Edward the Confessor King Henry II and Pope Alexander III He was called 'Confessor' as the name for someone who was believed to have lived a saintly life but was not a martyr. In the 1230s King Henry III became attached to the cult of Saint Edward, and he commissioned a new life by Matthew Paris. Henry also constructed a grand new tomb for Edward in a rebuilt Westminster Abbey in 1269. He named his eldest son after him. Until about 1350, Edmund the Martyr, Gregory the Great and Edward the Confessor were regarded as English national saints, but Edward III preferred the
Iste confessor Noster hinc illi chorus obsequentem // Concinit laudem, celebresque palmas; 5 Sit salus illi, decus, atque virtus, // Qui super cæli solio coruscans, </poem> This confessor of the Lord honouring <poem> 1 This confessor of the Lord, honouring // whom, piously people praise worldwide [If it is not the day of his death, the last line is changed to:] 2 Who holy, prudent, humble, modest // led a sober life without sin 3 On account of whose merit, frequently // sick limbs, from many places, languishing 4 Hence our choir, praying to him, sing praise (about his) famous victories 5