Macbeth: Coin of Edward the Confessor, King of England & Saint: 1003-66.
Edward, who figures significantly in Shakespeare's Macbeth, was born c. 1003 in Islip, Oxfordshire. Edward and his brother Alfred were sent to Normandy. Æthelred died in 1016, succeeded by Edward's half brother Edmund Ironside, who fought against the Danes until killed by Canute, who then became king and married Edward’s mother, Emma. Having previously returned to England to help Edmund, Edward then went back to Normandy, where he developed an intense personal piety in his quarter-century of exile. After the death of Canute the Anglo-Saxons invited Edward back to England in 1041 and in 1042, Edward ascended the throne. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes his popularity — "before he [the late king] was buried, all the people chose Edward as king in London." Edward was crowned on 3 April 1043. His crown survived until Oliver Cromwell allegedly ordered it destroyed, but gold from it is may have been integrated into the St Edward's Crown, used in coronations since 1661. The Abbey also possessed the coronation regalia of Edward which became holy relics used at English coronations from the 13th Century until destroyed also by Oliver Cromwell.
As king Edward created one uniform law throughout the kingdom, and introduced features of the English monarchy familiar today like the royal seal and coronation regalia. When Henry II came to the throne in 1154, he promoted the cult of King Edward the Confessor. Osbert de Clare wrote a life of Edward, in which the king was represented as a holy man who performed miracles, having healed people of scrofula by his touch, as Shakespeare has the Doctor report in Macbeth: “at his touch/ Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,/ They presently amend.” (IV.iii.143-5) Malcolm glosses this report for Macduff:
. . . . . . . .'Tis call'd the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures;
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace. (IV.iii.146-59)
Shakespeare's intent is to establish Edward the Confessor as an opposite pole in virtue to Macbeth, endowing Edward moreover with a validated claim to prophecy, unlike Macbreth's misguided dependence on the Witches. This role is confirmed by English history to the extent that Osbert went to Rome to advocate that Edward be declared a saint, securing his canonization by Pope Alexander III in 1161. In 1163, the sainted king's remains were enshrined in Westminster Abbey by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward is commemorated on 13 October by the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. He is regarded as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. From the reign of Henry II to 1348, he was considered to be the patron saint of England until Edward III replaced him by Saint George, though St Edward is still the patron saint of the British Royal Family and his tomb remains in Westminster Abbey. Picture and some data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia)
