Vita Ædwardi Regis

Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium Requiescit
The Life of King Edward who Rests at Westminster
Facsimile of page 2 of British Library Harley MS 526, the opening page of the Vita
Author(s)	Anonymous
Patron	Edith, Queen-consort of England
Language	medieval Latin
Date	c. 1067
Provenance	unclear
Authenticity	likely authentic transcription of the earlier source
Principal manuscript(s)	British Library Harley MS 526
Genre	Historical narrative (book i); poetry (book i); hagiography (book ii)
Subject	The deeds of the Godwine and his children (book i); the holiness of King Edward the Confessor (book ii)
Period covered	1020s–1066

The Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium Requiescit (English: Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster) or simply Vita Ædwardi Regis (English: Life of King Edward) is a historical manuscript completed by an anonymous author c. 1067 and commissioned by Queen Edith, wife of King Edward the Confessor. It survives in one manuscript, dated c. 1100, now in the British Library. The author is unknown, but was a servant of the queen and probably a Fleming. The most likely candidates are Goscelin and Folcard, monks of St Bertin Abbey in St Omer.

It is a two-part text, the first dealing with England in the decades before the Norman Conquest (1066) and the activities of the family of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and the second dealing with the holiness of King Edward. It is likely that the two parts were originally distinct. The first book is a secular history, not hagiography, although book ii is more hagiographic and was used as the basis of later saint's lives dedicated to the king, such as those by Osbert of Clare and Aelred of Rievaulx.

There are two modern editions, those of Henry Richards Luard (1858) and Frank Barlow (1962, 1992). The Vita Ædwardi Regis survives in one manuscript, written in folios 38 to 57 of the British Library Harley MS 526, these twenty folios measuring c. 13 cm by 18.5 c and penned in "brownish ink". Written on the manuscript at a later date is the name of Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (1604–1610), who must therefore have acquired it. Its location prior to the life of Archbishop Bancroft is unclear, but possible locations include Canterbury itself, London Cathedral or the church of Westminster, as Bancroft had previously been a canon of Westminster as well as treasurer, prebendary and Bishop of London.