EDOARDO [III] the Confessor, saint, king of ENGLAND. — B. at Islip (Oxfordshire) in 1002, d. on 5 January 1066 at Westminster. Son of King Etelfredo and Emma of Normandy, during a new Danish invasion he was taken as a child to his mother’s household, where he received a completely Norman education. In 1042 he obtained the crown of his ancestors and, returning from exile, was consecrated king (1043). A mild character, he did not possess the energy necessary to reunite and maintain England in peace. He chose Norman secretaries and chaplains, made the Norman Roberto di Jumièges primate of England, and entrusted several ports to the Normans; they thereby became masters of English commerce and formed a strong party in the kingdom of E. The reaction was not long in coming, and Godwin, earl of Wessex, who had initially given him his daughter Editta in marriage,
The kingdom was divided into two parts: the north, favorable to the king, and the south, to Godwin. After a temporary setback, the claimant, who had been exiled with his entire family, returned victorious in 1051, dictating terms to the king.
In 1053 Godwin died, leaving a strong party and a powerful family, which the king’s party nevertheless managed to balance effectively until E.’s death. The kingdom then passed to William the Bastard, duke of Normandy.
During his reign E. restored the laws of his ancestor Edgaro, which thereby took the name of the «laws of St E.» (Edwardlans); many were ecclesiastical laws. He transferred the capital of the kingdom from Winchester in Wessex to Westminster in East Anglia, where he built the new royal palace beside the church of St Peter, which he had begun. After his death he was venerated in England as a saint, and Alessandro III canonized him on 7 February 1161, giving him the title of Confessor; feast on 13 October in memory of the translation.