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Edward the Martyr (Old English: Eadweard; c. 962 - 18 March 978) was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar but was not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of England was contested, with some supporting Edward's claim to be king and others supporting his much younger half-brother Æthelred the Unready, recognized as a legitimate son of Edgar. Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, the archbishops Dunstan and Oswald of Worcester. The great nobles of the kingdom, ealdormen Ælfhere and Æthelwine, quarrelled, and civil war almost broke out. In the so-called anti-monastic reaction, the nobles took advantage of Edward's weakness to dispossess the Benedictine reformed monasteries of lands and other properties that King Edgar had granted to them. Edward's short reign was brought to an end by his murder at Corfe Castle in circumstances that are not altogether clear. His body was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 980. In 1001 Edward's remains were moved to a more prominent place in the abbey, probably with the blessing of his half-brother King Æthelred. Edward was already reckoned a saint by this time. A number of lives of Edward were written in the centuries following his death in which he was portrayed as a martyr, generally seen as a victim of the Queen Dowager Ælfthryth, mother of Æthelred. He is today recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion. Ætheling (princes of succession) Edward's date of birth is unknown, but he was the eldest of Edgar's three children. He was likely in his teens when he succeeded his father, who died at age 32 in 975.[1] Edward was known to be King Edgar's son, but he was not the son of Queen Ælfthryth, the third wife of Edgar. This much and no more is known from contemporary charters.[2] Later sources of questionable reliability address the identity of Edward's mother. The earliest such source is a life of Dunstan by Osbern of Canterbury, probably written in the 1080s. Osbern writes that Edward's mother was a nun at Wilton Abbey whom the king seduced.[3] When Eadmer wrote a life of Dunstan some decades later, he included an account of Edward's parentage obtained from Nicholas of Worcester. This denied that Edward was the son of a liaison between Edgar and a nun, presenting him as the son of Æthelflæd, daughter of Ordmær, "ealdorman of the East Anglians," whom Edgar had married in the years when he ruled Mercia (between 957 and Eadwig's death in 959).[4] Additional accounts are offered by Goscelin in his life of Edgar's daughter Saint Edith of Wilton and in the histories of John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury.[5] Together these various accounts suggest that Edward's mother was probably a noblewoman named Æthelflæd, surnamed Candida or Eneda-"the White" or "White Duck".[6] A charter of 966 describes Ælfthryth, whom Edgar had married in 964, as the king's "lawful wife", and their eldest son Edmund as the legitimate son of the king. Edward is noted as the king's son.[7] However, a genealogy created at Glastonbury Abbey circa 969 gives Edward precedence over Edmund and Æthelred.[8] Ælfthryth was the widow of Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia and perhaps Edgar's third wife.[9] The contradictions regarding the identity of Edward's mother, and the fact that Edmund appears to have been regarded as the legitimate heir until his death in 971, suggest that Edward was probably illegitimate.[10] Edmund's full brother Æthelred may have inherited his position as heir.[11] On a charter to the New Minster at Winchester, the names of Ælfthryth and her son Æthelred appear ahead of Edward's name.[1] When Edgar died on 8 July 975, Æthelred was probably nine and Edward only a few years older.[12] Disputed succession Edgar had been a strong ruler who had forced monastic reforms on a probably unwilling church and nobility, aided by the leading clerics of the day, Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York, and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester. By endowing the reformed Benedictine monasteries with the lands required for their support, he had dispossessed many lesser nobles, and had rewritten leases and loans of land to the benefit of the monasteries. Secular clergy, many of whom would have been members of the nobility, had been expelled from the new monasteries. While Edgar lived, he strongly supported the reformers, but following his death, the discontents which these changes had provoked came into the open.[13] The leading figures had all been supporters of the reform, but they were no longer united. Relations between Archbishop Dunstan and Bishop Æthelwold may have been strained.[14] Archbishop Oswald was at odds with Ealdorman Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia,[15] while Ælfhere and his kin were rivals for power with the affinity of Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia.[16] Dunstan was said to have questioned Edgar's marriage to Queen Dowager Ælfthryth and the legitimacy of their son Æthelred.[17] These leaders were divided as to whether Edward or Æthelred should succeed Edgar. Neither law nor precedent offered much guidance. The choice between the sons of Edward the Elder had divided his kingdom, and Edgar's elder brother Eadwig had been forced to give over a large part of the kingdom to Edgar.[18] The Queen Dowager certainly supported the claims of her son Æthelred, aided by Bishop Æthelwold; and Dunstan supported Edward, aided by his fellow archbishop Oswald. It is likely that Ealdorman Ælfhere and his allies supported Æthelred and that Æthelwine and his allies supported Edward, although some historians suggest the opposite.[19] Later sources suggest that perceptions of legitimacy played a part in the arguments, as did the relative age of the two candidates. In time, Edward was anointed by Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald at Kingston upon Thames, most likely in 975.[20] There is evidence that the settlement involved a degree of compromise. Æthelred appears to have been given lands which normally belonged to the king's sons, some of which had been granted by Edgar to Abingdon Abbey and which were forcibly repossessed for Æthelred by the leading nobles.[21] Edward's reign After recording Edward's succession, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a comet appeared, and that famine and "manifold disturbances" followed.[22] The "manifold disturbances", sometimes called the anti-monastic reaction, appear to have started soon after Edgar's death. During this time, the experienced Ealdorman Oslac of Northumbria, effective ruler of much of northern England, was exiled due to unknown circumstances.[23] Oslac was followed as ealdorman by Thored, either Oslac's son of that name or Thored Gunnar's son mentioned by the Chronicle in 966.[24] Edward, or rather those who were wielding power on his behalf, also appointed a number of new ealdormen to positions in Wessex. Little is known of two of these men, and it is difficult to determine which faction, if any, they belonged to. Edwin, probably ruling in Sussex, and perhaps also parts of Kent and Surrey, was buried at Abingdon, an abbey patronised by Ælfhere. Æthelmær, who oversaw Hampshire, held lands in Rutland, perhaps suggesting links to Æthelwine. The third ealdorman, Æthelweard, today best known for his Latin history, ruled in the west. Æthelweard was a descendant of King Æthelred of Wessex and probably the brother of King Eadwig's wife. He appears to have been a supporter of Edward rather than of either faction.[25] In some places, the secular clergy who had been driven from the monasteries returned, driving the regular clergy out in their turn. Bishop Æthelwold had been the main enemy of the seculars, and Archbishop Dunstan appears to have done little to aid his fellow reformer at this time.[26] More generally, the magnates took the opportunity to undo many of Edgar's grants to monasteries and to force the abbots to rewrite leases and loans to favour the local nobility. Ealdorman Ælfhere was the leader in this regard, attacking Oswald's network of monasteries across Mercia.[27] Ælfhere's rival Æthelwine, while a staunch protector of his family monastery of Ramsey Abbey, treated Ely Abbey and other monasteries harshly.[28] At some point during these disorders, Ælfhere and Æthelwine appear to have come close to open warfare. This may well have been related to Ælfhere's ambitions in East Anglia and to attacks upon Ramsey Abbey. Æthelwine, supported by his kinsman Ealdorman Byrhtnoth of Essex and others unspecified, mustered an army and caused Ælfhere to back down.[29] Very few charters survive from Edward's reign, perhaps as few as three, leaving Edward's brief reign in obscurity. By contrast, numerous charters survived from the reigns of his father Edgar and half-brother Æthelred. All of the surviving Edward charters concern the royal heartland of Wessex; two deal with Crediton where Edward's former tutor Sideman was bishop.[30] During Edgar's reign, dies for coins were cut only at Winchester and distributed from there to other mints across the kingdom. Edward's reign permitted dies to be cut locally at York and at Lincoln. The general impression is of a reduction or breakdown of royal authority in the midlands and north.[31] The machinery of government continued to function, as councils and synods met as customary during Edward's reign, at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire after Easter 977, and again at Calne in Wiltshire the following year. During the meeting at Calne, some councillors were killed and others injured by the collapse of the floor of their room.[32] Death The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle containing the most detailed account records that Edward was murdered in the evening of 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth and Æthelred, probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle now stand. It adds that he was buried at Wareham "without any royal honours". The compiler of this version of the Chronicle, manuscript E, called the Peterborough Chronicle, says: "No worse deed for the English race was done than this was, since they first sought out the land of Britain. Men murdered him, but God exalted him. In life he was an earthly king; after death he is now a heavenly saint. His earthly relatives would not avenge him, but his Heavenly Father has much avenged him."[33] Other recensions of the Chronicle report less detail, the oldest text stating only that he was killed, while versions from the 1040s say that he was martyred.[34] Of other early sources, the life of Oswald of Worcester, attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey, adds that Edward was killed by Æthelred's advisers, who attacked him when he was dismounting. It agrees that he was buried without ceremony at Wareham.[35] Archbishop Wulfstan II alludes to the killing of Edward in his Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, written not later than 1016. A recent study translates his words as follows: "And a very great betrayal of a lord it is also in the world, that a man betray his lord to death, or drive him living from the land, and both have come to pass in this land: Edward was betrayed, and then killed, and after that burned ..."[36] Later sources, further removed from events, such as the late 11th century Passio S. Eadwardi and John of Worcester, claim that Ælfthryth organised the killing of Edward, while Henry of Huntingdon wrote that she killed Edward herself.[37] Modern historians have offered a variety of interpretations of Edward's killing. Three main theories have been proposed. Firstly, that Edward was killed, as the life of Oswald claims, by nobles in Æthelred's service, either as a result of a personal quarrel, or to place their master on the throne.[38] The life of Oswald portrays Edward as an unstable young man who, according to Frank Stenton: "had offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behavior. Long after he had passed into veneration as a saint it was remembered that his outbursts of rage had alarmed all who knew him, and especially the members of his own household."[39] This may be a trope of hagiography.[40] In the second version, Ælfthryth was implicated, either beforehand by plotting the killing, or afterwards in allowing the killers to go free and unpunished.[41] A third alternative, noting that Edward in 978 was very close to ruling on his own, proposes that Ealdorman Ælfhere was behind the killing so as to preserve his own influence and to prevent Edward taking revenge for Ælfhere's actions earlier in the reign.[42] John notes this and interprets Ælfhere's part in Edward's reburial as being a penance for the assassination.[43] Reburial and early cult Edward's body lay at Wareham for a year before being disinterred. Ælfhere initiated the reinterment, perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation. According to the life of Oswald, Edward's body was found to be incorrupt when it was disinterred (which was taken as a miraculous sign). The body was taken to the Shaftesbury Abbey, a nunnery with royal connections which had been endowed by King Alfred the Great and where Edward and Æthelred's grandmother Ælfgifu had spent her latter years. Edward's remains were reburied with lavish public ceremony. Later versions, such as the Passio S. Eadwardi, have more complicated accounts. It said that Edward's body was concealed in a marsh, where it was revealed by miraculous events. The Passio dates the reburial to 18 February.[44] In 1001, Edward's relics (for he was considered a saint, although never canonized) were translated to a more prominent place within the nunnery at Shaftesbury. The ceremonies are said to have been led by the then-Bishop of Sherborne, Wulfsige III, accompanied by a senior cleric whom the Passio calls Elsinus, sometimes identified with Ælfsige, the abbot of the New Minster, Winchester. King Æthelred, preoccupied with the threat of a Danish invasion, did not attend in person, but he issued a charter to the Shaftesbury nuns late in 1001 granting them lands at Bradford on Avon, which is thought to be related. A 13th-century calendar of saints gives the date of this translation as 20 June.[45] The rise of Edward's cult has been interpreted in various ways. It is sometimes portrayed as a popular movement, or as the product of a political attack on King Æthelred by former supporters of Edward. Alternatively, Æthelred has been seen as one of the key forces in the promotion of Edward's cult and that of their sister Eadgifu (Edith of Wilton). He was thought to make the charter in 1001 granting land to Shaftesbury at the elevation of Edward's relics, and some accounts suggest that Æthelred legislated the observation of Edward's feast days across England in a law code of 1008. It is unclear whether this innovation, seemingly drafted by Archbishop Wulfstan II, dates from Æthelred's reign. It may instead have been promulgated by King Cnut. David Rollason has drawn attention to the increased importance of the cults of other murdered royal saints in this period. Among these are the cults of King Ecgberht of Kent's nephews, whose lives form part of the Mildrith Legend, and those of the Mercian Saints Kenelm and Wigstan.[46] Later cult During the sixteenth century and English Reformation, King Henry VIII led the dissolution of the monasteries and many holy places were demolished. Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration.[47] In 1931, the relics were recovered by Wilson-Claridge during an archaeological excavation; their identity was confirmed by Dr. T.E.A. Stowell, an osteologist. In 1970, examinations performed on the relics suggested that the young man had died in the same manner as Edward.[48] Wilson-Claridge wanted the relics to go to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. His brother, however, wanted them to be returned to Shaftesbury Abbey. For decades, the relics were kept in a bank vault in Woking, Surrey because of the unresolved dispute about which of two churches should have them.[49] In time, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was victorious and placed the relics in a church in Brookwood Cemetery in Woking, with the enshrinement ceremony occurring in September 1984.[48] The St Edward Brotherhood of monks was organized there as well.[48] The church is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church, and it is under the jurisdiction of a traditionalist Greek Orthodox community. In the Orthodox Church, St Edward is ranked as a Passion-bearer, a type of saint who accepts death out of love for Christ.[48] Edward was never officially canonized,[50] but he is also regarded as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.[48][51] His feast day is celebrated on 18 March, the day of his murder. The Orthodox Church also commemorates him a second time each year on 3 September. Notes ^ Jump up to: a b Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 7. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", p. 783; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 2. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", p. 783; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 3. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 3-4. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", p. 783; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 4-5. Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 6. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 2; John, Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England, p. 120. p. 7. Jump up ^ Williams. Æthelred the Unready. p. 8. Jump up ^ Stafford. Unification and Conquest. pp. 52&57. Jump up ^ Hart, Cyril (2007), "Edward the Martyr", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 9 November 2008 Jump up ^ Miller, "Edgar"; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 7. Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 8, dissents from this view. Jump up ^ Miller, "Edward the Martyr". Jump up ^ John, Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 113-9; Hart, "Edward", pp. 783-4; Miller, "Edgar"; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 2-4; Fisher, "Anti-Monastic Reaction", pp. 254-255 & 266. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", 784. Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 9; Williams, "Ælfhere". Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 4-5 & 9; Hart, "Æthelwine" . Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 7 & 8. Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 9-12. Jump up ^ While Higham, Miller and Williams suggest that Ælfhere supported Æthelred, Hart makes Æthelwine and his party the supporters of Æthelred. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 10; Miller, "Edward the Martyr". Dales, Dunstan, p. 100, suggests that the inauguration may have taken place in March 976. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 10; this seizure is recorded in charter S 937. Jump up ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 121, Ms. D & E, s.a. 975 & p. 122, Ms. C, s.a. 976. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 11; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 10; Fisher, "Anti-Monastic Reaction", p. 268; Dales, Dunstan, p. 100; Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 121, Ms. D, s.a. 975. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24; Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 119, Ms. E, s.a. 966. Jump up ^ Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 11-12; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 9-10, 17 & 22. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", p. 784. Jump up ^ Williams, "Ælfhere". Ælfhere was remembered as a generous patron and protector of the reformed Glastonbury Abbey. Jump up ^ Fisher, "Anti-Monastic Reaction", pp. 266-267; Hart, "Æthelwine". Dales, Dunstan, p. 101. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 10-11. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 11; Hart, "Edward", p. 784; Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 122, Ms. C, s.a. 977. Jump up ^ Hart, "Edward", p. 784; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 11 & 13. Jump up ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 122, Ms. E, s.a. 977 & p. 123, Ms. C, s.a. 978; Dales, Dunstan, p. 102; Hart, "Æthelwine"; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 13. Jump up ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 123, Ms. E, s.a. 979, also in Ms. D; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 11; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 17-18. Jump up ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 121. Ms. A, s.a. 978 & Ms. C, s.a. 978. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 11-12; Hart, "Edward", pp. 784-785; Miller, "Edward the Martyr". Jump up ^ Melissa Bernstein Ser's translation in her Electronic Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 12-13; Miller, "Edward the Martyr"; Dales, Dunstan, p. 103. Jump up ^ So, for example, Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 12; Dales, Dunstan, p. 103. Jump up ^ Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 372 Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 8-9. Jump up ^ Thus Hart, "Edward", p. 785; Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 14. Jump up ^ For this, see Higham, Death of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 12 Jump up ^ John, Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 119-121 Jump up ^ Stafford, Unification and Conquest, p. 59; Ridyard, Royal Saints, pp. 155-156; Hart, "Edward", p. 785; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 16; Miller, "Edward the Martyr". It is possible that the Passio S. Eadwardi is based in part on an earlier life compiled at Shaftesbury. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 15-16; Ridyard, Royal Saints, pp. 156-157. Æthelred's charter is S 899. Jump up ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, pp. 14-17; Rollason, Mildrith Legend, pp. 53-57; Hart, "Edward", p. 785; Miller, "Edward the Martyr"; Ridyard, Royal Saints, pp. 154-175. Jump up ^ Serfes, Nektarios, The Life Of Among The Saints Edward The Martyr, King Of England, Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, retrieved 2007-09-26 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "St Edward the Martyr", Necropolis Notables (The Brookwood Cemetery Society), retrieved 2007-09-21 Jump up ^ Longford, Elizabeth (1991), Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 29-30, ISBN 0-19-282851-7 Jump up ^ Mark Smith, AllExperts British History, 2006 Jump up ^ "About St Edward's", St Edward King and Martyr (St Edward King and Martyr), retrieved 2007-10-05 References Fisher, D. J. V. (1952), "The Anti-Monastic Reaction in the Reign of Edward the Martyr", Cambridge Historical Journal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 10 (3): 254-270, JSTOR 3021114 Dales, Douglas J. (1988), Dunstan: Saint and Statesman, Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, ISBN 0-7188-2704-X Fell, Christine (1971), Edward, King and Martyr, Leeds Texts and Monographs, Leeds: University of Leeds School of English, ISBN 0-902296-07-8 Hart, Cyril (2004), "Æthelwine [Ethelwine, Æthelwine Dei Amicus] (d. 992)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 2008-05-14 Hart, Cyril (2004), "Edward [St Edward called Edward the Martyr] (c. 962-978)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 17, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 783-785, retrieved 2008-05-14 Higham, Nick (1997), The Death of Anglo-Saxon England, Stroud: Sutton, ISBN 0-7509-2469-1 John, Eric (1996), Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-4867-2 Loyn, H. R. (2000), The English Church, 940-1154, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, ISBN 0-582-30303-6 Miller, Sean (1999), "Edgar", in Lapidge, Michael, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 158-159, ISBN 0-631-22492-0 Miller, Sean (1999), "Edward the Martyr", in Lapidge, Michael, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 163, ISBN 0-631-22492-0 ed. by Nigel Ramsay .... (1992), Ramsay, Nigel; Sparks, Margaret; Tatton-Brown, T. W. T., eds., St Dunstan : his life, times and cult, Woodbridge: Boydell, ISBN 0-85115-301-1 Ridyard, Susan J. (1988), The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-30772-4 Rollason, D.W. (1982), The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Studies in the Early History of Britain), ISBN 0-7185-1201-4 Ser, Melissa Bernstein (1996), The Electronic Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, retrieved 2008-11-08 Stafford, Pauline (1989), Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, London: Edward Arnold, ISBN 0-7131-6532-4 Stafford, Pauline (1999), "Ælfthryth"", in Lapidge, Michael, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 9, ISBN 0-631-22492-0 Stenton, Frank (1971), Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280139-2 Williams, Ann (2004), "Ælfhere (d. 983)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 2008-05-14 Williams, Ann (2003), Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King, London: Hambeldon & London, ISBN 1-85285-382-4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: King Edward the Martyr or Eadweard II (c. 962 - March 18, 978/979) succeeded his father Edgar as King of England in 975, but was murdered after a reign of only a few years. As the murder was attributed to "irreligious" opponents, whereas Edward himself was considered a good Christian, he was canonised as Saint Edward the Martyr in 1001. Motive and details of his murder Edward's accession to the throne was contested by a party headed by his stepmother, Queen Elfrida, who wished her son, Ethelred to become king instead. However, Edward's claim had more support - including that of St Dunstan - and was confirmed by the Witan. King Edward, "was a young man of great devotion and excellent conduct. He was completely Orthodox, good and of holy life. Moreover, he loved above all things God and the Church. He was generous to the poor, a haven to the good, a champion of the Faith of Christ, a vessel full of every virtuous grace." On King Edward's accession to the throne a great famine was raging through the land and violent attacks were stirred up against monasteries by a prominent noblemen who coveted the lands which his father King Edgar had endowed to them. Many of these monasteries were destroyed, and the monks forced to flee. The King however stood firm together with archbishop Dunstan in defence of the Church and the monasteries. For this, some of the nobles decided to remove him and replace him with his younger brother Ethelred. On March 18, 978 the king was hunting with dogs and horsemen near Wareham in Dorset. During this the king decided to visit his young brother Ethelred who was being brought up in the house of his mother Elfrida at Corfe Castle, near Wareham. Separated from his retinue, the King arrived alone at the castle. Whilst still on his horse in the lower part of the castle Elfrida offered Edward a glass of mead, and while he was drinking it, he was stabbed in the back by one of the queen's party. Ethelred himself was then only ten years old, so was not implicated in the murder. An alternative account comes from Henry of Huntingdon who alleges that Elfrida herself committed the murder : "Edward was treasonably slain by his own family... it is reported that his stepmother, that is the mother of King Ethelred, stabbed him with a dagger while she was in the act of offering him a cup to drink." History of his relics The story of the relics of St Edward began at the moment of his death (martyrdom). Immediately following the murder, the body of the murdered king slipped from the saddle of his horse and was dragged with one foot in the stirrup until it fell into a stream at the base of the hill upon which Corfe Castle stands (the stream was found thereafter to have healing properties - particularly for the blind). The queen then ordered that body be hurridly hidden in a hut nearby. Within the hut however, there lived a woman blind from birth whom the queen supported out of charity. During the night, a wonderful light appeared and filled the whole hut and struck with awe, the woman cried out: "Lord, have mercy!" and suddenly received her sight. At this she discovered the dead body of the king. The church of St. Edward at Corfe Castle now stands on the site of this miracle. At dawn the queen learned of the miracle and was troubled and again ordered the disposal of the body, this time by burying it in a marshy place near Wareham. A year after the murder however, a pillar of fire was seen over the place where the body was hidden, lighting up the whole area. This was seen by some of the inhabitants of Wareham, who raised the body. Immediately a clear spring of healing water sprang up in that place. Accompanied by what was now a huge crowd of mourners, the body was taken to the church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Wareham and buried at the east end of the church. This took place on February 13, 980. On the account of a series of subsequent miracles, the relics were translated to the abbey at Shaftesbury. When the relics were taken up from the grave, the relics were found to be whole and incorrupt. The translation of the relics occurred in great procession on February 13, 981 and arrived at Shaftesbury seven days later. There the relics were received by the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey and were buried with full royal honours on the north side of the altar. On the way from Wareham to Shaftesbury, a further miracle had also taken place; two crippled men were brought close to the bier and those carrying it lowered the body to their level, where upon the cripples were immediately restored to full health. This procession and these events were renacted in 1000 years later in 1981. In 1001 the tomb in which the saint lay was observed to regularly rise from the ground. King Ethelred was filled with joy at this and instructed the bishops to raise his brother's tomb from the ground and place it into a more fitting place. As the tomb was opened a wonderful fragrance issued from it - such that all present "thought that they were standing in Paradise". Then the bishops then bore away the sacred relics from the tomb, and placed them in a casket in the holy place of the Saints together with other holy relics. This elevation of the relics of St. Edward took place on June 20, 1001. St. Edward was officially glorified by the All-English Council of 1008, presided over by St. Alphege, archbishop of Canterbury (who was later also martyred by the Danes in 1012). King Ethelred ordered that the saint's three feast days (March 18, February 13 and June 20) should be celebrated throughout England. Shaftesbury Abbey was rededicated to the Mother of God and St. Edward. Shaftesbury was apparently renamed "Edwardstowe" only reverting to its original name after the Reformation. Many miracles were recorded at the tomb of St. Edward including the healing of lepers and the blind. During the sixteenth century, under King Henry VIII, monasteries were dissolved and many holy places were demolished, but St. Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration. In 1931, the relics were recovered by Mr. Wilson-Claridge during an archaelogical excavation; their identity was confirmed by Dr. T.E.A. Stowell, an osteologist. In 1970 examinations performed on the relics, suggested that the young man had been knifed in the back whilst riding his horse and had then been dragged along the ground by the terrified animal with his foot caught in a stirrup. In about 1982, Mr. Wilson-Claridge donated the relics to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which placed them in a church in Brookwood Cemetery, in Woking, Surrey. The St. Edward Brotherhood of monks was organized there as well. The church is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
