medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Fellow List-Members
My impression has been that the cult of Edward the Martyr got going very soon after his murder and had less to do with his support of the so-called monastic party, or with any desperation by Ethelred a generation later, than with the immediate need for political consensus in order to resolve the secular struggles for power which led to his assassination. (The involvement of the church came about because religious houses were still regarded as family concerns, their lands subject to reappropriation by the founders' heirs.) Miracles seem to have been reported very quickly and his body was translated to Shaftesbury from his place of death the very next year.
The speed, and the devotional and other reparations made by powerful men who may have been glad to see him removed, are strongly reminiscent of the swift promotion of the cult of Edmund, king of the East Anglians (d. 869), by the same political group responsible for his death. Indeed, there seems to have been a strong disposition in pre-Conquest England against political assassination. One thinks of the cults of Ethelbert of East Anglia (murdered 794), Kenelm of Mercia (murdered 812 or 821) and Wigstan of Mercia (murdered 850), and at any earlier period Ethelred and Ethelbert of Kent (murdered 640). Arguably Oswald of Northumbria (d. in battle 642) could be included in the list. In all these cases miracles quickly occur at or near the site of death, followed by translation and official promotion of the cult both sides of the opposing divides.
These cults seem different in kind from those of dynastic saints both at earlier periods (e.g. the scores attributed to the seventh and eighth centuries in England) and later (e.g. those of Hungary and other continental countries post-1000). It is striking how much emphasis is laid in Anglo-Saxon English law on the resolution of conflict and avoidance of violence. The 'king's peace' is paramount. Vengeance and feud are in no one's interests and the cross-party culting of victims of political assassination appears to be part of the apparatus for keeping society together.
All of which has been said before, but it's worth revisiting.
Best wishes
Graham
>Today (18. March) is the feast day of:
>Edward the Martyr (d. 979) Edward was a king of England, son of Edgar and
>Aethelflaed. He became king in 975, but was murdered four years later.
>Perhaps because Ed. had supported the English monastic part, his death was
>regarded as a martyrdom. There were miracles, and by 1008 Ed's feast was
>celebrated throughout England, ordered by Ed's half brother Ethelred "the
>Unready" who by that time was probably desperate to get any spiritual
>advantage he could.My impression has been that Edward's
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Dr Graham Jones
Lecturer in English Topography
University of Leicester
Centre for English Local History
Marc Fitch Historical Institute
5 Salisbury Road
Leicester LE1 7QR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5769
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Web pages: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1
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