King of England (1042–66). He succeeded King Canute’s Danish heirs as king, temporarily re-establishing the West Saxon monarchy, although he favoured the Normans, among whom he had been brought up. In 1045 he married the daughter of Earl Godwin of Wessex and six years later put down a rebellion by the earl. It will never be known for certain whether, as the Normans claimed, he promised the crown to Duke William before his death; the succession after his death of Harold, Earl Godwin’s son, caused the Normans to take England by conquest. Edward was the founder of Westminster Abbey (1045), and had a great reputation for piety. He was canonized in 1161.