EDWARD THE MARTYR, KING OF ENGLAND, ST.

Born c. 962; died Corfe, Dorset, March 18, 978. His succession to his father, edgar the peaceful, in 975 was supported by Archbishop dunstan of canterbury and opposed by a faction that preferred his younger stepbrother, Ethelred, and employed the forces hostile to monasticism. He was murdered when he visited Ethelred. His body was buried at Wareham, and in 980, translated to Shaftesbury, where it was elevated by order of King Ethelred in 1001. The Vita s. Oswaldi (c. 990–1005) records miracles worked by Edward. In 1008 the king and the witan ordered the observance of his Massday. Edward is listed in the Roman Martyrology; his feast is observed in the Diocese of Plymouth.

Feast: March 18; June 20 (translation).

Bibliography: Sources. t. d. hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (Rerum Brittanicarum medii aevi scriptores ) 26.1.2:579–581. Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901), 1:2418–20. j. earle, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. c. plummer, 2 v. (Oxford 1892–99) 1:121–125; 2:163–169, 181. c. e. wright, The Cultivation of Saga in Anglo-Saxon England (Edinburgh 1939) 146–153, 157–171. Literature. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 6:423–424. d. j. v. fisher, "The Anti-monastic Reaction in the Reign of Edward the Martyr," Cambridge Historical Journal 10, (1950–52) 254–270. w. bonser, An Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Bibliography, 450–1087, 2 v. (Berkeley 1957) Nos. 1296, 1322, 3589, 4411.

[b. w. scholz]