Edward the Confessor, son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England.
After his death, the English throne was claimed by not one, but three successors: Harold Godwinson, Harold Hardraada and William, Duke of Normandy.
The battles that emerged from this are well known, but following are 10 little-known facts about the king whose death initiated them.
1. He called himself ‘king’ during Cnut’s reign
Born about 1004, Edward was the son of King Æthelred II and
Queen Emma. He should have inherited the throne, but in 1016 Cnut of Denmark conquered England and drove him out.
Exiled to Normandy, his mother’s homeland, Edward asserted his royal status. Norman charters reveal that by 1034 he was calling himself ‘King Edward’, even though Cnut was still king of England at the time.
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