The most remarkable circumstance attending Edward was his death, which took place on the 18th of March, 978, after a reign of three years. He had been hunting in the neighbourhood of Corfe Castle, the residence of his step-mother Elfrida, and resolved to pay her a visit. The queen hastened to receive him, and pressed him earnestly to alight; this the prince, who most probably had good reasons to suspect her feelings towards him, declined, observing that he had merely time to accept a draught of wine. In the act of drinking it, he was stabbed in the back by an assassin whom Elfrida had bribed to commit the crime which was to elevate her son Ethelred to the throne.
[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF EDWARD THE MARTYR. (_See p._ 56.)]
Finding himself wounded, the youthful monarch set spurs to his horse and fled; but, fainting from loss of blood, fell, and perished miserably. The parties sent after him by the murderess easily traced the route he had taken by the track of blood. The body was brought back to Corfe Castle and thrown into a well, where it was afterwards found, and removed first to Wareham and afterwards to Shaftesbury, where it was interred in a church founded by King Alfred.
Shortly after his death the monks spread the report that miracles were worked at his tomb; the blind were said to have received their sight, the lame to have recovered the use of their limbs. Elfrida, to atone for her crime, founded two convents, to one of which, at Andover, she retired, and passed the rest of her days in penitence. Edward was canonised by the Roman Church, and is generally known as St. Edward the Martyr.
[Illustration: CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER AND MARTYRDOM OF OTHER SAINTS. (_From Harleian MSS._ 603.)]
The Retirement of Dunstan--Character of Ethelred--Sweyn in Denmark--Character of the Invasions and the Resistance--The Danegeld--The Arrival of Sweyn--Ethelred's Expedition--The Massacre of St. Brice's Day--Return of Sweyn--Defeats of the English--Edric Streona--Failure of the English Fleet--Treacheries of Edric--Death of St. Alphege--Sweyn's Conquest of England and his Death--Return of Ethelred and Departure of Canute--Misgovernment of the King--Canute's Return and the Death of Ethelred.