Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 313. How to Make a Martyr.

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Quote, no man can make himself king but the people have the choice to choose as king whom they please.

But after he has consecrated as king, he then has dominion over the people and they cannot shake his yoke from their necks.

End quote.

So reads the homily written by the famed writer Elfric.

He was writing for his patrons, Eldermann Athle Weird the chronicler and his son Athle Mar.

And he was writing this about a decade or so after the death of King Edward.

Now as you might remember, Eldermann Athle Weird was almost certainly a supporter of King Edward.

And here we have his chosen scribe and holy man proclaiming that a consecrated king has quote,

dominion over the people and they cannot shake his yoke from their necks.

End quote.

But back in 978, someone or several someone's had managed to shake the yoke of Edward's rule.

And they did so violently as version A of the Chronicle states that the king had been killed.

The word they used to talk about this was off slagant to be killed or slain.

It's a word that can describe death in battle but it also can describe death in a feud or even an assassination.

This word appears in our records numerous times over the centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule.

And that makes perfect sense, right?

I mean these were the Anglo-Saxons.

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