King Edward was murdered at Corfe on 18 March 978, stabbed on his stepmother’s orders while he drank from a cup she had handed him. Chambers tells this with the old explanation of pledging: an Anglo-Saxon drinking from a great cup held it with both hands and was open to a blow, so the man beside him stood up as his pledge to guard him. The loving cup passed round at college and livery company feasts, with each neighbour standing as the next man drinks, is said to keep the old form.
The loving cup
Printed under 18 March
Still kept
At great festivals, in some of our college halls and city companies, the custom is preserved almost in its primitive form in passing round the ceremonial cup
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 387. Read the original
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