Circling VulturesIt was a minor miracle that King Edward arrived at his church for his Christmastide Court on Christmas Day, 1065.He had suffered yet another malady on Christmas Eve and had collapsed into his bed in a state of semi-consciousness. However, the next morning he was there on his throne, sceptre in hand, to preside over the proceedings. The occasion had all the ostentation appropriate for a gathering of England’s finest, yet it was a sombre affair. All eyes darted from a stricken King, barely coherent and unable to stand, to a sturdy Earl of Wessex, the anticipated successor and putative saviour of a threatened land.The ceremony was conducted quickly, so that Edward could return to his bed. Three days later, Edward rose one last time – a tribute to the King’s obstinate determination to see his emblematic creation consecrated.As Edward, King of England, looked around his abbey on the twenty-eighth day of December 1065, he declared himself satisfied. The power of God had been reaffirmed throughout the land; the Celts of the west and the Scandinavians of the north were held at bay by the most powerful army in northern Europe; the throne of England was respected by all nations; and scholarship flourished in the abbeys and monasteries in every part of the realm.
