Edward the Confessor, Saint

Edward the Confessor, Saint (about 1004-1066), King of England, b. Islip, Oxfordshire.

Edward, son of Ethelred the Unredy, was named the Confessor because of the saintly way he behaved.

He spent much of his life at the court of the Duke of Normandy and became King of England at the age of about forty.

Edward allowed the affairs of state to be looked after by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the father of King Harold II.

He built the first Westminster Abbey on the site of an old church named St. Peter's.

In 1161 the Catholic Church declared him to be a saint.

See Peter Rex King & Saint