hair and beard, full face and rosy cheeks, thin white hands, and long translucent fingers; in all the rest of his body he was an unblemished royal person. Pleasant, but always dignified, he walked with eyes downcast, most graciously affable to one and all. If some cause aroused his temper, he seemed as terrible as a lion, but he never revealed his anger by railing." This, as the historian Richard Mortimer notes, 'contains obvious elements of the ideal king, expressed in flattering terms – tall and distinguished, affable, dignified and just.' Edward was allegedly not above accepting bribes. According to the Ramsey Liber Benefactorum, the monastery's abbot decided that it would be dangerous to publicly contest a claim brought by "a certain powerful man", but he claimed he was able to procure a favourable judgment by giving Edward twenty marks in gold and his wife five marks. See also Játvarðar Saga, Icelandic saga about the king St Edward's Crown St Edward's Sapphire References Notes Citations Sources Further reading Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. Michael Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000. Aelred of Rievaulx, Life of St. Edward the Confessor, translated Fr. Jerome Bertram (first English translation) St. Austin Press O'Brien, Bruce R.: God's Peace and King's Peace: The Laws of Edward the Confessor, Philadelphia, Pa. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, The Waltham Chronicle ed. and trans. Leslie Watkiss and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, OUP, 1994 William of Malmesbury, The History of the English Kings, i, ed.and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, Oxford Medieval Texts, OUP 1998 External links Westminster Abbey: Edward the Confessor and Edith Steven Muhlberger's 'Edward the Confessor and his earls' BBC History: Edward the Confessor BBC News: Ancient royal tomb is uncovered Life of St Edward the Confessor, Cambridge Digital Library 1000s births 1066 deaths 11th-century Christian saints 11th-century English monarchs Anglo-Normans Anglo-Saxon saints Burials at Westminster Abbey Christian royal saints House of Wessex Incorrupt saints Monarchs of England before 1066 Norman conquest of England People from Cherwell District Roman Catholic royal saints Anglican saints