The Children of Edgar (2) – King Edward the Martyr

The Fall of Anglo-Saxon England Part III

No Worse Deed For The English Race Was Done Than This
When King Edgar ‘the Peaceful’ died unexpectedly on 8th July 975 he was survived by his two sons Edward from his first marriage to Æthelflæd ‘Eneda’, the so-called ‘White Duck’, and is younger son Æthelred from his marriage to Queen Ælfthryth. Edgar’s marriage to Ælfthryth had produced two sons, but the eldest Edmund died young in 970 or 971, probably no more then 5 or 6 years of age.

The Wicked Queen Elfrida
by Joseph Martin Kronheim (1868)

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle does not record a succession crisis as such following Edgar’s death, the contemporary Winchester A manuscript merely states that after Edgar’s passing “his son Edward, an ungrown child, succeeded.” However, a monk from Ramsey Abbey named Byrhtferth, writing a Life of Oswald (Vita Oswaldi) between 995-1005, mentions a succession dispute between Edward and Æthelred. This was not unusual in late Anglo Saxon England in which there was not a given right of succession but the most suitable successor would be elected by a royal council consisting of noblemen, ealdormen, and bishops known as the witan, or witenagemot (“meeting of wise men”).

Two factions emerged during this disagreement; Edgar’s widow Ælfthryth, Æthelwold Bishop of Winchester and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia promoted the young Ælfthryth, probably now around 7 or 8 years of age, while Dunstan the Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelwine Ealdorman of East Anglia and Byrthnoth of Essex argued for Edgar’s eldest son Edward, now around 13 or 14, to succeed to the kingdom.

It would be surprising if a king, such as Edgar, known for his organisational skills, had not made his wishes clear for the succession after his death, yet any such intent is absent from the sources. Our best clue to Edgar’s thinking may be found in the witness lists of royal charters. For example, in the refoundation charter for the New Minster, Winchester, drafted by Bishop Æthelwold in 966, below King Edgar’s and Archbishop Dunstan’s attestations appears the “ætheling Edmund” where he is described as ‘prince, lawful son of the aforesaid king’, then his older half-brother Edward is listed simply as ‘prince born to the same king’ followed by Queen Ælfthryth as ‘the lawful wife of the aforesaid king’. Æthelred is absent as he was probably not yet born.1

Notably, Edward is never referred to ‘ætheling’ in contemporary sources but as simply the ‘king’s son’.2 It has been suggested the reason for this was that Edward was illegitimate as there is no clear evidence that King Edgar was married to Edward’s mother Æthelflæd, who herself is not mentioned in contemporary sources. Edgar’s widow, Ælfthryth argued that as she was the only wife of Edgar that had been consecrated as Queen, at the same time as the king at Bath in 973, her son Æthelred therefore had priority.

However, any succession dispute or disagreement was quickly resolved in a matter of days and illegitimate or not, Edward as the king’s eldest son with the support of Archbishop Dunstan was elected king on 19th July 975. Edward may have won preference simply as the elder son whereas electing Æthelred would have required a long period of regency government. Æthelred was awarded all the lands of the king’s sons.

The Short Reign of King Edward
Edward’s short reign, 975-978, was pretty uneventful and typically receives just a few lines in the history books; it is the dramatic end of his reign that receives the most attention.

The omens were not good for the young king. The Winchester version of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, A manuscript, entry for 975 records that following Edgar’s death his son succeeded to the kingdom “an ungrown child”. The Winchester chronicle continues: “A star appeared in the firmament that wise soothsayers call by the name of ‘comet’ which brought famine over the earth”. According to the Peterborough Chronicle, the E manuscript, the star ‘comet’ appeared immediately after harvest time that same year and adds “the following year a great famine and very manifold disturbances throughout the English race.”

Comet over Anglo Saxon England

A major conflict is not reported during the two rival factions of Edward’s and Æthelred’s supporters at this time. However, the “manifold disturbances” mentioned in the Chronicle appears to reflect certain magnates taking backing lands that they had lost to religious houses during Edgar’s monastic reforms. For year 975 the A manuscript records that “widely and everywhere in Mercia; wise servants of God were scattered” and the Peterborough Chronicle, E manuscript, states “Edward, Edgar’s son, succeeded to the kingdom” then the very next entry continues that Ealdorman Aelfhere (of Mercia) ordered many monastic institutions to be overthrown which king Edgar had earlier ordered bishop Aethelwold to establish. The Worcester Chronicle, D manuscript, displays an identical record as the Peterborough Chronicle for year 975 but with the additional paragraph:

“In his days, because of his [Edward’s] youth, God’s adversaries Ealdorman Aelfhere and many other, impeded the monastic rule, dissolved monasteries and drove away monks, And over again widows were robbed and many wrongs and injustices arose up thereafter, and after it always got much worse.”3

The Chronicle also records that Oslac, the famous earl, (Ealdorman of York) was banished from the English race at this time, yet no reason is given. The Abingdon II Chronicle (C manuscript) records for the year 975 “And then also the valiant man Oslac was driven from the country, over the tossing waves, the gannet's bath, the tumult of the waters, the homeland of the whale; a grey-haired man, wise and skilled in speech, he was bereft of his lands.” The fate of Oslac is somewhat of a mystery, there are doubts whether he was of Scandinavian or Anglo Saxon stock and the reason for his banishment is unknown. Thus, from the Chronicle evidence for the first year of Edward’s reign we see the lands lost to religious houses of Mercia during Edgar’s reforms were recovered by Ælfhere and there was unrest in the north resulting in a coup against Oslac. We might hazard a guess that Oslac continued to support a bid for Æthelred to be king or opposed Ealdorman Aelfhere’s treatment of the monasteries.

Thus, we find some evidence of disturbances in the early part of Edward’s reign but how severe these were is impossible to tell from the Chronicle entries. It may reflect the weakness of a child king that some magnates such as Ealdorman Ælfhere was seemingly adopting a free rein to recover his lands lost to the monasteries under Edgar. The consequence of this is that Edward is often considered to have been anti-monastic.

Edward’s reign seems to have taken a downward turn in 978 when the Peterborough Chronicle (E) records that “All the foremost councillors of the English race fell from an upper floor at Calne, Dunstan alone was left standing up on a beam, and some were very injured there and some did not escape with their life.” This entry is open to speculation that the disaster at Calne likely wiped out several of Edward’s leading supporters on the royal council which seriously weakened his position leaving the young king vulnerable.

The Martyrdom of a King
The very next entry in the Peterborough Chronicle (E) for the year 979 records that Edward was killed and Aethelred succeeded to the kingdom. All other versions of the Chronicle are in agreement that this occurred in 978 but fail to elaborate on events.

The full entry in the Peterborough Chronicle (E) states that Edward was murdered in the evening on 18th March at Corfe gap 4 and they buried him at Wareham without any royal honours, the writer laments “No worse deed for the English race was done than this since they came to this land”. The entry adds Aethelred succeeded to the kingdom and very quickly after was consecrated at Kingston. The next entry in the Peterborough Chronicle (E), year 980, states that “Ealdorman Aelfhere fetched the holy king’s body from Wareham and carried it with great honour to Shaftesbury.”

The route of the 979 translation from Wareham to Shaftesbury 
now a 32-mile pilgrimage route in Dorset named 'St Edward's Way'

An anonymous short Latin poem probably composed in the 990s found in a manuscript composed a little later at Canterbury c.1000, claims that Edward was killed by an act of betrayal of the king’s own people and includes the earliest account of the translation of Edward’s body from Wareham to Shaftesbury.5

The monk of Ramsey named Byrhtferth includes a descriptive account of the murder in his Latin Life of Oswald of Worcester (Vita Oswaldi). Byrhtferth, who gives the murder a biblical slant by comparing Edward’s ordeal to the betrayal of Christ by Judas, telling us that the young king went to visit his half-brother Æthelred at his step-mother Ælfthryth's estate at the Gap of Corfe in the Purbeck Hills in Dorset. Ælfthryth's leading men went to greet Edward while Æthelred stayed inside with his mother. Byrhtferth continues:

“The men, all armed, took hold of Edward. The one on his right-hand side pulled him towards him, as if to give him a kiss, while another grabbed his left side firmly and stabbed him. Edward fell from his horse, dead. His body was taken by his thegns to the house of a poor man, and covered only by a cheap blanket.”

Byrhtferth adds that Edward’s body was hastily buried without the appropriate honours. A year later the body was discovered incorrupt and Ealdorman Ælfhere then arranged the translation to a more fitting, unspecified, burial place.6 Today’s historians generally see no reason to doubt Byrhtferth’s account.

Edward was quickly declared a saint and descriptions of his murder and burial became more elaborate in later versions of the story as his cult grew, yet these accounts seem rather confused over the date. The so-called northern recension of the Chronicle (Worcester D, and Peterborough E, manuscripts) record the murder of Edward immediately followed by Æthelred’s coronation in quick succession in 979 as noted above.

However, a number of Æthelred’s diplomas indicate that his reign began in 978 which concurs with the near contemporary Winchester, A manuscript, of the Chronicle which states the year of his accession was the same year as Edward’s murder. The Abingdon II, C manuscript, concurs with the Winchester Chronicle that it was the same year, then in the following entry states for 979 that Aethelred was consecrated as king 14 days after Easter at Kingston.

The confusion between the Chronicle versions appears to be due to Æthelred’s subsequent accession shortly after Edward’s murder on 18th March 978 and then his formal consecration over a year later on 4th May 979. But why the delay between Æthelred’s accession and consecration?

In his Life of Oswald Byrhtferth tells us that Edward was buried in haste, without ceremony befitting a king which is repeated in the Northern Recension of the Chronicle that adds Edward’s body was buried at Wareham. The treatment of Edward’s body is one of the most shocking aspects of the whole affair. There is no contemporary source that provides a satisfactory explanation for what happened to it. He was an anointed king, as such there was an element of divinity about Anglo Saxon kings, his murder would have been seen as a sin of the highest order and must have sent shockwaves throughout the nation of the English.

One possible explanation for the delay in Æthelred’s consecration is that Archbishop Dunstan refused to anoint him as king until Edward’s body was found and received a proper burial befitting a king. The ceremonial translation of Edward’s relics finally bringing closure to his ordeal.

Later, post-Conquest accounts became more elaborate, however, there is general agreement that a year after the murder Edward’s body was discovered incorrupt, a sign of a sanctity, which the Ealdorman Ælfhere then translated it to more appropriate resting place. Most accounts concur that this translation was to Shaftesbury Abbey but in the Life of Oswald, Byrhtferth does not specify a location.

In addition to the shocking treatment of Edward’s body the other disturbing fact is that the murderer(s) of an Anglo Saxon king of England are never identified in contemporary sources, coupled with the lack of action by the newly crowned king Æthelred to track down and punish his half-brother's killers. Indeed contemporary records are totally blank on this matter.

However later post-Conquest texts lay the blame for Edward’s murder firmly with Queen Ælfthryth and portray her as the archetypical evil step-mother.

Corfe Castle

The Wicked Step-Mother
The late 11-century Passio et Miracula Sancti Eadwardi Regis et Martyris (Passion and Miracles of Saint Edward, King and Martyr) attributed to the prolific hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, later of Canterbury, is the earliest account to implicate Queen Ælfthryth in the murder of king Edward, her own step-son.7 Ælfthryth had the most to gain by removing Edward, the barrier preventing her son Æthelred from becoming king; she was destined to be the nation’s prime suspect.

Goscelin’s Passio tells us that Edward went out hunting with some knights and his dogs near a village called Wareham. He purposed to visit his brother Ethelred who was at his mother Ælfthryth’s estate at Corfe some three miles from the village. Edward became separated from the hunting party and was now alone as he approached Corfe.

When Edward arrived at Ælfthryth’s residence he was offered to stay as a guest but he declined and asked for a drink. On taking the drink from the cupbearer who made as if to kiss to him, Edward was pierced in his bowels from behind with a dagger. Being inflicted with a serious wound, he fell from his horse to the ground, lifeless. Goscelin tells us this took place during the season of Lent, on the 15th day before the Kalends of April (18th March).

Ælfthryth ordered her thegns to hide Edward’s body at a blind woman's house that was nearby. They dragged the body by the feet to the house and covered it with straw. The next day, after Edward's body had spent the night at her home, the blind woman's sight had miraculously been restored. On hearing of this miracle Ælfthryth, eager to prevent any potential veneration of her step-son, the next day had Edward’s body moved and hidden in a marshy location.

The next year a column of fire revealed the place where the body was hidden. Men from Wareham recovered Edward’s body from the marsh and brought it to their Church where they buried him at its eastern curtain, on the day of the ides of the month of February (13th February).

Ealdorman Ælfhere became aware that Edward’s body had been found and arranged the translation to a more worthy place. Wilfrida (Wulfthryth) abbess of Wilton was to carry out the ceremony. Edith of Wilton, the sister of Edward himself, and daughter of king Edgar and the same Wilfrida was also present. When the body was removed from the ground and found unharmed without any corruption, Edith ran up and embraced it and conferred many kisses. The body of the martyr was placed on a bier and taken to Shaftesbury where it was buried in the north part of the principal altar with great honour on the twelfth day before the kalends of March (18th February).8

An Unsolved Crime
It must be admitted that there is no contemporary evidence to suggest Ælfthryth was responsible for the slaying of the young king although Edward was murdered when he visited his half-brother Æthelred at her estate at Corfe. What does seem odd is no one was ever held to account for the murder. If it is accepted that Æthelred was too young to be have been directly involved, we cannot present the same defence for his mother Ælfthryth who, if not the murderer herself, must at least have known which of her thegns carried out the deed, yet she took no action against them.

Whereas contemporary sources remained silent with regard to the murderer later medieval chroniclers, following the Passio, had no doubt that Ælfthryth was guilty. By the late-11th century - early 12th century a tradition had grown that the Queen not only planned Edward’s murder but executed it with her own hands.

Early-12th century Anglo-Norman chroniclers followed with accounts that had clearly been influenced by the Passio. Henry of Huntingdon wrote in his Historia Anglorum (History of the English) that he had heard that Ælfthryth personally stabbed her stepson to death while offering him a cup of wine. William of Malmesbury’s further elaborated the story in his chronicle, Gesta Regum Anglorum (the Deeds of the English Kings) again with Queen Ælfthryth as the one who dealt the lethal blow.

As king, Æthelred failed to hunt down the killers of his half-brother - perhaps he was covering for his mother? Indeed, Æthelred directly supported Edward’s rapid elevation to sainthood and his veneration at Shaftesbury promoting his cult into the 11th century; the action of a beloved brother or guilty participant?




Notes & References
1. Richard Abels, Æthelred the Unready: The Failed King, Penguin Monarchs, 2018, p.11.
2. An ætheling (Old English: æþeling) was a prince of the royal dynasty in Anglo-Saxon England who was eligible to become king.
3. Michael Swanton, translator and editor, The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Dent, 1997, p.121.
Swanton notes that this paragraph is peculiar to the Worcester Chronicle (D), which he considers to be in the style of Archbishop Wulfstan.
4. Corfe ‘geate’ = ‘cutting, passage’, relates to a prominent gap in the Purbeck Hills where Corfe Castle stands today. The first stone constructions on the motte was under William the Conqueror, yet archaeological evidence has been found for a large Anglo-Saxon wooden structure that stood on the site before the Norman conquest.
5. Levi Roach, Æthelred the Unready, Yale University Press, 2017, pp.73.
6. Ibid. pp.73-74.
7. In medieval hagiography, a Passion (Latin ‘passio’ = ‘to suffer’) was a written account detailing the execution of a Christian martyr. As Edward was betrayed by fellow Christians he was considered a martyr. It is Edward’s death as a ‘holy innocent’ that earned him sainthood rather than the deeds of his reign (Roach, p.169).
Goscelin’s account is said to be based partly on an earlier account of St Edward which may have been written at Shaftesbury in the early years of the 11th century - Simon Keynes, The Diplomas of King Æthelred the Unready 978-1016, Cambridge University Press, 1980, p168.
8. The Passion of St. Edward, King and Martyr by Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, Translated by Ryan Grant, Introduction by Eric Sammons, Saragossa Press, 2020. The Latin text used for Grant’s translation is based on Christine Fell’s analysis of the various manuscripts (Fell, Edward, King and Martyr, University of Leeds,1971).


A Note on the Anglo Saxon Chronicle
The first version of the Chronicle, now lost, was thought to have been created in Wessex during the reign of King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) with emphasis on the survival of the English nation in the face of Viking invasion. This original, referred to as the ‘Common Stock’, was copied and distributed to monasteries across England in the late 9th century which were then independently updated. Thus, The Anglo Saxon Chronicle does not exist as one singular uniform text but a number of individual texts with a similar core but with considerable local variations.

The Principal manuscripts:
A. The Winchester (or Parker Chronicle) ms
B. The Abingdon I ms – includes the Mercian Register (902-924)
C. The Abingdon II ms – mid-11th century
D. The Worcester ms - mid-11th century (Northern recension)
E. The Peterborough ms (Northern recension)
F. The Canterbury ms (Northern recension) – bilingual version

Notable variations between manuscript versions of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle can be found for example in the ‘Northern Recension’, as noted above in annals 975-979, which provided the basis for mss D, E and F, was likely produced in the early-11th century at York and said to derive from a copy of the ‘common stock’ with additional material from earlier northern annals.

Mss C,D,E are notable for the anonymous chronicler’s pessimistic account for 983 to 1022 and criticism of Æthelred the Unready and his council that resulted in the Danish conquest of England.

Sources:

- Michael Swanton, translator and editor, The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Dent, 1997, Introduction, pp.xi-xxxv.
- v Simon Keynes, ’Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ in M Lapidge, J Blair, S Keynes, D Scragg, editors, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell Publishing, First Edition, 2001, pp.35-36.

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