EDWARD, "THE CONFESSOR" (d. i066), so called on account of his reputation for sanctity, king of the English, was the son of Aethelred II. (the Unready) and Emma, daughter of Richard, duke of Nor mandy, and was born at Islip in Oxford shire. On the recognition of Sweyn as king of England in 1013, Aethelred, with his wife and family, took refuge in Nor mandy, and Edward continued to reside at the Norman court until he was recalled in 1041 by Hardicanute. He appears to have been formally recognized as heir to the throne, if not actually associ ated in the kingship, and on the death of Hardicanute in 1042 "all folk received him to be king," though his actual coronation was delayed until Easter 1043. A few months later Edward, in con junction with the three great earls of the kingdom, made a raid on the queen-mother Aelfgifu. or Emma, seized all her possessions and compelled her to live in retirement.
In the earlier years of the reign the influence of Earl Godwine was predominant, though not unopposed. His daughter Edith or Eadgyth became Edward's queen in 1045. But the king's per sonal tastes inclined much more to foreigners than to Englishmen, and he fell more and more into the hands of foreign favourites from beyond the sea. Between Godwine, representing the spirit of nationalism, and these favourites (especially their leader, Rob ert of Jumieges, successively bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury) there was war to the knife. In Io46 Magnus, king of Norway, who had succeeded Hardicanute in Denmark and claimed to succeed him in England as well, threatened an invasion, but the necessity of defending Denmark against his rival Sweyn Estrith son prevented him from carrying it into effect. In 1049, Godwine's son Sweyn, who had been outlawed for the seduction of the ab bess of Leominster, returned and demanded his restoration. This was refused and Sweyn returned into exile, but not before he had with foulest treachery murdered his young kinsman Beorn. He was, however, inlawed next year. The influence of Godwine, al ready shaken, received a severe blow in 'o51 in the appointment of Robert of Jumieges to the archbishopric of Canterbury, and the same year saw the triumph of the foreigners for the moment complete. Edward, indignant at the resistance offered by the men of Dover to the insolence of his brother-in-law Eustace of Bou logne and his French followers, ordered Godwine to punish the town. Godwine refused. The king at the prompting of the arch pendent on others, he ever inclined to the unworthier master. But the charm of his character for the monastic biographer, and the natural tendency to glorify the days before the Norman oppres sion began, combined to cast about his figure a halo which had not attached to it in life. Allowed to keep her property by William the Conqueror, his widow, Edith, passed the remainder of her life at Windsor, dying on Dec. 19, 1075.