Medieval (11th century)
Feast: October 13
England's last Anglo-Saxon king spent twenty-five years in exile, came home to rule in peace, and built Westminster Abbey. Within months of his death, everything he'd made was overturned.
Edward spent the first half of his life running. The Danish conquest of England drove him into exile in Normandy when he was about ten. He stayed there for a quarter century, learning Norman French, attending Norman churches, and watching other people rule his country. When the Danish line died out, he was invited back in 1042 to be king — a middle-aged man with no military experience, no power base, and no appetite for violence. He surprised everyone by being good at the job. He governed through compromise and quiet diplomacy. The great Earl Godwin of Wessex effectively controlled the country, and Edward managed him by being patient, pious, and impossible to provoke. His marriage to Godwin's daughter Edith was reportedly celibate — whether by mutual agreement or circumstance, no one is sure. His great project was the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, which he designed in the Romanesque style he'd admired in Normandy. It was consecrated on December 28, 1065. Edward was too sick to attend. He died eight days later. Within the year, Harold Godwinson was dead at Hastings, William the Conqueror was on the throne, and Anglo-Saxon England was over. But Westminster Abbey stood, and Edward's reputation for gentleness in a brutal age grew until Henry III rebuilt the abbey as a shrine around his tomb.