Death bed of Edward the Confessor

The details of his death bed are interesting. The tapestry shows a weak Edward on his deathbed surrounded by four people. They are unnamed on the tapestry, but the female figure is most likely Queen Edith and one will have to be Harold. Queen Edith writes about what occurred at the deathbed of King Edward in the Life of King Edward book that she commissioned. This confirms the people who were there and appear on the tapestry (Harold, Edith, Archbishop Stigand, and Rodbert a steward).

At this time King Edward tells those present of a dream he had about two monks he had known bringing him a warning from God. They told him “within a year and day of Edward’s death…God would punish the whole of England by delivering it into the ‘hands of the enemy’ and that ‘devils shall come through all this land with fire and sword and the havoc of war…” Bridgeford notes that since this was written after the events of the Conquest the author already knew how history would play out, but this was how the Conquest appeared to the people of England. They did not want William and they were the devils who invaded their land. But, the most important part of the deathbed is who Edward names for his successor.