S. Edward the Confessor: 'a stranger to all desire for domination'

EDWARD, surnamed Confessor, a nephew of S. Edward, King and Martyr, was the last of Anglo-Saxon kings. The Lord revealed that he was to be to be king, to a holy man named Brithwald, when the latter was in a trance. When Edward was ten years old, the Danes who were then ravaging England sought to kill him, and he was forced into exile. He went to the court of his uncle, the Duke of Normandy. There, amidst the enticements of vice, he lived a life of such purity and innocence that he was the admiration of all. He shone with a rare piety towards God and excelled in holy observances, and was of a very gentle disposition, a stranger to all desire for domination. This saying of his has been preserved: that he would prefer to be without a kingdom rather than obtain it violence and bloodshed.

Monastic Breviary: The Translation of S. Edward October 13^th