Editing Edward Burne-Jones (section)

==Early life==
[[Image:Frederick Hollyer Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris 1874.jpg|right|thumb|Burne-Jones with [[William Morris]], 1874, by [[Frederick Hollyer]]]]
Born Edward Coley Burne Jones (the hyphenation of his last names was introduced later) was born in [[Birmingham]], the son of a Welshman, Edward Richard Jones, a frame-maker at [[Bennetts Hill]], where a [[blue plaque]] commemorates the painter's childhood. A pub on the site of the house is called the ''Briar Rose'' in honour of Burne-Jones' work.<ref name="mil">{{Cite web |last=Millington |first=Ruth |title=Edward Burne-Jones and The Legend of the Briar Rose |url=https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/stories/edward-burne-jones-and-the-legend-of-the-briar-rose |access-date=29 January 2023 |website=Birmingham Museums}}</ref> His mother Elizabeth Jones (née Coley) died within six days of his birth, and Edward was raised by his father, and the family housekeeper, Ann Sampson, an obsessively affectionate but humourless, and unintellectual local girl.{{sfn|Wildman|1998|pp= 42–43}}{{sfn|Daly|1989|pp=249–251}} He attended Birmingham's [[King Edward's School, Birmingham|King Edward VI grammar school]] in 1844 and the [[Birmingham School of Art]] from 1848 to 1852, before studying [[theology]] at [[Exeter College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|last=Newall|first=Christopher|title=Jones, Sir Edward Coley Burne-, first baronet (1833–1898)|id=4051}}</ref> At Oxford, he became a friend of [[William Morris]] as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry. The two Exeter undergraduates, together with a group of Jones' friends from Birmingham known as the [[Birmingham Set]],{{sfn|Rose|1981|p=78}} formed a society, which they called "The Brotherhood". The members of the brotherhood read the works of [[John Ruskin]] and [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], visited churches, and idealised aspects of the aesthetics and social structure of the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="mil"/> At this time, Burne-Jones discovered [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' which would become a substantial influential in his life. At that time, neither Burne-Jones nor Morris knew [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] personally, but both were much influenced by his works, and later met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their ''Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'', founded by Morris in 1856 to promote the Brotherhood’s ideas.<ref name="DNB1909">{{cite DNBSupp|wstitle=Burne-Jones, Edward Coley|last=Ward|first=Thomas Humphry }}</ref><ref name="DNB">{{cite DNBSupp |wstitle=Morris, William (1834-1896)
 <!--NB dash not ndash on wikisource--> |display=Morris, William (1834–1896) |last=Mackail |first=John William}}</ref>

Burne-Jones had intended to become a church minister, but under Rossetti's influence both he and Morris decided to become artists, and Burne-Jones left college before taking a degree to pursue a career in art. In February 1857, Rossetti wrote to [[William Bell Scott]]:
{{quotation|Two young men, projectors of the ''Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,'' have recently come up to town from Oxford, and are now very intimate friends of mine. Their names are Morris and Jones. They have turned artists instead of taking up any other career to which the university generally leads, and both are men of real genius. Jones's designs are marvels of finish and imaginative detail, unequalled by anything unless perhaps [[Albert Dürer]]'s finest works.<ref name="DNB1909" />}}