Edmund the Martyr

Edmund was king of East Anglia from about 855 until the Great Heathen Army killed him in 869, and he became the most venerated English saint before Thomas Becket. Very little is known about him with confidence. The Vikings destroyed the records of his kingdom, and the coins he minted are among the few contemporary traces of his reign; they suggest he succeeded Æthelweard, since the two used the same moneyers. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records simply that the Danes overwintered in East Anglia and that in 869 they killed him. Everything else comes from later accounts, the earliest written more than a century afterwards. In those he refuses a demand to renounce his faith and rule as a Danish client, is tied to a tree, shot with arrows until he resembles a thistle, and beheaded. His head, thrown into the woods, is found guarded by a wolf calling out in Latin. The cult grew quickly. The town that housed his shrine became Bury St Edmunds and one of the wealthiest abbeys in England, and English kings made pilgrimage there for centuries. He was effectively the patron saint of England until Edward III promoted St George, and there have been recurring campaigns since to restore him. His body was reportedly moved several times and its resting place is unknown, with the abbey ruins in Bury the most likely site. The wolf appears with his head on the arms of Bury St Edmunds to this day. Danish rulers of England later adopted his cult themselves, and Cnut endowed the abbey generously, which is a striking end for a king the Danes had killed.

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