The Martyrdom of King Edward
After the death of King Edgar, powerful court factions struggled for power by hiding behind his two sons, twelve-year-old Edward and his younger step-brother Ethelred.
978
King Edward the Martyr 975-978
© Herbythyme, Wikimedia Commons. Licenc e: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Corfe Castle in Dorset, a few miles west of Poole. The ruins visible today are largely 12th and 13th century, and the building dates back no earlier than the days of William the Conqueror r. 1066-1087), who liked to go hunting in the forest at Purbeck. The events recorded by Roger happened a century earlier, when Corfe was home to a now lost royal palace.
Introduction
Edward became King of England in 975, aged twelve. His stepmother Ælfthryth at once sidelined him, and sought to rule through her own boy Ethelred, barely eight. Edward’s party supported the revival of England’s monasteries whereas Ælfthryth campaigned to dissolve them, and in 978 his principles cost Edward his life. Roger of Wendover (?-1236) accused Ælfthryth of the murder, but there was a twist in the tale.
AS king Edward was one day [978] weary with hunting and very thirsty, leaving his attendants to follow the dogs, and hearing that his step-mother and his brother were living in a certain village named Corvesgate,* he rode thither unattended in quest of something to drink, in his innocence suspecting no harm, and judging of the hearts of others by his own. Seeing him coming, his step-mother allured him with her caresses, and kissing him offered him a cup, and as the king eagerly quaffed it, he was stabbed with a dagger by one of her attendants. The king, finding himself mortally wounded, set spurs to his horse to regain his friends, who learnt his death by the track of the blood.
The wicked woman Ælfthryth and her son Ethelred* ordered the corpse of the king and martyr St Edward to be ignominiously buried at Wareham in the midst of public rejoicing and festivity, as if they had buried his memory and his body together. But divine pity came to his aid, and ennobled the innocent victim with the grace of miracles.
* This was a royal residence on the site of what is now Corfe Castle: the current (ruinous) building dates back mainly to the 12th and 13th centuries, and no earlier than the the time of William the Conquerer (r. 1066-1087). The castle overlooks the village of Corfe in Dorset, a short distance west of Poole.
* He was later known as Ethelred the Unready, meaning ‘lack-counsel’, because of what was perceived as his dithering over the threat posed by the large Scandinavian community in England, and that posed also by Swein Forkbeard, King Denmark, and his son Cnut (Canute).
* Wareham is a pretty Dorsetshire town at the conjunction of the rivers Frome and Piddle, about five miles northwest of Corfe.
