an active ecclesiastical politician, and went to Rome to advocate the cause for Edward to be declared a saint, successfully securing his canonization by Pope Alexander III in 1161.

In 1163, the newly sainted king's remains were enshrined in Westminster Abbey with solemnities presided over by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. On this occasion the honour of preparing a sermon was given to Aelred, the revered Abbot of Rievaulx, to whom is generally attributed the vita in Latin, a hagiography partly based on materials in an earlier vita by Osbert de Clare and which in its turn provided the material for a rhymed version in octasyllabic Anglo-Norman, possibly written by the chronicler Matthew Paris. At the time of Edward's canonisation, saints were broadly categorised as either martyrs or confessors. Martyrs were people who had been killed for their faith, while confessors were saints who had died natural deaths. Edward was accordingly styled Edward the Confessor, partly to distinguish him from his canonised predecessor Edward the Martyr.

The Roman Catholic Church regards St Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. After the reign of Henry II, Edward was considered to be the "Patron Saint of England", until 1348 when he was replaced in this role by Saint George. St Edward remains the "Patron Saint of the Royal Family".

Edward's reign is memorialized in an eight panel stained glass window within St Laurence Church, Ludlow, England.

The shrine of Saint Edward the Confessor remains where it was after the final relocation of his body in the 13th century - at the heart of Westminster Abbey, where the date of his translation, 13 October, is observed as a major feast. For some time the Abbey had claimed that it possessed a set of coronation regalia that Edward had left for use in all future coronations. Following Edward's canonization, these were regarded as holy relics, and thereafter they were used at all English coronations from the 13th Century until the destruction of the regalia by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.

The main liturgical commemoration of Saint Edward is on the date of his translation, 13 October, rather than the date of his death. This feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar when it was reformed in 1969, but remains in the Calendar of the Traditional Latin Mass, as well as the national calendar of the Roman Catholic Church in England. The Church of England has included this feast in its calendar since the Book of Common Prayer of 1662.

In popular culture

Edward is depicted as the central saint of the Wilton Diptych, a devotional piece made for Richard II, but now in the collection of the National Gallery. The reverse of the piece carries Edward's arms; and Richard's badge of a white hart. The panel painting dates from the end of the 14th century.

Edward the Confessor is referred to by characters in Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth as the saintly king of England.

He is the central figure in Alfred Duggan's 1960 historical novel The Cunning of the Dove.

On screen he has been portrayed by Eduard Franz in the film Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955), George Howe in the BBC TV drama series Hereward the Wake (1965), Donald Eccles in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966; part of the series Theatre 625), Brian Blessed in Macbeth (1997), based on the Shakespeare play (although he does not appear in the play itself), and Adam Woodroffe in an episode of the British TV series Historyonics entitled "1066" (2004). In 2002, he was portrayed by Lennox Greaves in the Doctor Who audio adventure Seasons of Fear.

Venid, benditos de mi Padre, a tomar posesión del reino que os está preparado desde la creación del mundo. (Mateo, 25, 34).

Eduardo III, sabio y profundo legislador, pasó primero 35 años en Normandía durante el reinado de los invasores normandos. Llamado a Inglaterra por el concierto unánime de las voluntades, hizo florecer en ella la justicia y la paz. Edificó numerosas iglesias y fundó la abadía de Westminster. Extremadamente caritativo, llevó un día a un pobre en sus espaldas y le dio una sortija de gran valor. Nada rehusaba de lo que se le pedía en nombre de San Juan Evangelista, el cual le advirtió sobre la hora de su muerte, acaecida en 1066 a la edad de 65 años.

MEDITACIÓN SOBRE LA FELICIDAD DEL HOMBRE EN ESTA VIDA

I. Tres cosas pueden hacernos felices, tanto al menos cuanto lo podemos ser en este lugar de destierro. La primera es la buena conciencia: sin ella, ni los placeres, ni los honores, ni el cumplimiento de todos nuestros deseos podrían contentarnos. Si tienes el alma pura, todo lo desagradable que pueda sucederte no debe turbarte. ¡Qué consuelo poder decirse: Hago lo que depende de mi para estar bien con Dios! ¿Puedes, tú, con verdad, decirlo? ¿No te reprocha nada tu conciencia?

II. La segunda condición para ser feliz es abandonarse generosamente a la providencia de Dios, consagrarse a Él sin reserva, no querer sino lo que El quiere y recibir de su mano con agradecimiento el bien y el mal, pues lo uno y lo otro son efectos de su bondad. Las aflicciones, el ayuno, las enfermedades, no son penosos para los que los soportan, sino solamente para los que los reciben a disgusto. (Salmo).

III. La tercera condición es considerar cuál es voluntad de Dios en todo lo que nos acaece. Dios tiene sus designios y el demonio los suyos. ¿Cuál es designio de Dios en esta enfermedad que te envía? Que la soportes con resignación, mediante el pensamiento de la muerte y del paraíso. El demonio, por lado, quiere arrojarte en la impaciencia y en la murmuración. Dios es tan bueno que no permitiría más que sucediese ningún mal en el mundo, si no fuese lo suficientemente poderoso como para sacar bien del mal. (San Agustín). Conformidad con la voluntad de Dios Orad por los que os gobiernan.

ORACIÓN

Oh Dios, que habéis coronado con la gloria eterna al bienaventurado rey Eduardo, vuestro confesor, haced, os Lo suplicamos, que honrándolo en la tierra, podamos reinar un día con él en el cielo. Por J. C. N. S. Amén.

Hay estampa, Texto tomado de:

http://caballerodelainmaculada.blogspot.com/2009/10/san-eduardo-el-...

SAN EDUARDO EL CONFESOR, REY DE INGLATERRA

Venid, benditos de mi Padre, a tomar posesión del reino que os está preparado desde la creación del mundo. (Mateo, 25, 34).

Eduardo III, sabio y profundo legislador, pasó primero 35 años en Normandía durante el reinado de los invasores normandos. Llamado a Inglaterra por el concierto unánime de las voluntades, hizo florecer en ella la justicia y la paz. Edificó numerosas iglesias y fundó la abadía de Westminster. Extremadamente caritativo, llevó un día a un pobre en sus espaldas y le dio una sortija de gran valor. Nada rehusaba de lo que se le pedía en nombre de San Juan Evangelista, el cual le advirtió sobre la hora de su muerte, acaecida en 1066 a la edad de 65 años.

MEDITACIÓN SOBRE LA FELICIDAD DEL HOMBRE EN ESTA VIDA

I. Tres cosas pueden hacernos felices, tanto al menos cuanto lo podemos ser en este lugar de destierro. La primera es la buena conciencia: sin ella, ni los placeres, ni los honores, ni el cumplimiento de todos nuestros deseos podrían contentarnos. Si tienes el alma pura, todo lo desagradable que pueda sucederte no debe turbarte. ¡Qué consuelo poder decirse: Hago lo que depende de mi para estar bien con Dios! ¿Puedes, tú, con verdad, decirlo? ¿No te reprocha nada tu conciencia?

II. La segunda condición para ser feliz es abandonarse generosamente a la providencia de Dios, consagrarse a Él sin reserva, no querer sino lo que El quiere y recibir de su mano con agradecimiento el bien y el mal, pues lo uno y lo otro son efectos de su bondad. Las aflicciones, el ayuno, las enfermedades, no son penosos para los que los soportan, sino solamente para los que los reciben a disgusto. (Salmo).

III. La tercera condición es considerar cuál es voluntad de Dios en todo lo que nos acaece. Dios tiene sus designios y el demonio los suyos. ¿Cuál es designio de Dios en esta enfermedad que te envía? Que la soportes con resignación, mediante el pensamiento de la muerte y del paraíso. El demonio, por lado, quiere arrojarte en la impaciencia y en la murmuración. Dios es tan bueno que no permitiría más que sucediese ningún mal en el mundo, si no fuese lo suficientemente poderoso como para sacar bien del mal. (San Agustín). Conformidad con la voluntad de Dios Orad por los que os gobiernan.

ORACIÓN

Oh Dios, que habéis coronado con la gloria eterna al bienaventurado rey Eduardo, vuestro confesor, haced, os Lo suplicamos, que honrándolo en la tierra, podamos reinar un día con él en el cielo. Por J. C. N. S. Amén.

Hay estampa, Texto tomado de:

http://caballerodelainmaculada.blogspot.com/2009/10/san-eduardo-el-...

SAN EDUARDO EL CONFESOR, REY DE INGLATERRA

Venid, benditos de mi Padre, a tomar posesión del reino que os está preparado desde la creación del mundo. (Mateo, 25, 34).

Eduardo III, sabio y profundo legislador, pasó primero 35 años en Normandía durante el reinado de los invasores normandos. Llamado a Inglaterra por el concierto unánime de las voluntades, hizo florecer en ella la justicia y la paz. Edificó numerosas iglesias y fundó la abadía de Westminster. Extremadamente caritativo, llevó un día a un pobre en sus espaldas y le dio una sortija de gran valor. Nada rehusaba de lo que se le pedía en nombre de San Juan Evangelista, el cual le advirtió sobre la hora de su muerte, acaecida en 1066 a la edad de 65 años.

MEDITACIÓN SOBRE LA FELICIDAD DEL HOMBRE EN ESTA VIDA

I. Tres cosas pueden hacernos felices, tanto al menos cuanto lo podemos ser en este lugar de destierro. La primera es la buena conciencia: sin ella, ni los placeres, ni los honores, ni el cumplimiento de todos nuestros deseos podrían contentarnos. Si tienes el alma pura, todo lo desagradable que pueda sucederte no debe turbarte. ¡Qué consuelo poder decirse: Hago lo que depende de mi para estar bien con Dios! ¿Puedes, tú, con verdad, decirlo? ¿No te reprocha nada tu conciencia?

II. La segunda condición para ser feliz es abandonarse generosamente a la providencia de Dios, consagrarse a Él sin reserva, no querer sino lo que El quiere y recibir de su mano con agradecimiento el bien y el mal, pues lo uno y lo otro son efectos de su bondad. Las aflicciones, el ayuno, las enfermedades, no son penosos para los que los soportan, sino solamente para los que los reciben a disgusto. (Salmo).

III. La tercera condición es considerar cuál es voluntad de Dios en todo lo que nos acaece. Dios tiene sus designios y el demonio los suyos. ¿Cuál es designio de Dios en esta enfermedad que te envía? Que la soportes con resignación, mediante el pensamiento de la muerte y del paraíso. El demonio, por lado, quiere arrojarte en la impaciencia y en la murmuración. Dios es tan bueno que no permitiría más que sucediese ningún mal en el mundo, si no fuese lo suficientemente poderoso como para sacar bien del mal. (San Agustín). Conformidad con la voluntad de Dios Orad por los que os gobiernan.

ORACIÓN

Oh Dios, que habéis coronado con la gloria eterna al bienaventurado rey Eduardo, vuestro confesor, haced, os Lo suplicamos, que honrándolo en la tierra, podamos reinar un día con él en el cielo. Por J. C. N. S. Amén.

Hay estampa, Texto tomado de:

http://caballerodelainmaculada.blogspot.com/2009/10/san-eduardo-el-...