For almost a millennium, kings and queens have been crowned at Westminster Abbey. But perhaps the king most intrinsically linked to the Abbey was never crowned there: Edward the Confessor.
Instead, Edward the Confessor was crowned at Winchester Cathedral. He succeeded his older half-brother, Harthacnut, in 1042 but delayed his coronation until Easter 1043.
Winchester Cathedral—or the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, St Peter, St Paul and St Swithun—is located in Hampshire, and churches in the area date back to 648. Edward the Confessor was crowned on 3 April 1043.
According to a Winchester Cathedral document about Edward the Confessor’s coronation: “In these times, the coronation ceremony transformed a man, albeit a royal prince and king-designate, into a consecrated king who became ‘a sacred conduit through whom God might act for His people’. Through the liturgy of the service, Edward reached back to great Jewish leaders and kings such as Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon, as well as being a servant of Christ. As Christ was the ultimate model for Christian kings, Edward held his coronation in 1043 on Easter Day, the day of Christ’s resurrection. The service used at the coronation appears to have been a version of the ‘Second Ordo’ which appeared in the tenth century and was based on coronation rites of the Western Franks in continental Europe.”
As we know it today, Winchester Cathedral was built between 1079-1532; it is the sixth largest cathedral in the United Kingdom, even larger than Westminster Abbey.
According to the Westminster Abbey website, Edward the Confessor spent his early years in exile and vowed “that if he should return safely to his kingdom, he would make a pilgrimage to St Peter’s, Rome. But once on the throne he found it impossible to leave his subjects…” to ensure that his promise was kept, the Pope told him to honour St. Peter with the founding of a new church, which would later become Westminster Abbey.
The Westminster Abbey we know today is mainly due to the extensive restoration work of Henry III centuries after Edward’s reign, but the Westminster Abbey of Edward’s time was consecrated in 1065, a year before his death.
The Confessor King’s Abbey was demolished in 1245 and was replaced with the modern Westminster Abbey, built on the orders of Henry III—an admirer of Edward, who named his son and heir after the legendary king.
Edward the Confessor was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings and a member of the House of Wessex when he reigned from 1042 to 1066. His death sparked a succession crisis that led to the Norman Conquest and the current line of succession that traces itself back to William the Conqueror.
Edward the Confessor’s touch is felt in modern coronation ceremonies through another avenue, too: the Coronation Chair. Though it dates back to the reign of Edward I in the 1290s, it is named after Edward the Confessor.
