EDWARD

born c. 963 died March 18, 978, Corfe, Eng.; feast day March 18 Saint Edward the Martyr, silver penny, 10th century; in the British Museum byname Saint Edward The Martyr king of England from 975 to 978. His reign was marked by a reaction against the promonastic policies of his father and predecessor, King Edgar (reigned 959975). Upon Edgar's death a faction sought to win the throne for his younger son, Ethelred, but Edward was quickly elected king. He evidently played little part in the antimonastic reaction, which was led by Aelfhere, ealdorman of Mercia. Edward was assassinated while visiting Ethelred in Corfe. Although Ethelred succeeded to the throne, it is not known whether he had a hand in the murder of his brother. Edward was widely mourned; his remains were said to produce miracles, and he was declared a martyr in 1001. born c. 1003, , Islip, Eng. died Jan. 5, 1066, London; canonized 1161; original feast day January 5, now October 13 Saint Edward the Confessor, detail of a miniature from Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, early byname Saint Edward The Confessor king of England from 1042 to 1066. Although he was a listless, ineffectual monarch overshadowed by powerful nobles, his reputation for piety evidently preserved much of the dignity of the crown. His close ties to Normandy prepared the way for the conquest of England by Normans under William, Duke of Normandy (later King William I the Conqueror), in 1066. Edward was the son of King Ethelred II the Unready (reigned 9781016) and Emma, daughter of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. When the Danes invaded England in 1013, the family escaped to Normandy; the following year Edward returned to England with the ambassadors who negotiated the pact that returned his father to power. After Ethelred's death in 1016 the Danes again took control of England. Edward lived in exile in Normandy until 1041, when he returned to the London court of his half brother (Emma was their mother), King Hardecanute. Edward succeeded to the throne in 1042 and quickly seized the property of his mother, who had plotted against his accession. Nevertheless, for the first 11 years of his reign the real master of England was Godwine, Earl of Wessex. Edward married Godwine's daughter Edith in 1045, but by 1049 a breach had occurred between the two men. In 1051 Edward outlawed the Godwine family and dismissed Edith. During this period Edward was rapidly losing popularity by giving foreignersparticularly Normanshigh positions in his government. Hence in 1053 Godwine and his sons were able to gather large forces against the king. They forced Edward to restore their lands, and they exiled many of his foreign favourites. Upon Godwine's death in 1053, his son Harold became the dominant power in the kingdom. It was Harold rather than Edward who subjugated Wales in 1063 and negotiated with the rebellious Northumbrians in 1065. Consequently, Edward on his deathbed named Harold as his successor even though he allegedly had already promised the crown to William. William killed Harold at the Battle of Hastings, Sussex, in October 1066, and two months later he ascended the throne. died January 1364, Wheatley, Yorkshire, Eng. in full Edward De Balliol, or Baliol son of King John de Balliol of Scotland and claimant to the title of King of Scots, who was crowned in September 1332. Expelled in December 1332, he was restored in 133356, having acknowledged Edward III of England as his lord. Edward inherited only the family lands in France and his father's claim to Scotland. He was kept in England from 1296 (the year of his father's death) to 1315, after which he lived mainly in France. In 1332 Balliol led an invasion of Scotland from France by a group of English nobles whose lands in Scotland had been seized by the Scottish king Robert I the Bruce, father of David II (reigned 132971). On August 12, in the Battle of Dupplin Moor (q.v.), Edward defeated Donald, earl of Mar and regent for David II (then eight years old), and on September 24 he was crowned king at Scone. On November 23, at Roxburgh, he acknowledged Edward III of England as suzerain over Scotland. A Scottish coalition under Sir Archibald Douglas defeated Balliol at Annan, Dumfries, on Dec. 16, 1332, but on July 19, 1333, Edward III defeated and killed Douglas in the Battle of Halidon Hill (q.v.) on behalf of Balliol, who in payment gave much of the Scottish lowlands to the English king. Balliol's hold on the rest of Scotland against the adherents of David II remained precarious. He resigned his title and all his lands to Edward III on Jan. 21, 1356, and died a childless pensioner of the English sovereign. (b. Oct. 30, 1391, Viseu, Port.d. Sept. 9, 1438, Tomar), king of Portugal whose brief reign (143338) witnessed a strengthening of the monarchy through reform of royal land-grant laws, a continuation of voyages of discovery, and a military disaster in Tangier. A scholarly, sensitive man of high moral character, Edward was known as the philosopher-king and the author of O Leal Conselheiro (The Loyal Counselor). He ascended the throne on the death of his father, John I, well schooled in legal principles. Shortly thereafter, Edward promulgated the lei mental (April 8, 1434), which facilitated the recovery of certain previous royal land grants and made others subject to royal confirmation at the start of each new reign. Edward supported the efforts of his brother Henry the Navigator to explore the west coast of Africa, and he agreed to a plan for Henry to attempt the conquest of Morocco by attacking Tangier. The expedition (1437) was a complete failure, and Edward's youngest brother, Fernando, was captured. The grief-stricken king died shortly thereafter of the plague. died July 17, 924, Farndon on Dee, Eng. Edward the Elder byname Edward The Elder Anglo-Saxon king in England, the son of Alfred the Great. As ruler of the West Saxons, or Wessex, from 899 to 924, Edward extended his authority over almost all of England by conquering areas that previously had been held by Danish invaders. Edward ascended the throne upon his father's death in October 899, and in a battle in 902 his forces killed a rival claimant, Aethelwald, who had allied with the Danes. After defeating the Northumbrian Danes at Tettenhall, he set out in August 912 to subdue the Danes of the eastern Midlands and East Anglia. From 910 to 916 he constructed a series of fortified enclosures around his Kingdom of Wessex. At the same time, his sister, the Mercian ruler Aethelflaed, constructed a complementary series of fortresses in the northwest Midlands. In 917 Edward and Aethelflaed launched a massive offensive, quickly overwhelming the entire Danish army of East Anglia. Upon Aethelflaed's death in June 918, Edward assumed control of Mercia, and by the end of the year the last Danish armies in the Midlands had submitted. By that time Edward's kingdom included all the land south of the Humber estuary; in 920 he pacified Northumbria. Complete political unification of England was achieved during the reign of his son and successor, Athelstan (reigned 924939).