13 October is the day in the Anglican and Catholic calendar to remember King Edward the Confessor, English saint and king. He founded Westminster Abbey, where his memory is evoked at each coronation. This is his story.
The Boy from Islip
Edward was born in England in the small Oxfordshire village of Islip, about six miles north of Oxford, around AD 1004, and was probably baptised in the village church.
Edward was born into royalty. His father was King Ethelred II, known as “the Unready,” and his mother was Queen Emma, who taught him the values of compassion and humility. At the time, England was in turmoil, facing frequent Viking invasions. Fearing for her son’s safety, in 1013 Queen Emma took Edward to her homeland of Normandy, where he was brought up by her brother with his cousins.
Emma later returned to England. After King Ethelred II died in 1016, Emma married King Canute (Cnut) in 1017 and bore another son, Harthacanute (Harthacnut). After Canute’s death, she ruled as regent for her son Harthacanute, who was often away in his other domains of Denmark or Norway. Meanwhile, Edward remained in Normandy for over two decades and was brought up as a Norman, an heir in waiting.
The Norman Connection
Edward’s mother, Emma of Normandy, was the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. After her father’s death, her brother became Richard II, Duke of Normandy, succeeded by his son Robert I, who was Edward the Confessor’s cousin. Duke Robert was the father of William, Duke of Normandy—later called William the Conqueror.
King Edward
In 1042, Edward’s half-brother King Harthacanute died, and the Witan (Saxon Parliament) invited Edward to become king. He was crowned at Winchester Cathedral, in the ancient capital of Wessex, at Easter 1043. English coronations were modelled on practices described in the Old Testament, and Edward took his vows seriously. At his coronation, he was given a sapphire ring that became the subject of legend.
Queen Edith
Edward had never married, and in 1044 he wed Edith, the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex. Queen Edith was highly educated and spoke many languages. She was brought up at Wilton Abbey in Wiltshire and was a very pious Christian. The marriage was childless, but Edward believed in the sanctity of marriage, and they remained loyal to each other. Tradition holds that he helped reconcile couples experiencing marital difficulties.
Edward’s Reign
King Edward was a strong Christian who tried to reign with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12), by biblical standards and virtues. He sought to govern with the wisdom of God (1 Kings 3:28) and rule with equity (Psalm 9:8). He sought the counsel of God (1 Samuel 14:37) through the advice of abbots and bishops. He was known for his spiritual virtues—charity, kindness, peace, patience, and gentleness (Galatians 5:22–23). A man of prayer and piety, he was known as “the crowned monk,” evoking the idea of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).
Edward endeared himself to his people as a king who cared for his subjects and ruled on behalf of God as a servant king. He was regarded as a wise lawmaker who enacted just and fair laws, known in medieval times as the Leges Edwardi Confessoris. He repealed a heavy tax that the people had been paying into the king’s treasury and instead lived off income from his estates. He tried to be a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9) among powerful nobles, Vikings, and Normans, and his reign was remembered as peaceful and prosperous.
Westminster Abbey
King Edward sought to revive the English Church and worship, which had been ravaged during the Viking invasions. He rebuilt churches and monasteries and spent his leisure hours in prayer and charity. His lasting legacy is Westminster Abbey in London, originally founded as a Benedictine monastery dedicated to St Peter. Edward endowed the Abbey with lands and property, including the manor of his birthplace, Islip, giving Westminster Abbey patronage of the parish church. Tradition says King Edward tasked the monks with caring for the royal regalia and established the Abbey as the place for future English coronations.
Death
On 28 December 1065, Edward’s new abbey was consecrated at Westminster, but he was too ill to attend. A week later, on 5 January 1066, the king died. His funeral at Westminster Abbey is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. Childless, he left a succession crisis that shaped English history. Edward the Confessor was the last native king of the Saxon House of Wessex and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Much of what we know about Edward comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Bayeux Tapestry, and the Vita Ædwardi Regis (“The Life of King Edward”), commissioned by his widow, Queen Edith. He was later likened to King David of Israel.
Harold II
After Edward’s death, in 1066, the Witan elected Queen Edith’s brother, Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, as King Harold II. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The country faced threats from the Danes, Norse, and Normans. King Harold II defeated the Norse at the Battle of Stamford Bridge but was killed soon after at the Battle of Hastings. The Witan then elected Edward’s great-nephew, Edgar Atheling, as king, but he was never crowned.
William the Conqueror
Duke William marched to London and had himself crowned King William on Christmas Day 1066. He swore to uphold the laws of King Edward but did not. By contrast, William ruled by force, highlighting Edward’s gentler legacy.
St Edward the Confessor
Edward was acclaimed as a saint long before his official canonisation. He was canonised by Pope Alexander II on 5 January 1161, during King Henry II’s reign. He was given the epithet “the Confessor,” a title for saintly people who had not died as martyrs. Edward’s relics were moved to a special shrine in Westminster Abbey on 13 October 1163 in a ceremony conducted by Thomas à Becket.
At the time, Pope Gregory the Great (the Apostle to the English) and King Edmund the Martyr were considered national patron saints of England. Edward the Confessor was added as the third.
Henry III
Henry III (1216 - 1272) admired Edward the Confessor and saw him as a role model, likening him to King David. For the Norman dynasty, it was also politically expedient to claim succession from the last Saxon king.
Edward’s original monastery stood for two centuries until 1245, when Henry III built a grander Abbey. He had a new tomb constructed for St Edward, and the king’s remains were moved there on 13 October 1269. Edward’s shrine became a major place of pilgrimage and remains one of the few to have survived the Reformation.
At Windsor Castle, Henry III created the famous chapel—used for royal weddings and funerals—which he dedicated to St Edward the Confessor. He also built a now-lost chapel at Edward’s birthplace in Islip, later converted into a barn after the Reformation. In 2006, the television archaeology programme Time Team tried, unsuccessfully, to locate it.
Kings Called Edward
Henry III named his eldest son Edward in honour of Edward the Confessor. Prince Edward later became King Edward I, beginning the tradition of kings named Edward, continuing up to Edward VIII.
Usurped by St George
St Edward the Confessor was England’s patron saint until 1348, when King Edward III promoted St George as the sole patron and rededicated the Windsor chapel to him. Nevertheless, Edward remains a popular historical figure, with around seventeen Anglican and Catholic churches in Britain and several in the USA dedicated to him. St Edward is regarded as the patron saint of kings for his just rule and devotion to God, and of difficult marriages.
St Edward’s Crown
St Edward’s Crown was used in English coronations for centuries as a mark of monarchical legitimacy. During the abolition of the monarchy in 1649, the crown jewels were sold or melted down. After the Restoration, Charles II recreated the crown, incorporating some recovered elements, making it the official coronation crown. Edward’s sapphire from his ring survived and was set into the cross atop the Imperial State Crown in 1838 for Queen Victoria. Thus, Edward’s legacy endures at every coronation, including that of Charles III in 2023.
St Edward the Confessor’s Day
Edward the Confessor is still commemorated in both Anglican and Catholic calendars on 13 October—the day his Abbey was dedicated and his shrine installed. On this day, Westminster Abbey’s bells ring in the afternoon, followed by a special evensong in his memory, often attended by city mayors.
Collect
The Anglican collect prayer for Edward the Confessor, saint and king, reads:
“Sovereign God, who set your servant Edward upon the throne of an earthly kingdom and inspired him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven: grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ by word and deed, that we may, with all your saints, inherit your eternal glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.”
