How Edward Dealt with the Problems He Faced in the First...

How effectively did Edward deal with the problems he faced during the first part of his reign, 1042-1053? When Edward came into power in 1042, England was in a poor state financially and also because of threats of an invasion and this made the first few years of his rule difficult. Edward was faced with many problems which he had to overcome. These problems involved; powerful Earls, (especially the Godwine’s), the foreign policy and the domestic policy. Edward both failed and succeeded in these problems due to a number of factors. These include a lack of knowledge about his kingdom and some may argue that he was naà ¯ve in his decisions. With some evaluation, we will be able to judge if Edward was a successful King or not. One of the†¦show more content†¦By 1051, Edward had managed to appoint Normans as bishops, and eventually half were filled by Englishmen and the other half by Normans and other foreigners; Godwine and English Earls hated this. In 1050, the Archbishop of Canterbury died and instead of Godwine’s relative Aelfric being appointed, he made Robert of Jumieges Archbishop instead. The witans supported this decision, this may have been because Godwine was in such a strong position that the other Earls were jealous. So overall,Edward had not been a complete success with regards to gaining power over Godwine as he hadn’t managed to appoint all the positions to Normans and only got one up on Godwine when appointing archbishop as there was rivalry between the Earls. However, even though Edward had got one up on Godwine, Godwine was still responsible for the murder of his brother Alfred. Godwine had arrested Alfred and killed some of his followers, he was then taken out of Godwine’s hands and but on board a ship where soon afterwards he soon died. In 1046, Godwin’s eldest son Sweyn abducted a nun and used her as a sex slave, when this was put to light he was sent into exile to Flaunders and Denmark and his land was shared between his brother Harold and his cousin Beorn. As Godwine was unable to prevent this, its shows how King