Dead Man's Plack
Illustration from Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn by William Henry Hudson
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| Coordinates | 51°12′04″N 1°25′39″W / 51.2012°N 1.4275°WCoordinates: 51°12′04″N 1°25′39″W / 51.2012°N 1.4275°W |
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| Location | Longparish, Hampshire, England |
| Type | Cross |
| Material | Stone |
| Completion date | 1825 |
| Dedicated to | Earl Athelwold of Wherwell |
Dead Man's Plack is a Grade-II listed 19th-century monument to Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia, who, according to legend, was killed in 963 near the site where it stands by his rival in love, King Edgar I. The name is more probably derived from a corruption of "Dudman's Platt", from Dudman — who is recorded as a resident in 1735 — and , meaning a plot of land. The monument was erected in 1825 at Harewood Forest, between the villages of Picket Twenty and Longparish, Hampshire, by Lt. Col. William Iremonger.
The monument consists of a stone cross on a pedestal with plain unmoulded details. On its south side an inscription in Gothic script reads:
About the year of our Lord DCCCCLXIII upon this spot beyond the time of memory called Deadman’s Plack, tradition reports that Edgar, surnamed the peaceable, King of England, in the ardour of youth love and indignation, slew with his own hand his treacherous and ungrateful favourite, owner of this forest of Harewood, in resentment of the Earl’s having basely betrayed and perfidiously married his intended bride and beauteous Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, Earl of Devonshire, afterwards wife of King Edgar, and by him mother of King Ethelred II. Queen Elfrida, after Edgar’s death, murdered his eldest son, King Edward the Martyr, and founded the Nunnery of Wor-well.
An inscription on the north side of the plinth reads: "This Monument was erected by Col William Iremonger AD MDCCCXXV".
According to legend, King Edgar I sent his "favourite and most trusted" earl, Æthelwald, to meet Ælfthryth, daughter of Ordgar, the Earl of Devonshire, to assess her suitability as a bride. On meeting her, Æthelwald was "smitten with her beauty" and married her himself. Æthelwald then returned to the king and told him that she was "a girl of vulgar and common place appearance, and by no means worthy" of the king's hand, while concealing his own marriage to her. Discovering the deception through court gossip, Edgar swore vengeance and arranged a hunt in the Harewood Forest to which he invited Æthelwald. During the hunt, Edgar murdered Æthelwald with a javelin, and subsequently took Ælfthryth as his wife and queen.
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