Saint Edmund, King of East Anglia ( c.841-870) Feast Day 20th November

Saint Edmund, King of East Anglia, also known as Edmund the Martyr was England’s original Patron Saint.

Aged just 15 in 856 Edmund became king of East Anglia. He rules his kingdom well and spent times restoring churches and monasteries destroyed in previous wars.

In 870 the Danes invaded his kingdom, marching on Mercia. Edmund fought them at Hoxne, about 20 miles from Thetford, and was defeated.

After the battle the Danish leader, Hingwar, demanded the king to hand over his treasure and accept the position of vassal. The king accepted the terms on the condition Hingwar would become a Christian.

What happened next is uncertain. The Danes/Vikings destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign. Writers later then produced fictional accounts of his life.

Fact or Fiction?
Edmund may have been killed in battle. It is uncertain where he actually died.
OR, according to pictures depicting his death, this angered Hingwar so much that he had him tied up to a tree, shot at with arrows and was then beheaded.
King Edmund became Edmund the Martyr.

Taking the story even further Edmund’s head was thrown into the forest. The searchers hearing the sound of ethereal wolves calling out in Latin ’ Hic Hic Hic’ - in English ’ Here ,here ,here ’ found his head.

Hingwar is referred elsewhere as Ivar the Boneless.

Fact - Edmund’s bones in 902/3 remains were moved to Beodricsworth - modern Bury St. Edmunds where King Athelstan founded a religious community to care for his shrine aaaaand it beacame a place of national pilgrimage.
( read ‘Beodericworth’ paragraph)
Where are the remains now ? ( read Where is St. Edmund?)

King Edmund was a Christian king. He sacrificed his life because he refused to renounce Jesus Christ as his saviour.