Editing Edward the Martyr (section)

== Death ==
[[Image:Corfe Castle2.jpg|thumb|The post-[[Norman Conquest|Conquest]] [[Corfe Castle]]]]

Edward was killed on [[Ælfthryth (wife of Edgar)|Ælfthryth]]'s estate in [[Corfe Castle (village)|the Gap of Corfe]] in the [[Purbeck Hills]] in [[Dorset]] on the evening of 18 March 978.{{sfn|Hart|2007}}{{efn|The historian [[David Dumville]] argues that Edward was killed on 18 March 979, but most historians give 978,{{sfnm|1a1=Dumville|1y=2007|1pp=269–283|2a1=Keynes|2y=2012b|2p=137|3a1=Marafioti|3y=2014|3p=162 n. 3}} and Levi Roach thinks that there is little doubt that 978 is correct.{{sfn|Roach|2016|pp=72–73}} }} The only detailed pre-Conquest account is by [[Byrhtferth]]:{{blockquote|One day towards evening the remarkable and elected king, seeking the consolations of brotherly love, arrived at the house where his beloved brother was living with the dowager queen, as we have said. The magnates and leading men went to meet him, as was only fitting; he [the younger son] remained inside with the dowager queen, his mother. Those magnates had agreed among themselves a wicked plot: they were possessed of so damnable an intention and so murky and diabolical a blindness, that they did not fear to lay hands on God's anointed. Armed men surrounded him on all sides; with them was standing the royal butler, humbly waiting to be of service. The venerable king had with him very few soldiers, since he did not suspect anyone, trusting "in the Lord and in the might of His power". He had been instructed in holy scripture under the tutelage of Bishop Sideman; he was strong in body and sturdy. For when the conspirators surrounded him — and it was just as the Jews once surrounded our Lord — he remained sitting on his horse, fearless. They were seized by a single madness, an equal insanity ... The soldiers laid hold of him: one on his right-hand side drew him towards him, as if he wished to give him a kiss; another grabbed his left side firmly and gave him the death blow. And the King shouted out, as best he could: "What are you doing, breaking my right hand?" And suddenly he fell from his horse, and he was dead. This martyr of God was lifted up by his thegns, and taken to the house of a certain churl, where no [[Gregorian chant]] and no funereal lament was heard; rather, this distinguished king of the whole country lay covered only by a cheap blanket, awaiting the light of day.{{sfn|Lapidge|2009|pp=138–141}}{{efn|The [[medieval Latin]] scholar [[Michael Lapidge]] argues that parallels between the biblical description of the betrayal of Christ and Byrhtferth's account of Edward's death suggest that he may have fabricated it,{{sfn|Lapidge|1996|pp=79–80}} but Yorke disagrees, and Roach sees little reason not to trust Byrhtferth.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=1999|1p=102|2a1=Roach|2y=2016|2p=77}} }}}}

Byrhtferth does not say when and where Edward died, and the oldest surviving version of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (''ASC A'') just says that he was killed in 978. ''ASC C'', written in the 1040s after Edward had come to be seen as a saint, states that he was martyred. The fullest account of his death in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is in the northern recension, ''ASC D'' and ''ASC E'',{{efn| ''ASC D'' and ''E'' are together known as the northern recension because they contain material of northern interest not found in other versions.{{sfn|Whitelock|1979|p=113}} }} which post-dates the Conquest. This gives the date and location of his death. No version of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' states who committed the murder, but the northern recension blames his relatives for failing to avenge his death,{{sfnm|1a1=Whitelock|1y=1979|1pp=230–231|2a1=Williams|2y=2003|2p=11}} and a poem about Edward's death dating to around 1000 says: "It is certain that he died through envy, at the hands of his own kin."{{sfnm|1a1=Dumville|1y=2007|1pp=277–280|2a1=Keynes|2y=2012a|2p=117}}

Pre-Conquest accounts of the murder do not say who was responsible, whereas post-Conquest chroniclers and hagiographers almost all blame Ælfthryth. The ''Passio'' and John of Worcester claim that she ordered the killing,{{sfnm|1a1=Fell|1y=1971|1p=xvi|2a1=Roach|2y=2016|2pp=74–76|3a1=Darlington|3a2=McGurk|3y=1995|3pp=428–429}} while William of Malmesbury has her handing him a drink to distract him and her servant stabbing him, and [[Henry of Huntingdon]] writes that she killed Edward herself.{{sfnm|1a1=Mynors|1a2=Thomson|1a3=Winterbottom|1y=1998|1pp=264–265 (162.2)|2a1=Greenway|2y=1996|2pp=324–325}} The ''Passio'' is so biased against Ælfthryth that it deletes favourable information about her in its sources, such as the ''[[Regularis Concordia (Winchester)|Regularis Concordia]]'' of around 973, which laid down rules for monastic life. It gave Ælfthryth the role of protectress of nunneries, but the ''Passio'' changes the protectress to Edward's mother.{{sfnm|1a1=Fell|1y=1971|1p=xviii|2a1=Keynes|2y=1980|2p=172}}

Modern historians have offered a variety of interpretations of Edward's killing. Some blame Ælfthryth's followers and think that she may have been personally responsible.{{sfnm|1a1=Stafford|1y=2004|2a1=Higham|2y=1997|2p=14}} Cnut's biographer, Michael Lawson, thinks that the failure to punish the killers is suspicious and points to Ælfthryth's guilt.{{sfn|Lawson|2011|p=45}} Roach disagrees, seeing the fact that no contemporary blamed Ælfthryth as significant, and comments that we must be careful not to see conspiracies which did not exist.{{sfn|Roach|2016|pp=75–76}} The editor of the ''Passio'', [[Christine Fell]], points out that many of the details of Ælfthryth's role appear in the earlier stories of the murders of Anglo-Saxon royals, [[Saint Kenelm]] by his sister and [[Æthelberht II of East Anglia|Saint Æthelberht]] by his potential mother-in-law. Fell argues that it was inevitable that Ælfthryth's hagiographical role in the ''Passio'' would similarly be that of scapegoat.{{sfn|Fell|1978|pp=8–11}} Yorke comments that such stories "draw upon hagiographical conventions spiced with traditional beliefs in the enmity of step-mothers for step-children, and should not be taken as reliable accounts of what actually occurred".{{sfn|Yorke|1999|p=101}}

Another theory is that the murder was the culmination of the conflict between Ælfhere and Æthelwine, and that Ælfhere had Edward killed to preserve his own power and put his own candidate on the throne. The historian Alan Thacker sees Ælfhere's role in the reburial of Edward as an act of [[Atonement|expiation]].{{sfnm|1a1=Thacker|1y=1996|1pp=248–249|2a1=John|2y=1996|2p=120}} However, Roach points out that Byrhtferth praises Ælfhere's role, even though he was hostile to the ealdorman, and would have condemned him if he had been implicated in the crime.{{sfn|Roach|2016|p=76}} The contemporary poem about Edward's death praises Ælfhere's role, describing him as "most worthy leader".{{sfn|Dumville|2007|p=280}} Miller thinks that Æthelred's thegns probably acted on their own initiative in the hope of personal advancement.{{sfn|Miller|2014c|p=168}}

Edward's personality may have been a factor in his death, as afterwards the opposing factions were able to reach a compromise.{{sfn|Yorke|1999|p=107}} There were few changes at court: Ælfthryth and Bishop Æthelwold became more prominent, but Edward's officials mainly kept their positions.{{sfn|Ryan|2013|p=342}} Williams challenges the consensus that Edward's death was the result of a plot. She compares his death to [[Beaduheard|an earlier outbreak of violence due to a misunderstanding]]:{{blockquote|It is possible that King Edward's death was also 'accidental' in that, far from being planned, it arose from a provocative confrontation between the young king (prone to violent behaviour, according to Byrhtferth) and one or more of the noblemen attending on his brother. It remains curious that the perpetrator is not named; Edward's grandfather King Edmund was killed in similar circumstances but "it was widely known how he ended his life, that Leofa stabbed (''ofstang'') him at [[Pucklechurch]]". Could it be that too many people (perhaps not all of them belonging to Ælfthryth's faction) were secretly relieved to be rid of a violent and unstable youth?{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=12}}}}