Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/19

Edward and then died. He was buried the next day in his newly consecrated church of St. Peter at Westminster, probably by Abbot Eadwine (Norman Conquest, iii. 28; here, as elsewhere, Dr. Freeman uses that important record, the Bayeux tapestry, to good effect). The so-called laws of Eadward are said to have been drawn up from declarations made on oath by twelve men of each shire in 1070 (, ii. 218); the earliest extant version of them was perhaps compiled by Ranulf Glanvill (ib. pref. xlvii). Probably in 1070 the Conqueror declared that all should live under Eadward's law, together with such additions as he had made to it, and a like promise was made by Henry I in his charter of 1100 (Select Charters, 81, 98). These grants, which should be compared with Cnut's renewal of Eadgar's law [see under ], signified that the people should enjoy their national laws and customs, and that English and Normans should dwell together in peace and security. Eadward's tomb before the high altar soon became the scene of many miracles (Vita, l. 1609). As the last English king of the old royal line he was naturally remembered with feelings of affection, that found expression in acts of devotion and legends of his holiness. Among these legends his vision that the seven sleepers of Ephesus had turned on to their left sides is one of the most famous (Estorie, l. 3341 sq.). Another of greater historical importance, as proving that he practised the custom of episcopal investiture, must be reserved for the life of Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester (, col. 406). He is said to have healed many persons, and especially those suffering from ulcers, by touching them. William of Malmesbury declares that those who knew him while he lived in Normandy said that he performed some miracles of this kind before he came to the throne, and that it was therefore a mistake to assert, as some people then did, that he had this power, not because of his holiness, but in virtue of his hereditary royalty (Gesta Regum, ii. 222). By the end of the twelfth century it appears to have generally been believed that the kings of England had the gift of healing in virtue of their anointing (, Ep. 150), and down to the early part of the eighteenth century the power of curing the ‘king's evil’ was held to descend as an ‘hereditary miracle’ upon all the rightful successors of the Confessor (, Ecclesiastical History, i. 530). It was, of course, no part of the Norman policy to check the popular reverence for a king who was the kinsman of the Conqueror, and whose lawful successor William claimed to be, and as the monks of Westminster declared that the body of their patron had not undergone decay, his tomb was opened in 1102 by Gilbert Crispin, the abbot, and Gundulf, bishop of Rochester, who, it is said, found that the report was true (, col. 408). In 1140 an attempt was made by Eadward's biographer, Osbert, or Osbern, of Clare, prior of Westminster, to procure his canonisation by Innocent II. Osbert's scheme came to nothing, and Eadward was canonised by Alexander III in 1161, his day, of course, being that of his death (Monasticon, i. 308; Norman Conquest, iii. 33). The body of the new saint was first translated by Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of Henry II, on 13 Oct. 1163, and the event is still commemorated on that day in the calendar of the English church (, ii. 221). At the coronation of Henry III, in 1236, the Confessor's sword was carried before the king by the Earl of Chester (ib. iii. 337). This sword, which was called ‘custein,’ or ‘curtana,’ formed part of the regalia, and the present ‘sword of state’ is the counterpart of it (, Tower of London, p. 19). Henry held the Confessor, to whom indeed he bore a certain moral resemblance, in special reverence, and caused his eldest son, Edward I, to be named after him (, p. 225). Moreover, to do him honour, he rebuilt the abbey of Westminster, and on 13 Oct. 1269 performed with great splendour the second translation of the relics, which were laid in a shrine of extraordinary magnificence (, p. 226). The shrine was spoiled in the reign of Henry VIII, but the body of the king was not disturbed. Queen Mary restored the shrine, and the body of the Confessor was for the third time translated, on 20 March 1556–7 (Grey Friars Chronicle, p. 94, and, Diary, p. 120, Camd. Soc.).

[Dr. Freeman has devoted vol. ii. of his Norman Conquest almost wholly to the reign of the Confessor, and it has not been possible to add anything material to what he has recorded. In the above article several events of the reign have been left out because they do not seem to have concerned the king personally; they will be found in Dr. Freeman's work. Lives of Edward the Confessor, ed. Luard (Rolls Ser.), contains, with some less important pieces, the Vita Æduuardi Regis, written for Queen Eadgyth, and La Estorie de Seint Aedward le Rei, a poem dedicated to Eleanor, queen of Henry III. This poem is largely based on the Vita S. Edwardi of Ailred [Æthelred] of Rievaux, Twysden, written early in the reign of Henry II. This again is taken almost bodily from the Vita by Osbert the prior, mentioned above. Osbert's work, which has never been printed, is in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. 161 (Luard's Lives, pref. xxv; Hardy's Cat. of MSS. i. 637). See also Anglo-Saxon Chron.