Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( , ; 1003 – 5 January 1066), also known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. The son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, Edward succeeded Cnut the Great's son – and his own half brother – Harthacnut, restoring the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut (better known as Canute) conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066, he was
Church of St Edward King and Martyr, Goathurst Kemeys, showing the child lying on a pillow holding a broken flower, and monuments to the Kemeys-Tynte family of Halswell House. Church of St Edward King and Martyr, Goathurst The Church of St Edward King and Martyr in Goathurst, Somerset, England dates from the 14th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The parish was originally part of the Royal Forest of North Petherton and its first squire owned St Edward's church. The dedication to Edward the Martyr is unusual, Edward was a young Saxon king who was murdered by his stepmother Elfrida in 978 at