Despite being King of England for 14 years (1052-1066), and becoming a saint in 1161, after which date he became known as Edward the Confessor, the early life of Edward remains aggravatingly obscure, shrouded in the myth-making which followed the Norman Conquest and his later canonisation. It seems clear, however, that his accession to the throne was popular, particularly as he was preceded by his unpopular high-taxing half-brother Harthacanute, described brusquely in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as having ‘never accomplished anything kingly’. Edward, according to the Chronicle, was a highly popular successor with the people of London, who acclaimed him as king before Harthacanute was buried.
As was the case with Scotland, which also enjoyed unusual peace in the early 1050s, thanks to Macbeth (see 1050: Macbeth goes on a pilgrimage and meets Pope Leo IX), there were many eyes on the throne. The English throne also enjoyed a special prestige: in an era of fast-risen freebooters, men who were often barely a sword’s length away from the family cowshed, the English crown shone as the symbol of a dynasty that reached back into the 6th century, almost to the twilight of the Roman Empire, a dynasty which included such heroes as Alfred the Great in its line. To follow as king in that ancient succession was to achieve glory indeed.
Around about 1052, Edward received a visit from William the Bastard, ruler of Normandy since 1045. We have no record of the meeting, which may have been in the previous year, and there has never been any independent confirmation of William’s claim – a claim made much later, in 1066 after Edward’s death – that Edward had named him his successor. Though the claim seems farfetched, it is certainly the case that Norman influence was growing in England under Edward’s reign. Not long before William’s visit, after a group of Normans were killed in a brawl at Dover, Edward, in an unsaintly gesture, had ordered Earl Godwin to punish the people of Dover. Godwin refused to attack his fellow Saxons and was exiled. Thus we do know that Edward could favour Normans, and Normans made good allies. Dangerous allies of course, but no more or less trustworthy than Saxon allies. It is often forgotten that there were already Norman settlers in England. including some clergy, and indeed Edward’s own Norman nephew, the Earl of Hereford, who was to become better known under the wonderful name of Ralph the Timid after his knights failed to break a Saxon shield wall (Ralph built the first castles in England).
Edward died in a fog of claim and counter claim. Godwin’s son Harold of Wessex claimed that Edward had nominated him on his deathbed, William got the Pope’s approval for his story of the 1052 meeting. William also claimed that Harold – while a ‘guest’ of William’s after being shipwrecked – had sworn to support the Norman’s claim.
What Happened Next
Edward died in January 1066, William invaded on 28 September, just three days after Harold destroyed a large Norwegian army led by their giant king Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge (on being told that Harald came to conquer England, Harold promised him seven feet of soil, a promise he kept). This was to be the last Viking invasion of England. Harold advanced south, bringing his exhausted forces into battle at Hastings on 14 October. The fight was a close one but ended with Harold’s death. William was crowned King of England on Christmas Day. The consequences of the Norman Conquest are much debated, but it seems perverse to see an event that brought so much destruction as anything but a catastrophe. Subsequent English rebellions were crushed with the utmost severity, During the ‘Harrying of the North’ in 1069-70, William’s forces slaughtered everything they could from the Humber to the Tyne, and some historians estimate that over England as a whole, in the period 1066-1075, perhaps a fifth of the population died.
The Bayeux Tapestry (which was likely completed in the late 1070s, and is actually an embroidery rather than a tapestry), was probably commissioned by William’s half-brother Bishop Odo. Formerly seen as a fairly uncomplicated piece of Norman propaganda, it is now seen as a much more complex work with hidden meanings. it was probably in fact made in England by English seamstresses, and the scene depicting a mother and her child fleeing a house being burned by Norman soldiers, is an odd scene for a work supposedly celebrating the Conquest. The Tapestry does not show Edward and William meeting: instead Harold is dispatched by Edward to tell William that he has been chosen by Edward as the next king of England: Harold is then depicted as a brave ally of William’s – in one scene he pulls two Norman knights from quicksand – and in another scene he is shown making an oath over a saint’s relics.
Whatever the oath may have been, the stories within the Bayeux Tapestry are clearly open to interpretation.