UNEARTHING THE PAST

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 22, 27 January 1931, Page 9

UNEARTHING THE PAST

REMAINS OF FAMOUS KING/

CASKET IN AN ABBEY

United Tress Association—By Electric Te!«- j graph—Copyright. | (Received 27th January, 9 a.m.) j LONDON, 26th January. The remains of the Saxon King,' Edward the Martyr, who was murdered at Corfe Castle by his stepmother Elfrida in 979, has been found in Shaftcsbury Abbey. An empty tomb was found in 18fil, but records showed that the coffin of the martyr had been removed to a secret place about the time of tho dissolution of monasteries by the abbess and nuns of the Abbey. His resting place was not traced until a landowner, while uncovering a wall on the site of the Abbey, found a lead casket 24 by 9 inches, containing bones. Manifestly, it had been secreted in great haste. Everything suggests that the remains are those of the most famous of English royal martyrs.

Edward, surnamed "The Martyr," born probably in 963, was murdered on 18th March, 979. He was King of the West Saxons, and son of King Edgar, whom he succeeded in 975. He was elected by the Wifcari through the influence of St. Dunstan, Primate of England, in spite of the measures jfaken by his stepmother, Elfrida, to secure the1 crown for her son Aethelred. He was .murdered by her order, and was. succeeded by hia step-brother.