Edmund the Martyr

Edmund the Martyr (Old English: Eadmund, ēad, "prosperity", "riches"; and mund, "protector"); also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia (died 20 November 869) is king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death.

Almost nothing is known of Edmund.

He is thought to be of East Anglian origin and was first mentioned in an annal of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written some years after his death.

His kingdom was devastated by the Vikings, who destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign.

Later writers produced fictitious accounts of his life, asserting that he was born in 841, the son of Æthelweard, an obscure East Anglian king, whom it was said he succeeded when he was fourteen (or alternatively that he was the youngest son of a Germanic king named 'Alcmund').

Later versions of his life relate that he was crowned on 25 December 855 at Burna, an unidentified location, and that he became a model king.

In 869, the Great Heathen Army advanced on East Anglia and killed Edmund.

He may have been slain by the Danes in battle, but by tradition he met his death at an unidentified place known as Haegelisdun, after he refused the Danes' demand that he renounce Christ: the Danes beat him, shot him with arrows and then beheaded him, on the orders of Ivar the Boneless and his brother Ubbe Ragnarsson.

According to one legend, his head was then thrown into the forest, but was found safe by searchers after following the cries of a wolf that was calling, "Hic, Hic, Hic" – 'Here, Here, Here'.

Commentators have noted how Edmund's death bears resemblances to the fate suffered by Saint Sebastian, St. Denis and St. Mary of Egypt.

A coinage commemorating Edmund was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex and a popular cult emerged.

In about 986, Abbo of Fleury wrote of his life and martyrdom.

The saint's remains were temporarily moved from Bury to London for safekeeping in 1010.

His shrine was visited by many kings, including Canute, who was responsible for rebuilding the abbey: the stone church was rebuilt again in 1095.

During the Middle Ages, when Edmund was regarded as the patron saint of England, Bury and its magnificent abbey grew wealthy, but during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, his shrine was destroyed.

The mediaeval manuscripts and other works of art relating to Edmund that have survived include Abbo's Passio Santi Eadmundi, John Lydgate's 14th century Life, the Wilton Diptych and a number of church wall paintings.

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