Edward the Confessor, Saint 235Calais in 1347. By 1355 he was the king’s lieutenant in
Gascony and leader of an army in AQUITAINEinvading
southeastern France. After a failure to negotiate a peace,
Edward defeated the French and captured their king,
John II (r. 1350–64), at the Battle of POITIERSon Septem-
ber 19, 1356. In October 1361 Edward married his 33-
year-old widowed cousin, Joan, countess of Kent
(1329–85). As an orphan, she had been raised in the
household of EDWARDIII. Known as the “Fair Maid of
Kent,” Joan had two sons by the Black Prince.
Edward played an active role in the government and
in military matters. On July 19, 1362, he was created
prince of Aquitaine and Gascony; during the following
years he was busy in France, attempting to check
marauding mercenary companies. In 1367 he undertook
an expedition into SPAINto assist Peter the Cruel of
Castile (r. 1350–69), who had been deprived of his
throne by Henry II of Trastámara (r. 1369–79) assisted
by French aid. With an army of 30,000 men, Edward
crossed the Pyrenees and won a great battle, at Nájera on
April 3, 1367. Because of illness, he was forced to return
to his holdings in France. When war broke out with
CHARLESV of France in 1369, Edward laid siege to Limo-
ges. On its capture in October 1371 all its inhabitants
were put to death. This affair was a great blot on
Edward’s reputation.
Ill health caused Edward to return to England in
1371, and in the following year he resigned his principal-
ity to his father in October 1372 and began to take a
more active part in English internal politics. He became
the champion of the constitutional policy of the com-
mons against the corrupt court and the party of the Lan-
castrians. Edward seemed to have been active in the
reform plans as set forth in the “Good Parliament” of
1376, but his death left much of this work undone. He
died on June 8, 1376, a month before the PARLIAMENT
was dissolved and leaving his nine-year-old son RICHARD
II as eventual king.
See alsoFROISSART,JEAN.
Further reading:Richard Barber, ed. and trans., The
Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince: From Contempo-
rary Letters, Diaries, and Chronicles, including Chandos
Herald’s “Life of the Black Prince”(Woodbridge: Boydell,
1986); Richard W. Barber, Edward, Prince of Wales and
Aquitaine: A Biography of the Black Prince(New York:
Scribner, 1978); Barbara Emerson, The Black Prince(Lon-
don: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976); John Hooper Har-
vey, The Black Prince and His Age (London: Batsford,
1976); H. J. Hewitt, The Black Prince’s Expedition of
1355–57 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1958).
Edward the Confessor, Saint(ca. 1002–1066) last
Clovis, king of the Franks
The second and youngest son of ÆTHELRED II
the Unready and his wife, Emma of Normandy
(ca. 985–1052), Edward was born sometime after 1002.
His nickname “The Confessor” was given later because
of his alleged saintliness and building of Westminster
Abbey. As Æthelred’s authority crumbled in the face of
Danish invasions and dissensions among the English
nobility, Emma and her children took refuge in 1013 at
the court of Richard II, duke of Normandy (d. 1026).
Æthelred died in 1016, and Edward’s eldest brother,
Edmund Ironsides (d. 1016), succeeded him but died
in battle later the same year. King CANUTEII gained pos-
session of England, and Edward and his remaining
brother stayed in exile in Normandy.
After Canute’s death in 1035, England experienced
several years of factional strife, during which Edward’s
brother returned to England and was murdered by a pow-
erful earl, Godewine of Wessex (d. 1053). In 1041
Canute’s last surviving son, Harthacnut (r. 1040–42), des-
ignated Edward as his successor.REIGN
The following year Edward, with widespread popular
support, became king of England. The first half of
Edward’s reign was full of problems. Until 1047 England
was threatened by a possible invasion by King Magnus I
the Good (r. 1035–46) of NORWAY, who claimed the
English throne because of an agreement made with
Canute’s late son, Harthacnut. Internal difficulties in
England sprang from rivalries among the great earls such
that between Godewine and Leofric (d. 1057). Edward
lacked the resources and ability to confront them for
several years. Edward married Godewine’s daughter,
Eadgyth (ca. 1025–75), in 1045. They never had any chil-
dren, thus inspiring a story that the saintly Edward never
consummated their union. Edward also met opposition
from his mother, Emma, whose lands he had confiscated
in 1043. To counteract English opposition, Edward
invited a number of Norman and Breton knights and
clerics to his court. Their presence and influence angered
the English magnates further.
In 1051 Edward, using as an excuse Godewine’s
refusal to obey an order, moved against his great rival.
He exiled Godewine; banished Eadgyth; designated
William, the duke of Normandy, as his heir; and
arranged that a Norman, Robert of Jumièges (d. ca.
1055), become the archbishop of CANTERBURY. The
following year, Godewine returned with a large fleet. He
and Edward were officially reconciled to prevent a civil
war in time to deal with a Norse invasion. The new arch-
bishop and most of the Norman courtiers were banished.
Godewine died soon after, in 1053, but his son, HAROLD,
became earl of Wessex and Edward’s most powerful
adviser.
For the rest of his reign Edward, by choice or neces-
sity, did not exercise dominant control over affairs of
state, leaving to Harold and other powerful nobles the
prosecution of wars against WALESand the direction of
domestic policies. In 1057 Edward’s nephew, Edward