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.
Part 1 of 2
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.
Précis
Taking a break in hunting one day in 975, young King Edward called in at the palace in Corfe hoping for a drink. As he drank, one of his stepmother Æalfthryth’s servants knifed him to death. Amid much jubilation at court, Edward was buried casually at Wareham, and preparations began to place his stepbrother Ethelred on the throne. (57 / 60 words)
Part Two
This is the view west down what was once the nave of Shaftesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. The photographer is standing with his back to the stone cross which marks the position of the High Altar. The large stone monument in the foreground is a cenotaph dedicated to the memory of King Edward the Martyr. His remains were interred at the Abbey about a year after his assassination on March 18th, 978 — the feast of the translation of his relics is kept on February 13th — but they were hastily removed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century. Remains uncovered in 1931 were identified as Edward’s and are now in the care of the Russian Orthodox Church at Brookwood Cemetery in Woking.
FOR such a celestial light was shed on the place, that even with its beams the lame were enabled to walk, the blind to see, and the dumb to speak, and all who laboured under any infirmity were healed.* Multitudes from all parts of the kingdom resorted to the martyr’s tomb, and among the rest his murderess took her journey thither. Having mounted her horse she urged him to go forward, when lo! he who before out-stripped the winds and was full of ardour to bear his mistress, now by the will of God stood immovable, nor could her attendants move him at all with their shouts and blows. Their labour was still in vain when another horse was put in his place.
On this, Ælfthryth, seeing God’s miracle, became exceedingly penitent, insomuch that for many years her flesh, which she had nourished in delicacy, she mortified with hair-cloth at Wherwell,* sleeping on the ground, and afflicting her body with all manner of sufferings. Elfery also, whom we have mentioned before as having destroyed the monasteries of the monks,* bitterly repenting of his fault, removed the king’s sacred body from that mean place, and interred it with due honour at Shaftesbury.*
* Edward and his backers stood firmly behind St Dunstan’s renewal of the country’s Benedictine monasteries, a policy supported by his late father Edgar. Ælfthryth and her party were determined to dissolve the monasteries, and use them as communities for married clergy and their families. Monasticism had been such an important part of the Christian religion since the fourth century (and voluntary celibacy long before that) that his assassination earned Edward honour as a martyr for the Christian faith. His feast is kept on the date of his death, March 18th.
* Wherwell is a village on the River Test in Hampshire, some nine miles northwest of Winchester. An Abbey was founded there in 986 by Ælfthryth, and she retired there in repentance for her part in Edward’s death and also for her campaign against monasteries. She died there on November 17th, 1002, and was buried at the Abbey. The assassination of Edward and its unintended consequences foreshadowed an even more famous case, The Assassination of Thomas Becket.
* Elfery had masterminded the dissolution of monasteries in the province of Mercia, many of them recently re-established by St Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester. It was this campaign that had led to the eventful Synod of Calne in 975: see Dunstan’s Deliverance.
Précis
However, rumours soon spread of miracles at Edward’s humble grave. Ælfthryth felt obliged to visit too, but no horse would carry her there. Conscience-stricken, she completely reversed her former policy (which she had pursued in defiance of Edward) of suppressing England’s monasteries, retired to a convent herself, and let Edward be buried in honour at Shaftesbury Abbey. (57 / 60 words)
