The Danish kings who followed Canute were not like him. They were
cruel, unjust rulers and all the people of England hated them. So
when in the year 1042 the last of them died, Edward, the son of
the Saxon Ethelred, was elected king.

He is known in history as Edward the Confessor. He was a man of
holy life and after his death was made a saint by the Church, with
the title of "the Confessor." Though born in England, he passed the
greater part of his life in Normandy as an exile from his native
land. He was thirty-eight years old when he returned from Normandy
to become king.

As he had lived so long in Normandy he always seemed more like a
Norman than one of English birth. He generally spoke the French
language and he chose Normans to fill many of the highest offices
in his kingdom.

For the first eight years of his reign there was perfect peace in
his kingdom, except in the counties of Kent and Essex, where pirates
from the North Sea made occasional attacks.

These pirates were mostly Norwegians, whose leader was a barbarian
named Kerdric. They would come sweeping down upon the Kentish
coast in many ships, make a landing where there were no soldiers,
and fall upon the towns and plunder them. Then, as swiftly and
suddenly as they had come, they would sail away homeward, before
they could be captured.