| Edmund | |
|---|---|
| King of the East Angles | |
A mediaeval illumination of the death of Edmund |
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| Reign | 25 December 855 (traditionally) – 20 November 869 (or 870) |
| Born | by tradition 841 |
| Died | killed in battle 20 November 869 |
| Predecessor | Æthelweard of East Anglia |
| Successor | Oswald |
| Royal House | unknown |
| Father | possibly Æthelweard |
| Religious beliefs | Christian |
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)[note 1] was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens. Almost nothing is known of Edmund: contemporary evidence for him is largely confined to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and his coinage.
In the late 10th century, Abbo of Fleury, Edmund's earliest biographer, was commissioned to write a life of the saint, which was translated into Old English by Ælfric of Eynsham. According to Abbo, Edmund was captured and tortured by the Danish Great Heathen Army and died the death of a Christian martyr. Later historians followed Abbo's lead in elaborating greatly on the facts known about Edmund's character and reign.
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Nothing is known of Edmund's life or reign, as no contemporary East Anglian documents from this period have survived. The devastation in East Anglia that was caused by the Vikings is thought to have destroyed any books or charters that referred to Edmund.[2] It is not known when his reign began, or his age when he became king. Mediaeval chroniclers have provided dubious accounts of his life, in the absence of any real details.
It is known that a variety of different coins were minted by Edmund's moneyers during his reign. The letters AN, standing for 'Anglia', only appear on the coins of Edmund and Æthelstan of East Anglia: they appear on Edmund's coins as part of the phrase + EADMUND REX AN. Later specimens read + EADMUND REX and so it is possible for his coins to be divided chronologically.[3] Otherwise, no chronology for his coins has been confirmed.[4]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which generally described few matters relating to East Anglia and its rulers, mentioned the events for the year 869 that led to the defeat of Edmund's army at the hands of the Danes, "Her rad se here ofer Mierce innan East Engle and wiñt setl namon. æt Đeodforda. And þy wint' Eadmund cying him wiþ feaht. and þa Deniscan sige naman þone cyning ofslogon. and þæt lond all ge eodon." - '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'.[5][6] The Chronicle names the two leaders who slew the king as Hingwar and (Hubba). According to the historian Antonia Gransden, the general belief that Edmund was martyred cannot be proved and the nature of his fate cannot be read from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle passage "þone cining of slogan".
The Great Heathen Army invaded Wessex in December that year, perhaps within a few weeks of killing Edmund, or after having spent the next year pillaging and consolidating their position in East Anglia.[7]
Edmund's body was buried in a wooden chapel near to where he was killed, but was later transferred to Beadoriceworth, where in 925 Athelstan founded a community devoted to the new cult.[8] Thirty years after Edmund's death, he was venerated by the Vikings of East Anglia, who produced a coinage to commemorate him.[9] The coinage was minted from around 895 to 915 (close to the time when East Anglia was conquered by Edward the Elder of Wessex) and was based on the design of coins produced during Edmund's reign. All the pennies and (more rarely) half-pennies that were produced read SCE EADMVND REX—'O St Edmund the king!'. Some of them have a legend that provides evidence that the Vikings experimented with their inital design.[10]
The St. Edmund memorial coins were minted in great quantities by a group of more than 70 moneyers, many of whom appear to have originated from the continent: over 1800 individual specimens were found when the great Cuerdale Hoard was discovered in 1840.[11] The coins would have been widely used within the Danelaw and many single items have mainly been found in the east of England, but the exact locations of the mints where they were made are not known with certainty: scholars have assumed that they were made in East Anglia.[12]
| Saint Edmund the Martyr | |
|---|---|
| Major shrine | Bury St Edmunds, destroyed |
| Feast | 20 November |
| Attributes | crowned and robed as a king; holding a scepter, orb, arrow, or a sword |
| Patronage | kings, pandemics, the Roman Catholic diocese of East Anglia, Douai Abbey |
During the 11th century a stone church was built in Bury, which was replaced by a larger church in 1095, into which Edmund's relics were translated. The abbey's power grew upon being given jurisdiction over the growing town in 1028 and much of western Suffolk in 1044.[8]
The shrine at Bury St Edmunds soon became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England. In 1010, Edmund's remains were translated to London to protect them from the Vikings, where they were kept for three years before being returned to Bury.[8] For centuries the shrine was visited by various kings of England, many of whom gave generously to the abbey: Sweyn's son, King Canute, converted to Christianity and rebuilt the abbey at Bury St Edmunds. In 1020, he made a pilgrimage and offered his own crown upon the shrine as atonement for the sins of his forefathers. King John is said to have given a great sapphire and a precious stone set in gold, which he was permitted to keep upon the condition that it was returned to the abbey when he died.[13]
The town arose as the wealth and fame of the abbey grew. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the abbot planned out over 300 new houses within a grid-iron pattern at a location that was close to the abbey precincts.[14] Edmund's cult was promoted and flourished, but it declined in subsequent years and the saint did not reappear in any liturgical calendars until the appearance of Abbo of Fleury's Passio Santi Eadmundi in the 12th century.[15]
Edmund's shrine was destroyed in 1539, during the English Reformation. According to a letter (which now belongs to the Cotton Collection in the British Library), the shrine was defaced, and silver and gold to the value of over 5000 marks was taken away. On 4 November 1539 the abbot and his monks were expelled and the abbey was dissolved.[16]
After the Battle of Lincoln (1217), it was claimed that Edmund's body was taken to France by defeated troops and a cult developed at the French city of Toulouse, where his relics were supposedly held. After the city was saved from the plague in the 1630s—by the saint's intercessions—the city built a new shrine for his relics in gratitude for its deliverance: his cult flourished there for over two centuries. Edmund's shrine was of silver and adorned with solid silver statues and when his relics were translated to it, the population came for eight days to honour the saint.[17]
Edmund's cult remerged in the 10th century and became wealthy as a result of receiving grants of land from royally connected benefactors. in about 986, the monks of Ramsey Abbey commissioned Abbo of Fleury to write an account of the saint's life and early cult.[18] The story of Edmund's martyrdom came to Abbo by way of St Dunstan, who heard it from the lips of Edmund's own sword-bearer.[19]
According to Abbo, Edmund came "ex antiquorum Saxonum nobili prosapia oriundus".[20] This statement has confused later translators into thinking that he was of continental Old Saxon origin, but according to the historian Steven Plunkett, Edmund originated from East Anglia, which was a country settled by 'Saxons'.[21]
"King Edmund stood within his hall of the mindful Healer with Hinguar, who then came, and discarded his weapons. He willed to imitate Christ's example, which forbade Peter to fight against the fierce Jews with weapons. Lo! to the dishonorable man Edmund then submitted and was scoffed at and beaten by cudgels. Thus the heathens led the faithful king to a tree firmly rooted in Earth, tightened him thereto with sturdy bonds, and again scourged him for a long time with straps. He always called between the blows with belief in truth to Christ the Saviour.
The heathens then became brutally angry because of his beliefs, because he called Christ to himself to help. They shot then with missiles, as if to amuse themselves, until he was all covered with their missiles as with bristles of a hedgehog, just as Sebastian was. Then Hinguar, the dishonorable Viking, saw that the noble king did not desire to renounce Christ, and with resolute faith always called to him; Hinguar then commanded to behead the king and the heathens thus did. While this was happening, Edmund called to Christ still. Then the heathens dragged the holy man to slaughter, and with a stroke struck the head from him. His soul set forth, blessed, to Christ."
In Abbo's version of events, Edmund refused to meet the Danes in battle, preferring to die a martyr's death.
After describing the manner of Edmund's death, Abbo's Passio continues the story of Edmund's decapitation. His severed head was thrown into the wood. As Edmund's followers went seeking, calling out "Where are you, friend?" the head would answer, "Here, here, here," until at last they found it, clasped between a wolf's paws, protected from other animals and uneaten by the wolf. After The villagers then returned, praising God and the wolf that served him. The wolf walked tamely beside them to the town, before vanishing back into the forest.[19] The body was buried in a coffin. Legend told that upon exhumation of the body, many years later, a miracle was discovered. All the arrow wounds upon Edmund's corpse had healed and his head was reattached. The only evidence of his decapitation was a line around his neck and his skin was still soft and fresh, as if he had been sleeping.[19] [note 2]
The resemblance between the deaths of St Sebastian and St Edmund was remarked upon by Abbo: both saints were attacked by archers, although only Edmund is supposed to have been decapitated. His death bears somes resemblance to the fate suffered by other saints: St Denis was whipped and beheaded and the body of St Mary of Egypt was said to have been guarded by a lion. [23] Gransden describes Abbo's Passio as "little more that a hotch-potch of hagiographical commonplaces" and argues that Abbo's ignorance of what actually happened to Edmund would have led him to use aspects of the Lives of well known saints such as Sebastian and Denis as models for his version of Edmund's martydom. Gransden acknowledges that there are some aspects of the story—such as the appearance of the wolf that guards Edmund's head—that do not have exact parallels elsewhere.[24]
Edmund may have been killed at Hoxne, in Suffolk.[25] His martyrdom is mentioned in a charter that was written when the church and chapel at Hoxne were granted to Norwich Priory in 1101. Place-name evidence has been used to link the name of Hoxne with Haegelisdun, named by Abbo of Fleury as the site of Edmund's martyrdom, but this evidence is dismissed by the historian Peter Warner.[26] The association of Edmund's cult with the village has continued to the present day.[note 3]
De Infantia Sancti Edmundi, a fictitious 12th century hagiography of Edmund's early life by Geoffrey of Wells, represented him as the youngest son of 'Alcmund', a Saxon king of Germanic descent. 'Alcmund' may never have existed.[28]
The 15th century poet John Lydgate, who lived all his life in Bury St Edmunds, presented his twelve-year-old king Henry VI of England with a long poem (now known as Metrical Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund) when Henry came to the town in 1433 and stayed at the abbey for four months.[29] The book is now kept by the British Library in London.[30]
Edmund's fictitious continental origins were later expanded into legends which spoke of his parentage, his birth at Nuremberg, his adoption by Offa of Mercia, his nomination as successor to the king and his landing at Hunstanton on the North Norfolk coast to claim his kingdom.[20] Other accounts state that his father was the king he succeded, Æthelweard of East Anglia, who died in 854, apparently when Edmund was a boy of fourteen.
In Bernard Burke's Vicissitudes of Families, published in 1869, Burke proposed that Edmund's banner was among those borne during the Norman invasion of Ireland, after which the three crowns on a blue background became the standard for Ireland during the Plantagenet era. Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, Robert Fitz-Stephen and Raymond le Gros who all featured prominently in the Anglo-Norman invasion, dedicated a chapel of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin to Edmund.[31] When the Scottish castle at Caevlerlock was taken by Edward I of England in 1300, the banners of Edmund, St George and Edward the Confessor were displayed by the victorious English from the castle battlements, as "powerful, unifying symbols of the holy guardians and supporters of their cause".[32] According to the antiquarian Sir Harris Nicolas' account of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, five banners were flown on the English side, one of which was probably that of St Edmund.[33]
In a preface to the Life of the saint written by the poet John Lydgate, in which Edmund's banners are described,[note 4][34] the three crowns are said to represent Edmund's martyrdom, virginity and kingship.[35]
Edmund is the patron saint of pandemics and as well as of kings,[36] the Roman Catholic diocese of East Anglia,[37] and Douai Abbey in Berkshire. [38] Churches dedicated to his memory are to be found all over England, including St Edmund the King and Martyr's Church in London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren during the 1670s.
During the Middle Ages, St George replaced Edmund as the patron saint of England when Edward III associated George with the Order of the Garter.[39] In 2006, a group that included BBC Radio Suffolk and the East Anglian Daily Times failed in their campaign to reinstore Edmund.[note 5]
The veneration of Edmund throughout the centuries has left a legacy of noteworthy works of art.
The beautifully illustrated Passio Santi Eadmundi was written by Abbo of Fleury in Bury St Edmunds in around 1130: a surviving copy of the Passio is now kept at the Morgan Library in New York.[8] John Lydgate's 14th century Life, which was presented to Henry VI, is in the British Library.[41] The Wilton Diptych was painted during the reign of Richard II of England and is the most famous representation of Edmund in art. Painted on oak panels, it shows Richard kneeling in front of three saints—one of whom is Edmund—as they present the young king to the Virgin and Child.[42][8]
Edward's martyrdom features on several mediaeval wall-paintings to be found in churches across England.[43]
| Depictions of St Edmund | |||||||||
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The saint features in a romantic poem, Athelston, whose 15th-century author is unknown. In the climatic scene of the poem, Edyff, the sister of King 'Athelston' of England, gives birth to Edmund after passing through a ritual ordeal by fire.[44]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
| English royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Æthelweard |
King of East Anglia 25 December 855 (trad.) – 20 November 869 |
Succeeded by Oswald |
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