Editing Edward the Martyr (section)

=== Later cult ===
Edward was the only tenth century king to be buried in a nunnery. Shaftesbury, which had been founded by Alfred the Great for one of his daughters, had strong royal connections,{{sfn|Yorke|2021|p=68}} and the cult of Edward was valuable to it, giving it a high status among Wessex monasteries. At the end of the Anglo-Saxon period it was the richest Benedictine nunnery and Glastonbury the richest monastery of all. Later in the Middle Ages there was a saying that "If the abbot of Glastonbury might marry the abbess of Shaftesbury, their heir would have more land than the King of England".{{sfn|Keynes|1999|pp=55–56}} Edward's cult was important for the prosperity of the nunnery and town of Shaftesbury in the later Middle Ages, and in some medieval documents the town is called ''Edwardsstowe'', "the holy place of Edward".{{sfn|Yorke|1999|p=99}}

[[Lanfranc]], the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, denied the sanctity of many Anglo-Saxon saints. Edward's cult survived but it was regarded as "rustic" and relegated to a minor status only to be honoured in establishments with a particular reason to honour him, such as Shaftesbury. His cult revived in the later Middle Ages, although almost wholly in the southern half of the country. He was regarded as one of the English national saints until they were relegated by the Plantagenets' preference for the more martial figure of [[Saint George]]. Edward survived the [[English Reformation]], but as a low key figure only remembered on his feast day.{{sfn|Watson|2021|pp=9–10, 14–17}} Edward's feast of 18 March is still listed in the festal calendar of the [[Book of Common Prayer (1662)|1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'']] of the [[Church of England]].{{sfn|Watson|2021|p=1}} The historian [[Frank Barlow (historian)|Frank Barlow]] comments that popular detestation of the crime led people to transform an unpleasant youth into a royal martyr.{{sfn|Barlow|1997|p=4}} The historian Tom Watson commented, "For an obnoxious teenager who showed no evidence of sanctity or kingly attributes and who should have been barely a footnote, his cult has endured mightily well."{{sfn|Watson|2021|p=19}}