EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, king of the Anglo-Saxons,.was b. at Islip, in Oxford shire, about the year 1004. On the death of his father, Ethelred, in 1016, Canute the Dane obtained possessioh of the throne, and in the following year married Emma, the mother of Edward, by whom he had two sons, Harold and Hardicanute. Until the death of Canute in 1035, E. lived in Normandy; he then made an ineffectual attempt to establish his authority in England; but his mother Emma had now transferred her affections to her younger children; and she exerted all her influence and energy in favor of Hardicanute, who, on the death of his brother Harold in 1040, became sole ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Hardicanute, however, was generous enough to invite his half-brother to England, whither accordingly E. went, and was honorably received. On the death of Hardicanute in 1042, E. was declared king. The person chiefly instru mental in bringing about this result was earl Godwin, whose only daughter, Editha, was married to the king in 1044. The lady only became his queen, not the partner of his bed. For this revolting asceticism, the honor (if it be such) of canonization, and the title of confessor, was conferred on him, about 100 years after his death, by pope Alex ander III. Scrupulous as E. was in regard to one of the passions, be had no repug
nance to gratify another of a far less justifiable kind. His first act after his accession, was to deprive his mother of all her treasures—lifting even the cattle and corn from her fields, and, according to some accounts, endeavoring to compass her death. The whole of E.'s reign is simply the record of the growth and struggles of the Norman or court party with the national or Anglo-Saxon party; for an account of which see articles GODWIN and HAROLD. E.'s wars with the Welsh in 1057 and 1063, and with the Northumbrians in 1065, were short and successful. He died 5th Jan., 1066, and was succeeded by Harold, son of earl Godwin. The prosperity which England enjoyed dur ing the reign of E. was owing to its not being exposed to the wasteful calamities of for eign invasion, while its free intercourse with France, or at least with Normandy, greatly civilized and refined the somewhat Bceotian habits and manners of its inhabitants.