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
Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia killed at the Battle of Maldon in 991 and Ælfheah's son Godwine may be the same person as Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey, who died in the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016. Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia Ælfhere (died in 983) was ealdorman of Mercia. His family, along with those of Æthelstan Half-King and Æthelstan Rota, rose to greatness in the middle third of the 10th century. In the reign of Edward the Martyr, Ælfhere was a leader of the anti-monastic reaction and an ally of Edward's stepmother Queen Dowager Ælfthryth. After the killing of Edward by Ælfthryth's servants in 978, Ælfhere