Edward the Martyr

Edward, the son of Edgar the Peaceful and Aethelfleda of Wessex, was born in about 963.

Edward the Martyr

Edward was about twelve-years-old when he succeeded his father, Edgar the Peaceful, as King of England. Three years later he was dead, having been stabbed to death at Corfe Castle as the result of a plot, possibly hatched by his stepmother, which made her son, Aethelred, King of England.

Two years later, when the body was exhumed, rumours circulated that decomposition had not taken place and miracles were attributed to the dead king. Aethelred was forced to acknowledge Edward as a saint and ordered the body to be re-interred at Shaftesbury Abbey.

In 1931 Archaeologists believed they had discovered Edward's body in the Abbey ruins. Later examinations indicated knife wounds, though some doubt the bones are actually those of King Edward. In 1984 the bones were re-interred in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.

Edward the Martyr died unmarried and was succeeded by his half-brother, Aethelred the Unready.

Corfe Castle, Dorset, where Edward the Martyr was killed.