Encyclopedia Britannica 1963 [08].pdf

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THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
C H I C A G O
The Encyclopddid Britdnnica
ir
published with the editorial advice of the faculties
of The Universit3/
of
Chicdgo and of a
committee of members ofthe fmltieJ
of
Oxford, Cambridge
and London universities and
of
a committee
at
The
University of Toronto
X
"
LET
KNOWLEDGE GROW FROM MORE T O MORE
A
N
D
T
H
US
BE
H
U
M
A
N
LI
FE E
N
RI
CH
ED
."
A
New
Sa~vey
U~iversd
of
KaowZed'e
Volume
8
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
WILLIAM
BENTON, PUBLISHER
CHICAGO
LONDON
TORONTO
-
GENEVA
SYDNEY
PRINTED
IN THE
U.S.
A.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
BRI[TANNI[GA
Volume
8
E
C
ONFESSOR
(c.
1003-1066), king of the English from 1042 to 1066, son
of Aethelred
I1
the Unready and of Emma, daughter of
Richard I , duke of Normandy, was born at Islip, Oxford-
shire, between 1002 and 1005. He was sent to Nor-
mandy (1013) when Sweyn
I
replaced Aethelred as king of Eng-
land and he brought (1014) Aethelred's reply to the invitation
asking him to return. Edward lived in Normandy, except for
a
brief visit to his mother in 1036 (the year of the murder of his
brother Alfred), from 1016 to 1041, when he came to the court
of his half brother Hardicanute, whom he succeeded in 1042, being
crowned on April 3. One of his first acts was to seize his mother's
goods (1043); she had favoured her son Hardicanute, and one
source accuses her of supporting the claim of Nagnus of Norway.
which was based on an agreement with Hardicanute that if
either died without heir the survivor should succeed. Expect-
ing Magnus to invade, Edward collected his fleet at Sandwich
(1045), but Magnus was prevented by his war with Sweyn
Estrithson, king of Denmark, and his death (1047) removed the
threat.
Edward was overshadowed by the power of Godwin
( q . v . ) ,
earl
of the West Saxons, whose daughter Edith he married in 1045.
A
breach occurred in 1051. Godwin, claiming to be acting against
the foreigners brought in by the king, defied him, and Ed~iard,
with the support of the earls Leofric of Mercia and Siward of
Northumbria, outlawed the Godwin family and dismissed his
queen. However, his encouragement of foreigners and, according
to some authorities, his promise of the succession to William, duke
of Normandy, lost him sympathy, so that in 1052 Godwin and his
sons could gather a large force and compel the king to reinstate
them. The Norman prelates Robert, archbishop of Canterbury,
and Ulf, bishop of Dorchester, fled with other Normans. Stigand
replaced Robert as archbishop, an offense against canon law which
enabled William to secure papal support for his invasion in 1066.
When Godwin died (1053) his son Harold, afterward Harold
I1
(q.v.),
became the chief power in the land. By 1057 his three
brothers were provided with earldoms, but in 1065 the North-
umbrians successfully petitioned for the expulsion of Tostig,
though he was a favourite of the king.
There were other unruly elements in this reign. A Dane, Osgod
TH
E
DWARD
(EADWEARD)
,
SAINT,
Clapa, outIawed in 1046, raided Essex in 1049. The Welsh made
a raid in 1052, and when in 1055 and again in 1058 Earl Aelfgar of
Mercia was outlawed, he was twice reinstated u i t h the help of
Welsh forces and in 1058, of a large fleet from Norway also. After
Aelfgar's death Harold and Tostig reduced Wales (1062). The
English interfered in Scottish politics (1054) when Siward invaded
and routed Macbeth. Tostig became a friend of King Malcolm,
but this did not prevent illalcolm from raiding Northumbria in
Tostig's absence (1061).
Early in the reign England was drawn into continental politics.
Edward maintained a fleet a t Sandwich in 1048 to hamper the
w
movements of Count Baldwin
V
of Flanders, who was a t war with
the emperor Henry 111. Baldwin retaliated later by supporting
English exiles. An embassy, led by Bishop Ealdred of Worcester,
to the emperor in 1054 concerned the succession to the English
throne. I t resulted in the arrival (1057) of Edward, son of Ed-
mund Ironside, and his family, but Edward died the same year.
After the return to power of Godwin and his sons, a peaceful suc-
cession of William became unlikely, and on his deathbed Edward
named Harold to succeed him.
Ed ard, later called "Confessor," has been blamed for behaving
more like a monk than a king. Yet his reputation for piety may
have helped to preserve some dignity for the crown in a n age of
overdominant magnates. His introduction of foreigners, natural
in a king educated abroad, lost him the sympathy of his subjects.
There is little evidence that the foreigners made much contribution
to learning and the arts, in which, except for architecture, the
English were in advance of the Normans. Edward's new church
a t Westminster, dedicated on Dec.
28,
1065, was the first to
be
built in the new continental style. Edward died on Jan. 5, 1066,
and was buried the next day at Westminster. H e was canonized
in 1161. His feast days are Jan.
5
and Oct. 13 (translation).
B I B L I O G R A P H Y . - ~ ~ ~
Chronicle;
O ~
R.
Luard (ed.),
Lives
~ O - S ~ ~
H.
of E&&ard the Confessor
(1858),
of
which the first is written with
Godwinist sympathies;
Florentii Wigornien~ismonachi chronicon ex
chronicis,
ed.
by
B.
Thorpe (1848-49)
;
Guillaume
de
Jumieges,
Gesta
Normannorum ducum,
ed. by J. Marx (1914);
F. M.
Stenton,
Anglo-
Saxon Etagland,
2nd ed. (1947)
;
English Historical Documents,
vol. ii,
ed, by D.
C.
Douglas, pp. 14-17, 50
f.,
110-141, 428-430 (1953);
R. R.
Darlington, "The Last Phase of Anglo-Saxon History,"
History,
new
series, vol. xxii (1937-38).
(D.
WK.)

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