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 pius, prudens, humilis, pudicus, 3 Cuius ob præstans meritum frequenter, 4 Noster hinc illi chorus obsequentem 5 Sit salus illi, decus, atque virtus, Iste confessor Domini sacratus <poem> 1 Iste Confessor Domini sacratus, 2 Qui pius, prudens, humilis, pudicus, 3 Ad sacrum cuius tumulum frequenter, 4 Unde nunc noster chorus in honorem 5 Sit salus illi, decus, atque virtus, </poem> Due to differences between the Latin versions of the hymn, and due to the demands of rendering the original Latin into metrical English which was suitable for singing, the translations below are thematically accurate, rather than literal translations. This is