EDWARD
323
EDWARD
Nonnandy, being thus half-brother to King Edmund
Ironside, Ethelred's son by his first wife, and to King
Hardicanute, Emma's son by her second marriage
with Canute. When hardly ten years old he was sent
with his brother Alfred into Normandy to be brought
up at the court of the duke his uncle, the Danes hav-
ing gained the mastery in England, Thus he spent
the best years of his life in exile, the crown having
been settled by Canute, with Emma's consent, upon
his own offspring by her. Early misfortune thus
taught Edward the folly of ambition, and he grew up
in innocence, delighting chiefly in assisting at Mass
and the church offices, and in association with relig-
ious, whilst not disdaining the pleasures of the chase,
or recreations suited to his station. Upon Canute's
death in 1035 his illegitimate son, Harold, seized the
throne, Hardicanute being then in Denmark, and Ed-
ward and his brother Alfred were persuaded to make
an attempt to gain the crown, which resulted in the
cruel death of Alfred who had fallen into Harold's
hands, whilst Edward was obliged to return to Nor-
mandy. On Hardicanute's sudden death in 1042,
Edward was called by acclamation to the throne at
the age of about forty, being welcomed even by the
Danish settlers owing to his gentle saintly character.
His reign was one of almost unbroken peace, the
threatened invasion of Canute's son, Sweyn of Nor-
way, being averted by the opportune attack on him of
Sweyn of Denmark ; and the internal difficulties occa-
sioned by the ambition of Earl Godwin and his sons
being settletl without bloodshed by Edward's own
gentleness and prudence. He undertook no wars ex-
cept to repel an inroad of the Welsh, and to assist
Malcora III of Scotland against Macbeth, the usurper
of his throne. Being devoid of personal ambition,
Edward's one aim was the welfare of his people. He
remitted the odious "Danegelt", which had need-
lessly continued to be levied; and though profuse in
alms to the poor and for religious purposes, he made
his own royal patrimony suffice without imposing
taxes. Such was the contentment caused by "the
good St. Edward's laws", that their enactment was
repeatedly demanded by later generations, when they
felt them.selves oppressed.
Yielding to the entreaty of his nobles, he accepted as his consort the virtuous Editha, Earl CJodwin's daughter. Having, however, made a vow of chastity, he first required her agreement to live with him only as a sister. As he could not leave his kingdom with- out injury to his people, the making of a pilgrimage to St. Peter's tomb, to which he had bound himself, was commuted by the pope into the rebuilding at West- minster of St. Peter's abbey, the dedication of which took place but a week before his death, and in which he was buried. St. Edward was the first King of England to touch for the "king's evil", many suffer- ers from which disease were cured by him. He was canonized by Alexander III in 1161. His feast is kept on the 1.3th of October, his incorrupt body having been solemnly translated on that day in 1 1G3 by St. Thomas of Canterbury in the presence of King Henry II.
St. ELRF.n. De Sancto Eduardo Rege: Ada SS.. 5 Jan. (Ant- werp, 1643) ; Lives of Edward the Confessor; William op Malmesbuhy, Ge^ta Regum, and Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora in /?. .S. (London, 1858, 1872, 1887); Butler. Lives of the Saints (Dublin, 1872); Challoxer, Britannia Sancta {'Lon- don, 1745); LiNGARD, History of England (London, 1883).
G. E. Phillips.
Edward the Martyr, Saint, King of England, son to Edgar the Peaceful, and uncle to St. Edward the Confessor; b. about 9()2; d. 18 March, 979. _ His acce.s- sion to the throne on his father's death, in 975, was oppofsed by a party headed by his stepmother. Queen Elfrida, who was bent on .securing the crown for her own son Ethelred, then aged seven, in which she eventually was successful. Edward's claim, however, was supported by St. Dunstan and the clergy and by
most of the nobles ; and having been acknowledged by
the Witan, he was crowned by St. Dunstan. Though
only thirteen, the young king had already given prom-
ise of high sanctity, and during his brief reign of three
years and a half won the affection of his people by his
many virtues. His stepmother, who still cherished
her treacherous designs, contrived at last to bring
about his death. Whilst hunting in Dorsetshire he
happened (18 March, 979) to call at Corfe Castle
where she lived. There, whilst drinking on horseback
a glass of mead offered him at the castle gate, he was
stabbed by an assassin in the bowels. He rode away,
but soon fell from his horse, and being dragged by the
stirrup was flung into a deep morass, where his body
was revealed by a pillar of light. He was buried first
at Wareham, whence three years later, his body, hav-
ing been found entire, was translated to Shaftesbury
Abbey by St. Dunstan and Earl Alfere of Mercia, who
in Edgar's lifetime had been one of his chief oppo-
nents. Many miracles are said to have been obtained
through his intercession. Elfrida, struck with re-
pentance for her crimes, built the two monasteries of
Wherwell and Arabresbury, in the first of which she
ended her days in penance. The violence of St. Ed-
wartl's end, joined to the fact that the party opposed
to him had been that of the irreligious, whilst he him-
self had ever acted as a defender of the Church, ob-
tained for him the title of Martyr, which is given to
him in all the old English calendars on 18 March, also
in the Roman Martyrology.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in R. S. (London, 1861); Malmes- BURY, Gcsta Regum, ibid. (London, 1872); Tynemouth and Capgrave. Nova Legenda AnglicB ((Jxford, 1901); Challoner, Britannia Sancta (London, 1745); Lingard, History of England (London, 1883); Butler, Lives of the Saints (Dublin, 1872); Sta.nton, Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892).
G. E. Phillips.
Edwin (.Eddini), Saint, the first Christian King of Northumbria, b. about 585, son of ^Ella, King of Deira, the southern division of Northumbria; d. 12 October, 633. Upon .Ella's death in 588, the sover- eignty over both divisions of Northumbria was usurped by Ethebric of Bernicia, and retained at his death by his son Ethelfrid ; Edwin, JSUa's infant son, being com- pelled until his thirtieth year to wander from one friendly prince to another, in continual danger from Ethelfrid's attempts upon his life. Thus when he was residing with King Redwald of East Anglia, Ethelfrid repeatedly endeavoured to bribe the latter to destroy him. Finally, however, Redwald's refusal to betray his guest led in 616 to a battle, fought upon the river Idle, in which Ethelfrid himself was slain, and Edwin was invited to the throne of Northumbria. On the death of his first wife, Edwin, in 625, asked for the hand of Ethelburga, sister to Eadbald, the Christian King of Kent, expressing his own readiness to embrace Christianity, if upon examination he should find it superior to his own religion. Ethelburga was accom- panied to Northumbria by St. Paulinus, one of St. Augustine's fellow missionaries, who thus became its first apostle. By him Edwin was baptized at York in 627, and thenceforth showed himself most zealous for the conversion of his people. In instance of this. Venerable Bede tells how, at their royal villa of Ye- verin in Northumberland, the king and queen enter- tained Paulinus for five weeks, whilst he was occupied from morning to night in instructing and baptizing the crowds that flocked to him. By Edwin's per- suasion, moreover, Eorpwald, King of East Anglia, son of his old friend Redwald, was led to become a Christian. In token of his authority over the other kings as Bretwalda, Edwin used to have the tujn (a tuft of feathers on a spear, a military ensign of Roman origin) borne publicly before him, and he received tribute from the Welsh princes. Under him the law was so respected, that it became, as the Venerable Bede attests, a proverb that "a woman might travel
