St. Edward, King, Confessor–W (III)

King Edward the Confessor reigned in England from the end of the Danish rule (1042) to the Norman conquest (1066). His subjects praised his simplicity, gentleness, humility, and purity. He made a practice of standing at his palace gate, speaking kindly to the beggars and lepers who crowded about him, and often he wrought cures among them. England grew prosperous during his rule of almost unbroken peace, and for ages afterward the people spoke with affection of the “laws of good St. Edward.”