The Life Of King Edward The Confessor
Middle English News
King Edward The Confessor is a former patron saint of England and the principle relic of Westminster Abby. However, King Edward was more than just the man who brought Norman style churches to England. He was a shrewd politician whose inability to have children ultimately brought about the Norman Conquest in 1066 and forever changed the history of the English language.
King Edward’s life is partly documented in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, as shown by Mortimer in the year “…1013, at the height of the Danish wars...” (6) Edward was sent from England to Normandy to live under the protection of Richard of Normandy. There is no mention of the fledgling King until 1041, a year before he ascends to the throne of England. King Edward’s coronation “… at Winchester on Easter Sunday 1043…” was “…done with great ceremony” (7). King Edward married Edith, Godwin’s daughter in 1045. Though a smart match for both parties, sadly the couple produced no heirs, this only added to the growing unease about who would succeed the King. Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter, Frank Barlow noted the some of the circumstances that lead to the Norman Conquest, “ The standing problem in Edward’s reign was the succession to the throne. But during the first decade it was more a lure to attract kinsmen and a means of keeping them in order, a diplomatic gamble, a matter of interest in high society, than a problem that had to be solved” (214). King Edward made promises of the throne to several different men in case he and Edith produced no heirs; among these men where Svein of Denmark, William of Normandy, aetheling Edmund and the Queen’s brothers, Harled and Tostig. (Barlow) However when the King died in 1066, there was no clear successor and war erupted, eventually leading the Norman conquest of England and the heavy influence of Norman French on the English language.
French influence can be noted through such words as “…action, affection, age, air, adventure, bucket, bushel, calendar…”(Baugh). Had Edward not promised the throne to so many, would the English language have the concept of age? Most likely, but one could, in theory, blame King Edward the Confessor for annoying birthday parties. Of course, without the Norman Invasion the English language wouldn’t have air, and one just can’t do without breathing.
King Edward the Confessor’s Norman upbringing paved the way for Norman French to influence the English language significantly. While Edward was of English birth, he was Norman in bearing. Even Edward’s principle contemporary biographer was Norman; William of Jumieges, a monk of the Jumieges monastery in the Seine Valley, France. Edward married a Norman woman and brought her family and French entourage with him to England and established them as the upper class of the nation. As history has shown over and over again, the language of the oppressor tends to overshadow, influence and at times even replace the native language of the conquered. This trend would continue after William the Conquer replaced the ruling class with Norman French speaking nobles.
King Edward the Confessor’s desire to hold his kingdom together was ultimately what allowed it to fall into the hands of the Norman French. Edward shrewdly played several men’s lust for the crown against one another, not knowing that he would never have an heir to legitimately claim the throne. Edward’s policy of promising England to several men worked in the early years to keep his throne secure but eventually ended in the battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
