Edward the Martyr

Edward the Martyr or Eadweard II (c. 962–18 March 978) was king of England from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of the English kingdom were divided, some supporting Edward's claim to be king and other supporting his much younger half-brother Æthelred. Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald of Worcester.

Edward's reign began inauspiciously when a comet was sighted. A famine followed. 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 which King Edgar had granted to them. Edward's short reign was brought to an end by his murder at Corfe in circumstances which are not altogether clear.

Edward's body was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 980. In 1001 his 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 his step-mother Queen Dowager Ælfthryth. He is today recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion.

Ætheling

His date of birth is unknown, but it is likely that he was a teenager when he succeeded his father in 975, and was the eldest of Edgar's three children.^[1] All that can be said with certainty of Edward's parentage is that he was King Edgar's son, but not the son of Queen Ælfthryth. This much and no more is known from contemporary charters.^[2]

For further information on Edward's mother it is necessary to rely on later sources of uncertain reliability. The earliest of such a 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, and instead presented him the son of one Æthelflæd, daughter of Ordmær, "ealdorman of the East Anglians", whom Edgar had married in the years when he ruled Mercia, that is between 957 and Eadwig's death in 959.^[4] Yet further 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] Summarising these various accounts Edward's mother probably was 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 son Edmund as legitimate son of the king. Edward is merely the king's son.^[7] The contradictions regarding who Edward's mother was, and the fact that Edmund appears to have been regarded as the legitimate heir until his death in 971, suggests that Edward was probably illegitimate.^[8]

Disputed succession

Edmund's brother Æthelred may have inherited his position as favoured heir.^[9] Edgar's intentions may have been signalled by the fact that on a charter to the New Minster at Winchester, the names of Ælfthryth and her son Æthelred appear ahead of Edward's name.^[1] Edgar's actual plans for the succession can only be conjecture as he died, still a young man aged about 32, on 8 July 975, leaving two sons, neither yet an adult.^[10]

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. The endowment of the reformed Benedictine monasteries with the lands required for their support had seen many lesser nobles dispossessed outright and leases and loans of land rewritten to the benefit of the monasteries. Secular clergy, many of whom will 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.^[11]

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.^[12] Archbishop Oswald was at odds with Ealdorman Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia,^[13] while Ælfhere and his kin were rivals for power with the affinity of Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia.^[14] It is said that Dunstan questioned Edgar's marriage with Queen Dowager Ælfthryth and the legitimacy of their son Æthelred.^[15]

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.^[16] It is certain that the Queen Dowager supported the claims of Æthelred, her son, aided by Bishop Æthelwold, and that 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.^[17]

The arguments employed by the factions are largely unknown, although later sources suggest that perceptions of legitimacy played a part, 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.^[18] 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 now forcibly repossessed for Æthelred by the leading nobles.^[19]

Edward's reign

A penny minted during Edward's reign at Stamford, Lincolnshire, one of the Five Burghs

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, after recording Edward's succession, reports that a comet appeared and that famine and "manifold disturbances" followed.^[20] 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 in circumstances which are unknown.^[21] Oslac was followed as ealdorman by one Thored, either Oslac's son of that name or the Thored Gunnar's son mentioned by the Chronicle in 966.^[22] 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.^[23]

It appears that 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.^[24] 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.^[25] Ælfhere's rival Æthelwine, while a staunch protector of his family monastery of Ramsey Abbey, treated Ely Abbey and other monasteries harshly.^[26] 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.^[27]

Very few charters survive from Edward's reign, perhaps as few as three, and the absence of a sizable body of charters such as are found in the reign of Edgar and Æthelred leave much of Edward's reign in obscurity. All of the surviving charters concern the royal heartland of Wessex, two dealing with Crediton where Edward's former tutor Sideman was bishop.^[28] Whereas during Edgar's reign dies for coins were cut only at Winchester and distributed from there to other mints across the kingdom, during Edward's reign this system no longer prevailed. Dies were now cut locally at York and at Lincoln. The general impression is of a reduction or breakdown of royal authority in the midlands and north.^[29] Nonetheless, the machinery of government evidently continued to function as councils and synods continued to meet during Edward's reign, at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire after Easter 977, and again at Calne in Wiltshire the following year. The meeting at Calne saw the death and injury of some councillors when the floor of the room in which they were meeting collapsed.^[30]

Death

Ælfthryth looks on as Edward is stabbed to death: from a Victorian edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs

The version of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which contains the most detailed account records that Edward was murdered, probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle now stand, in the evening of 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth and Æthelred. 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:

Corfe Castle from below

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.^[31]

Other recensions of the Chronicle report even less detail, the oldest text stating only that he was killed, while versions from the 1040s say that he was martyred.^[32] Of other early sources, the life of Oswald of Worcester attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey adds that Edward was killed by Æthelred's advisors who attacked him when he was dismounting. It agrees that he was buried without ceremony at Wareham.^[33] 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 ...^[34]

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 has her kill Edward herself.^[35]

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.^[36] Although it may be a trope of hagiography, 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."^[37]

The second case is much the same as the second, except that Ælfthryth would be in some manner implicated, either beforehand by plotting the killing, or afterwards in allowing the killers to go free and unpunished.^[38] 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 his actions earlier in the reign.^[39]

Reburial and early cult

The Great Seal of Shaftesbury Abbey, where Edward's relics lay until the English Reformation

Edward's body lay at Wareham for a year before being disinterred. This was initiated by Ælfhere, perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation. According to the life of Oswald, Edward's body was found to be incorrupt when it was disinterred. 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 Queen Ælgifu had spent her latter years. Edward's remains were reburied with lavish public ceremony. Later accounts, such as the Passio S. Eadwardi have more complicated accounts, including the concealment of Edward's body in a marsh, where it was revealed by miraculous events. The Passio dates the reburial to 18 February.^[40]

In 1001, Edward's relics, for by now he was reckoned a saint, 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, he 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.^[41]

The rise of Edward's cult has been interpreted in various ways. It is sometimes as a purely 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. As well as the charter granting land to Shaftesbury at the elevation of Edward's relics in 1001, it has been suggested that Æthelred legislated the observation of Edward's feast days across England in a law code of 1008. It is, however, not quite certain that this innovation, seemingly drafted by Archbishop Wulfstan II, dates from Æthelred's reign, and 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.^[42]

Later cult

During the sixteenth century, under King Henry VIII, the monasteries were dissolved and many holy places were demolished, but Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration.^[43] In 1931, the relics were recovered by Mr. 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.^[44] Mr. 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.^[45]

In time, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia won out and placed the relics in a church in Brookwood Cemetery, in Woking. The St Edward Brotherhood of monks was organized there, as well.^[44] The church is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church. In the Orthodox Church, St Edward is ranked as a Passion-bearer, a type of saint who accepts death out of love for Christ.^[44] Edward is recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.^[44][46] His feast day is celebrated on 18 March, the day of his murder.

See also

• House of Wessex family tree

Notes

References and further reading

English Monarchs Monarchs Pre-Conquest Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious¶ · Edmund the Magnificent¶ · Eadred¶ · Eadwig the Fair¶ · Edgar the Peaceable¶ · Edward the Martyr · Ethelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Canute the Great¶ · Harold Harefoot · Harthacanute · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Atheling Monarchs Post-Conquest William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda (disputed) · Henry II with Henry the Young King  · Richard I · John† · Henry III† · Edward I† · Edward II† · Edward III† · Richard II† · Henry IV† · Henry V† · Henry VI† · Edward IV† · Edward V† · Richard III† · Henry VII† · Henry VIII† · Edward VI† · Jane† · Mary I† · Elizabeth I† · James I‡ · Charles I‡ · Commonwealth · Charles II‡ · James II‡ · William III‡ with Mary II‡ · William III‡ · Anne‡ ¶Also Overlord of Britain. †Also Lord/Monarch of Ireland. ‡Also Monarch of Scotland and Ireland.