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Historical person
died 1066
Edward the Confessor was king of England from 1042 to 1066 and the penultimate ruler of the house of Wessex. His reign was shaped by the power of Earl Godwin’s family, links with Normandy and uncertainty over the succession because he had no children.
Later tradition celebrated his piety and miracles, leading to canonisation in 1161. His death triggered the rival claims that culminated in the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings. Edward the Confessor was born in Islip and died in Westminster.
Tom Licence’s Edward the Confessor argues for a king with more personal authority and political skill than the traditional image of a passive saint, while David Woodman’s Edward the Confessor (Penguin Monarchs) follows his return from exile, rule alongside the Godwins and later cult. Marc Morris’ The Norman Conquest treats Edward’s childless death as the succession crisis from which the rival claims of Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada and William of Normandy emerged. John Broughton’s Sward and Sword places Edward within Godwine’s rise and the changing royal houses of eleventh-century England. Alfred Duggan’s The Cunning of the Dove makes Edward himself the focus, presenting his piety and apparent mildness as political tools in his struggle to balance the great earls.
Series
Conquest follows England after the Norman victory of 1066. The books use Hastings, rebellion, occupation and the consolidation of William the Conqueror’s rule to show how conquest continues long after a single battle is won. The series is strongest as a post-Conquest saga about dispossession, resistance, new lordship…
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Road to Hastings traces the political rise of the Godwin family and the decisions that produced the English succession crisis of 1066. Beginning with Edith of Wessex's marriage to Edward the Confessor, the trilogy follows Earl Godwin and Harold Godwinson through exile, restoration, diplomacy and the growing influence…
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The Aelfraed trilogy follows Saxon survivors through the violent aftermath of 1066. Beginning before the Battle of Hastings and continuing through resistance, outlawry and exile, the series uses the collapse of Harold Godwinson’s England to follow housecarls and rebels forced to decide whether to keep fighting, submit to…
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The Sutton Place Trilogy follows the fortunes of the families attached to the historic Surrey manor of Sutton Place, imagining a curse that begins in Anglo-Saxon England when Queen Edith condemns the land hunted by Edward the Confessor. Five centuries later the estate passes to the Weston family…
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The Huscarl Chronicles, also marketed by Paul Bernardi as the Conquest trilogy, follow the young English warrior Thurkill through the crisis of 1066 and the first year of Norman rule. Thurkill’s Revenge carries him from Edward the Confessor’s death through Stamford Bridge and Hastings; Thurkill’s Battle follows the…
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The Celtic World is a thematic sequence of novels moving from the migrations and sacred traditions of ancient Celtic peoples into the heroic cycles and medieval history of Ireland and Britain. Its subjects include the legendary origins of Ireland, the warriors of the Ulster and Fenian cycles, Saint…
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Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
