Edward, the eldest son of Edgar, became the king of the English at the age of fourteen when his father died. Dunstan became his guardian.

Corfe Castle was built on a steep hill in a gap in a long line of chalk hills, created by two streams eroding the rock on either side. The name Corfe derives from the Old English ceorfan, meaning 'a cutting', referring to the gap. The construction of the medieval castle means that little is known about previous activity on the hill. We know from contemporary writing that Anglo-Saxon nobility treated it as a residence, such as Queen Aelfthryth, wife of Edgar, and there are postholes belonging to a Saxon hall on the site. This hall may be where the boy-king Edward the Martyr was assassinated in 978; contemporaries tell us that he went to the castle at Corfe to visit Aelfthryth and his brother.

Aethelred became king after the assassination of his elder brother Edward the Martyr.

Edward, the King of the English was assassinated under orders from his step-mother, who wanted her son Aethelred to become king. His body was buried at Warham.

The body of Edward the Martyr may have been moved and reinterred at Shaftesbury.