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==Marriage and life as queen==
Stafford states (p. 124) that Edith was between 12 and 25 when she married, and probably nearer 25. The marriage produced no children. 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. However, this is dismissed by modern historians.{{fact|date=May 2020}} In the view of Edward's biographer, [[Frank Barlow (historian)|Frank Barlow]], "the theory that Edward's childlessness was due to deliberate abstention from sexual relations lacks authority, plausibility and diagnostic value."<ref>Frank Barlow, ''Edward the Confessor'', Yale University Press: London, 1997, p. 82.</ref>
In 1051 Godwin and his sons fell out with Edward and fled the country. Edith was sent to a nunnery, possibly because she was childless and Edward hoped to divorce her.<ref name=ODNB/><ref>Stafford, 2009, pp. 133–138</ref> When the Godwins effected their return through force in 1052, Edith was reinstated as queen. In later years, she became one of Edward's inner group of advisers.<ref>Barlow, p. 167.</ref> In the ''Vita Edwardi'', according to Barlow, "although she is always placed modestly behind the throne, the author does not minimize her power or completely conceal her will. Whenever we catch sight of her elsewhere, we see a determined woman, interfering, hard, probably bad-tempered."<ref>Barlow, pp. 189–190.</ref>
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