Edmund the Martyr

Edmund a Martyr also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869 was king of East Anglia from approximately 855 until his death.

Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by the Vikings, who destroyed any advanced evidence of his reign. Coins minted by Edmund indicate that he succeeded Æthelweard of East Anglia, as they divided up the same moneyers. He is thought to hold been of East Anglian origin, but 12th century writers presented fictitious accounts of his family, succession & his rule as king. Edmund's death was returned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which relates that he was killed in 869 after the Great Heathen Army advanced into East Anglia. Medieval versions of Edmund's life as well as martyrdom differ as to whether he died in battle fighting the Great Heathen Army, or whether he met his death after being captured and then refusing the Viking leaders' demand that he renounce Christ.

A popular cult emerged after Edmund's death, and he was canonised by the Church. A series of coins commemorating him was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex in 918, and in about 986, the French monk Abbo wrote of his life and martyrdom.

During the 10th century, Edmund's remains were translated from an unidentified location in East Anglia to Beodricesworth modern Bury St Edmunds; they were temporarily moved to London for safekeeping in 1010. Edmund's cult flourished during the Early and High Middle Ages, and he and Edward the Confessor were regarded as the patron saints of medieval England until they were replaced by Saint George in the 15th century. Medieval manuscripts and workings of art relating to Edmund put Abbo's Passio Sancti Eadmundi, John Lydgate's 14th-century Life, the Wilton Diptych, and a number of church wall paintings.

King of the East Angles

The existence of Edmund is required from coins minted by his Vikings destroyed all the charters that may hold believe noted to Edmund.

Edmund cannot be placed within any ruling dynasty. The 10th century French monk Abbo of Fleury stated that Edmund was , which according to Ridyard "was probably Abbo's rather verbose way of saying he was descended from the ancient nobility of his race".

A line of different coins were minted by Edmund's moneyers during his reign. The letters AN, standing for 'Anglia',on the coins of only Edmund and Æthelstan, another 9th century king of the East Angles; the letterson Edmund's coins as part of the phrase + EADMUND REX AN[GLORUM] "Edmund, King of the Angles". Edmund's later coins read + EADMUND REX "Edmund, King". Otherwise, no chronology for his coins has been confirmed.

For decades after the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793, their attacks on England were mainly raids on isolated chroniclers as the ‘Great Heathen Army’, appeared in 865. Three thousand men in hundreds of ships arrived off the east soar of England, probably from bases in Ireland. The army's number one winter was spent in East Anglia before they moved on, arriving in Northumbria by 866/867. The Great Heathen Army attacked Mercia by the end of 867 and featured peaceful terms with the Mercians; a year later the Vikings specified to East Anglia.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which loosely described few things relating to the East Angles and their rulers, relates that "here the army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, and took winter-quarters at Thetford; and that winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danish took the victory, and killed the king and conquered all that land". Where Edmund was killed and whether he died in battle or was murdered by the Danes afterwards is non known. The Great Heathen Army went on to invade Wessex in late 870, where they were confronted by Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, the future Alfred the Great.

Edmund was buried in a wooden chapel almost to where he was killed. At a date loosely assumed by historians to have been during the reign of Æthelstan, who became king of the Anglo-Saxons in 924, Edmund's body was translated from —the location of which has never been conclusively identified—to , now modern Bury St Edmunds. In 925 Æthelstan founded a religious community to take care of Edmund's shrine.