She was an educated woman who spoke several languages including English, Danish, French, Irish, and Latin, skills she probably acquired at Wilton.

She helped Giso, the Bishop of Wells, secure the endowments of his see, and gave lands to Abingdon Abbey, but the monks of Evesham alleged that she had the relics of many monasteries brought to Gloucester so that she could select the best for herself.

Edward reproved her, and she accepted the rebuff, even going on to urge English churchmen not to kiss women, although they did not object to the custom.

[3] Unlike most wives of the Saxon kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Edith was crowned queen.

Later ecclesiastical writers claimed that this was either because Edward took a vow of celibacy, or because he refused to consummate the marriage because of his antipathy to Edith's family, the Godwins.

When he died, she was the richest woman in England, and the fourth wealthiest individual after the king, Stigand (the Archbishop of Canterbury), and her brother Harold.

His rule was unpopular, and in 1064 Edith was accused at court of engineering the murder of the Northumbrian noble Gospatrick in Tostig's interest.

Edward demanded that the rebels be suppressed, but to his and Edith's fury, Harold and the English thegns refused to enforce the order.

Her brother Wulfnoth, who had been given to Edward the Confessor as a hostage in 1051 and soon afterwards became a prisoner of William the Conqueror, remained in captivity in Normandy.

Edith was therefore the only senior member of the Godwin family to survive the Norman conquest on English soil, the sons of Harold having fled to Ireland.

After Edward's death, Edith read the lives of English saints and gave information about St Kenelm to his hagiographer, Goscelin.