How Edward Became King
Bayeux Tapestry, Scene 1: King Edward the Confessor and Earl Harold. Source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons, Author: Myrabella
Edward, son of Æthelred, must have been one, if not the luckiest Anglo-Saxon king, to take the throne of England. He started out with his chances of succeeding his father looking very hopeful up to the age of about eight. Then his luck ran out with the coming of Danish invaders, Swegn and Cnut. His father Æthelred, chased out of England, returned only to die in the midst of the Danish invasion. With Edward’s older brother Edmund¹ on the throne in Wessex and Cnut in charge of the Danelaw, Edward’s chances of becoming king in the near future looked extremely slim, and they got even slimmer when Edmund, the courageous Ironside, died from battle wounds, or possibly murdered, leaving the kingdom to Cnut as agreed by the treaty the two men had made.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, his dear mother, Emma, decided to get into a new bed with Cnut, which was followed by two more children, leaving poor old Edward and his brother, Alfred, out in the cold in Normandy.
The years go by, and Edward spent it in exile, cultivating a hatred for his mother, that was to last a life time. And who could blame him? After all, she had callously abandoned the interests of her sons by Æthelred to marry this Cnut chap who was years younger than her and not willing to play stepdaddy to two young lads. Emma, perhaps struck by amnesia, forgot her children from her former marriage which also included a daughter, Goda. Most likely, she negotiated her own terms for her new marriage, seeing as her brother, in a fit of pique, disowned her when instead of fighting for her sons’ throne, she sailed back to England to wed Cnut, and it would seem that within those terms there was no room for Edward or Alfred in this happy new family. And so, Emma, as far as her eldest son was concerned, banged the first of many nails into her coffin.
Emma and Cnut – public domain
Despite her neglect of her eldest children, Emma of Normandy was quite a woman for her time. Born somewhere between 985 and 989 she was shipped off to England in 1002 to marry Æthelred who was to earn the nomenclature Unready for being badly advised – aren’t they all! In becoming the second Mrs Unready, Emma was the first Norman queen of England. If her treatment of her children of Mr Unready is anything to go by, she obviously didn’t like her first husband very much. He was a lot older than her having grown up children of his own. She may had loved her first children dearly, but it still didn’t stop her from running to Cnut without securing a future for them. Cnut probably needed her as much as she needed him, however, whether Cnut was unwilling to agree to her sons having a stake in the crown, or whether Emma was agreeable to forgoing their rights, is unsure. Whatever the machinations, it was part of the nuptial contract that Emma forego her children’s rights, but secured the succession for any children she had by Cnut over his children by any others. To give credit to her, she pulled off an amazing coup by becoming Cnut’s queen, ousting the backside of her rival, Ælfgifu², from his bed and replacing it with her own, getting her hands on that crown for the second time running.
Norman knights supported by archers attack the English at the Battle of Hastings. Detail of the Bayeux Tapestry – 11th century
Edward spent the next twenty-five years living in Normandy being educated with his brother being brought up as knights. He seems to make several friends, one of them being Robert Champart, who later travelled from Normandy to England when his half-brother, Harthacnut, invited him to assist with his government. It is not known exactly how he carried on his affairs in Normandy or what his relationship was like with Duke Robert or his young son, William. William would have only been in his infancy when Edward himself was a young man and Edward did not seem to have had much to do with him during the dangerous years of William’s succession to his father’s dukedom. It is unlikely that the Norman propaganda that claimed their relationship as cordial and supportive was true. Edward is not mentioned in the sources as being a member of his courtly officials which seems to have been carried out by close members of the senior duke’s family and that of William’s mother. If Edward had been involved in the boy duke’s administration, I’m sure that it would have been documented. They may have known each other distantly, but there is no evidence to state that there was any love between them and by the time Edward sailed for England, the young duke would have been no older than twelve or thirteen. Edward may have studied at Jumièges, as his relationship with Robert Champart of Jumièges might suggest. Or he might have lived at the Abbey of Fécamp as his gifts to them during his reign might also suggest. William Calculus, a monk of Jumièges, stated that Edward and Ælfred completed their schooling in the ducal court, which William of Poitiers, Archdeacon of Lisieux also repeats. No doubt, however, the brothers were brought up as young noble men would have been. Initially as pages, then learning squirely duties where they would also have learned to sing, dance, and fight on horseback as chevaliers.
York Museums Trust (Yorkshire Museum)
Meanwhile, whilst Edward was going about his activities in Normandy, Cnut died. The date of his death was November of 1035. The country was split into to 2 factions, with those supporting Cnut’s son by Ælfgifu, Harold Harefoot in the north and those supporting his son by Emma, Harthacnut, in the south. Nobody thought about the two sons of Æthelred languishing in exile over the water in Normandy. Æthelred did have other sons that the English might have looked to but by this time, they were all dead, and any issue from them may have been obscure or missing, as was Edmund’s sons³, at this time, abroad in exile. So, with Harthacnut held up in Denmark, unable to get back to England to claim his throne, his half-brother, Harold, is proclaimed king in his brother’s absence. Harold sent his men to Emma in Winchester to seize the royal treasury and regalia from her. The next blow for Emma came when Godwin, who had been a supporter of Harthacnut, accepted that his lot would be better served in Harefoot’s pay, leaving Emma, vulnerable and concerned for her own position. She was thought, though she would deny it, to have reached out to her firstborn sons in Normandy. Edward and Ælfred crossed separately with a contingent each to meet their mother in England. Godwin Earl of Wessex intercepted Ælfred on his way to parley with Harold and Godwin handed him over to Harefoot’s henchmen. Edward is said to have landed in Southampton but is either repulsed or perhaps sent a messenger from his mother which warns him off and he scuttles back home the way he came. Emma later claimed that Harefoot forged a letter to lure her sons to England and as in Ælfred’s case, eventual death. Whatever his reasons for intercepting Ælfred, Earl Godwin was to be blamed for the rest of his life by Edward for the death of his brother: an accusation that was said to have haunted Godwin until his death. Harold Harefoot eventually dies in a timely death which coincides with Harthacnut’s pending return to England, to fight Harefoot for his crown. When he heard about the death of his half-brother, Ælfred, the first thing he did was to dig up Harold Harefoot’s corpse and toss it in a ditch, so incensed was he. But he wasn’t to live for too long either, even though he was only about twenty-four at the time. He might have had some insight into his health. Not having married or fathered any known sons, he was advised to invite his older brother from across the sea in Normandy, to join him and help him rule. Edward had by now given up any thoughts of being king, so the summons must have come as a surprise.
Emma receives the Encomium from its author, flanked by Harthacnut and Edward, 11th century (c) British Library Board/Bridgeman Imageson
This must have seemed like a miracle to Edward, who, as the Vita Ædwardi Regis claims was sworn in as the future king when Emma was pregnant wth him. The will of God had been that Edward would be their king all along, and that God had postponed the event in order to punish the people for their sins. The auspicious prophecy, was to add meaning to Edward’s long-awaited kingship, thus rationalising the development of his saintly persona. Edward was now elevated to the highest status one could ever achieve. Just a few weeks prior to his invitation from his half-brother, Edward had been in the unlikely position of ever becoming king. Now, he was the king’s heir. Without doing anything, he had achieved the impossible. He had started out in a goodly position. His mother’s pre-marriage contract arranged by her brother, the Duke of Normandy, would have seen to it that any of her sons borne of Æthelred’s seed would have taken precedence over any of his sons from another woman’s womb, although the aethelings never lost their status. Harthacnut, it was said as per the Encomium Emma, was inspired by brotherly love, because he obviously loved Edward even though he’d never given a thought to him before then, invited Edward to come and hold the kingdom with him. Edward hopefully didn’t rush into this rashly, after all, he’d only waited 25 years, but he obeyed the summons and ‘Emma and her two sons among whom there was true loyalty,’ ehem, *coughs, ‘amicably share the kingdom’s revenues.’
Poitiers, William of Normandy’s biographer and confessor, believed that the boy duke, a mere twelve or thirteen, had something to do with helping the exile get back home to his rightful place.
Edward’s Coronation
It’s possible that whilst Emma was in Bruges waiting for Harthacnut to withdraw from his issues in Denmark, some sort of reconciliation between the two brothers and their mother took place. Perhaps Emma at last felt the burden of guilt lay heavily on her shoulders, or perhaps it was Harthacnut’s idea, wanting to meet his brother and form a bond with him. As it happened, the brothers may have had just about enough time to get to know each other and form some sort of friendship before Harthacnut died during an alcoholic binge in 1042 at the wedding of Tovi the Proud. He was said to have stood up to make a speech and then keeled over in what one can only imagine was some sort of stupor. He was never to recover. There is no suggestion that poison was involved, despite the fact that Harthacnut was not very well liked. In any case, the miracle that Edward had needed all his life if he was ever to be king, had finally happened. God’s will had been done, the English were punished enough, and Edward was now their king at last. The man who ought never to have been king, was elevated to that exulted place at last.
Notes
¹ King Edmund II known as the Ironside for his strength and courage.
²Ælfgifu of Northampton was Cnut’s first alliance, the daughter of an important Northern Anglo-Saxon family. She was the mother of Cnut’s two sons, Svein and Harold.
³ Edmund’s sons, Edward and Edmund, were sent abroad when they were infants to be done away with on Cnut’s orders. Luckily for them, the king of Sweden took pity on them and at least one of them survived into adulthood. Edward Edmundson was to become the subject of a mission by King Edward to find himself an heir.
References
Barlow F. 1997 Edward the Confessor, Yale University Press, Newhaven and London
Swanton M. 2000 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles Phoenix Press, London.
Walker W. I. 2004 Harold, the Last Anglo-Saxon King
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