Edward the Confessor

Edward III "the Confessor" was king of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the son of Aethelred "the Unready" and Emma of Normandy. His reign is considered to be a pretty peaceful one - he held back the Danish invasions of the British coast and also managed to keep both the Welsh and the Scots subdued, for the most part. The trouble began when he was too nice to the Norman side of his family (his mother was from Normandy). The English nobles didn't like the Norman nobles, so there was some tension there. Anyway, when Edward died, a dispute over the throne occurred in which Harold of England said Edward promised him the throne and William of Normandy claimed that Edward had promised him the throne. The whole mess culminated in the immensely famous Battle of Hastings in October 1066, and William - now known as "the Conqueror" - won hands down.

So, I think of Edward the Confessor as the guy whose death opened the door for the Normans to take over England which might be doing him too little credit for the other things he accomplished. He appears on the Bayeux Tapestry which is one of my favorite pieces of art in the entire world. That's him with the very fashionable forked beard:

Although Edward lived before official coats of arms came into use, his posthumous coat of arms is a yellow cross on a field of blue, so I went with yellow and blue for the outfit today. I finally got to wear my brown and gray T-straps also which I haven't worn all semester!

St. Wilfrid of Ripon

This is going to be short. I am running very behind on my updates, and I'm having a busy week!

St. Wilfrid of Ripon was a bishop in the 7th century in England. He was very well educated in both France and Rome and very well respected. He came into conflict pretty often, however, with the political powers of the time and was constantly being thrown out of his bishopric, then regaining it, then being thrown out again. He also suffered a series of shipwrecks in which he would wash up on some heathen coast, and then of course convert the heathens to Christianity. In any case, although he had trouble with political rulers, his fellow clergymen had immense respect for him, and he was much admired for his devotion to piety. He died in around 709.

I took the shipwreck stories as inspiration for my outfit today: a nautical theme! Which really means a striped shirt and my anchor necklace. I've had this shirt for years, and I refer to it as my "sailor shirt." I don't really like it very much, mostly because it is a sailor shirt and dressing for a theme makes me a little bit uncomfortable. But that's kind of the whole point of this little experiment, isn't it? And I didn't feel uncomfortable today. I think it's because the little cardigan makes it all better for me. I normally tie it around my waist, but I just let it hang and tied the ends of the belt into little knots. I think it turned out pretty well, considering.