fe Emma back to Normandy for safety.
She took her son, Prince Edward, then a lad of nine, with her. He
remained at the French court nearly thirty years, and among other
friends to whom he became greatly attached was his second cousin,
William, Duke of Normandy.

The oppressive acts of Canute's sons (S64) excited insurrection
(1042), and both Danes and English joined in the determination to
restore the English line. They invited Prince Edward to accept the
crown. He returned to England, obtained the throne, and pledged
himself to restore the rights of which the people had been deprived.
By birth King Edward was already half Norman; by education and tastes
he was wholly so.

It is very doubtful whether he could speak a word of English, and it
is certain that from the beginning he surrounded himself with French
favorites, and filled the Church with French priests. Edward's piety
and blameless life gained for him the title of "the Confessor," or, as
we should say to-day, "the Christian."

He married the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful
noble in England. Godwin really ruled the country in the King's name
until his death (1053), when his son Harold (S67) succeeded him as
earl.

66. Edward the Confessor builds Westminster Abbey.

During a large part of his reign the King was engaged in building an
abbey or monastery at the west end of London, and hence called the
Westminster.[2] He had just completed and consecrated this great work
when he died, and was buried there. We may still see a part of the
original building in the crypt or basement of the abbey, while the
King's tomb above is the center of a circle of royal graves.

[2] Minster: a name given originally to a monastery; next, to a church
connected with a monastery; but now applied to several large English
cathedrals.

Multitudes made pilgrimages to King Edward's tomb, for the Pope had
enrolled him among the saints. Even now a little band of devoted
Catholics gather around his shrine every year. They go there to show
their veneration for the virtues and the piety of a ruler who would
have adorned a monastery, but had not breadth and vigor to fill a
throne.

67. Harold becomes King (1066).

On his deathbed, King Edward, who had no children, recommended Harold,
Earl of Wessex, as his successor (S65). But the Normans in France
declared Edward had promised that his cousin William, Duke of Normandy
(S65), should reign after him. The