Edward the Confessor
As the Norman Conquest and the creation of the Domesday book, which is used as the starting point
for many histories of the country, the place of Edward the Confessor in this story is important.
In many of my pages on the history of the region around Belchamp Walter I use the test from
Thomas Wright's History and Topography of Essex. He quite often gives reference to "at the time
of the Confessor".
Wikipedia
Edward the Confessor[a][b] (c. 1003 – 5 January 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon English king and saint.
Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 until his death in 1066.
Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeeded Cnut the Great's son –
and his own half-brother – Harthacnut. He restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of
Danish rule since Cnut conquered England in 1016.
When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by his wife's brother Harold Godwinson,
who was defeated and killed in the same year at the Battle of Hastings by the Normans under
William the Conqueror. Edward's young great-nephew Edgar Ætheling of the House of Wessex was
proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings,
but was never crowned and was peacefully deposed after about eight weeks.
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