Born c.962, the young Edward succeeded his father Edgar (959-975) as king of England on July 8th, 975.
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He was murdered after less than three years on the throne at Corfe Castle on Dorset's Isle of Purbeck at the instigation of his step-mother Queen Elfrida. A good Christian, killed by "irreligious" opponents, Edward was canonised as Saint Edward the Martyr in 1001.
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On the death of his father Edgar July 8th, 975, Edward's accession to the throne was contested by a party led by Queen Elfrida his stepmother who sought the throne for her son Ethelred. It was Edward however who had the greater support, including that of St Dunstan (arhcbishop of Canterbury), and was confirmed as king by the witan.
On march 18th, 978. the young king was hunting on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset whilst staying at Corfe castle, the home of his stepmother Elfrida and Ethelred. At Corfe, he was offered a cup of mead by Elfrida and, whilst drinking it, he was stabbed in the back by one of her servants. The young Ethelred, a child only tens years of age at the time, could not have been directly implicated in the murder of the king.
According to legend, it was at her home at Corfe Castle on Dorset's Isle of Purbeck that the young King Edward, only sixteen years of age, was murdered by his step-mother Elfrida on March 18th, 978 so that her own son, Ethelred, might take the crown of England as his own.
The legend tells us that the young king stopped at Corfe while hunting on the Isle of Purbeck and was shown great hospitality by Elfrida during his stay who offered him a farewell cup of wine as he was departing having pre-arranged that one of her retainers would stab him in the back while he drank.
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The young Ethelred, a child only tens years of age at the time, could not have been directly implicated in the murder of the king.
There is little to support this legend but much to discredit it; the hill on which the castle now stands was then in the possession of Shaftesbury Abbey; the Domesday Book of 1087 makes no mention of a castle on the site; and, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in dealing with Edward's murder, records its site as 'domus Elfridae' at 'Corfes Geat';-
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A.D. 979. This year was King Edward slain at even-tide, at Corfe-gate, on the fifteenth before the kalends of April, and then was he buried at Wareham, without any kind of kingly honours. There has not been 'mid Angles a worse deed done than this was, since they first Britain-land sought. Men him murdered, but God him glorified. He was in life an earthly king; he is now after death a heavenly saint. Him would not his earthly kinsmen avenge, but him hath his heavenly Father greatly avenged. The earthly murderers would his memory on earth blot out, but the lofty Avenger hath his memory in the heavens and on earth wide-spread. They who would not erewhile to his living body bow down, they now humbly on knees bend to his dead bones. Now we may understand that men's wisdom and their devices, and their councils, are like nought 'gainst God's resolves. This year Ethelred succeeded to the kingdom; and he was very quickly after that, with much joy of the English witan, consecrated king at Kingston.
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To continue with the tradition; fataly wounded, the young king spurred his steed to gallop away towards Wareham but soon fainted and fell from his mount to be trapped in the stirrup. His body is said to have been found along the Wareham road where there is now a cottage called 'St Edward's Cottage', hidden for a time before being buried in the town.
The wicked step-mother? Well, some accounts say that she retired to a nunnery at Bere Regis to atone for her sins and ended her days there as abbess.
BAAAGBSO.php - The Murder of Ewdard
Edward was canonised as Saint Edward the Martyr in 1001 and his remains were removed from his grave and intered in an elaborate shrine at Shaftesbury Abbey.
At Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, although Shaftesbury Abbey was dissolved, the remains of the saint king were so well hidden that they were preserved from desecration.
The king's remains were recovered during an archaeological excavation in 1931 by Mr Wilson-Claridge. They were donated to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia about 1982 and buried in the church now known as St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey.
The St Edward Brotherhood of monks was also organised at Woking in Surrey.
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Traditionally the site of the seat of the king's step-mother, 
