Edmund The Martyr King of East Anglia

well you probably know that saint george is the patron saint of england but he hasn't always been before saint george england had another saintly champion whose shrine was venerated by kings and whose banner was carried into some of england's greatest battles what's more unlike saint george the roman soldier from turkey who we have no evidence ever visited england this saint was a genuine englishman an anglo-saxon king who was killed defending his homeland against viking invaders this is the story of saint edmund the martyr edmund was the king of the anglo-saxon kingdom of east anglia in the 9th century at roughly the same time that alfred the great was coming to the throne of wessex just to explain that at this period in history there was no single country called england the anglo-saxon invaders and settlers who arrived on the shores of britain when the roman empire departed in the early 400s were not one united group but a hodgepodge of communities and over the years these communities coalesced into seven kingdoms wessex sussex kent mercier in the midlands northumbria in the north essex and east anglia east anglia for those of you who are not up on your british geography is on the eastern bulge of england as you look at the map of england on that right-hand side that bulge and consists of the modern counties of suffolk norfolk and cambridgeshire back in the 9th century the finland marshes came in as far as ely almost cutting east anglia off from its western neighbours and it was into this kingdom's royal family that young edmund was born in 841 when he was 14 years old he succeeded his father ethel weird to the throne and there he might have remained almost forgotten by history like many of the other anglo-saxon kings had it not been for the arrival of the vikings viking raiders had first appeared off the shores of england in 793 when they attacked the monastery of lindisfarne way up in northumbria now contrary to popular myths uh the vikings weren't a unified group you know they they came from the general area of modern day scandinavia principally norway and denmark in england's case but fundamentally they were pirates who were driven by luton slaves and who would pick on the most vulnerable targets like well monasteries like lindisfarne stuck out on remote islands and over the next 70 years the the raids became more frequent and more daring but they were always opportunistic but in 865 everything changed in that year a huge fleet containing over 3 000 warriors arrived off the coast of england commanded by iver the boneless and his brother abba sons of the legendary viking warrior ragnar lothbrok this was no giant raiding party this was an army of conquest and the anglo-saxons had never faced anything like this before and they called it the great heathen army and this great heathen army headed straight for edmonds kingdom of east anglia king edmund was now in his late twenties but how would he defeat such a huge army coming against him well he chose not to instead he offered to to pay them to leave him alone and remember what i said earlier you know about the vikings they were there for the loot so they quite happily accepted the king's offer of loads of loot for no fighting job done this started a long tradition in england of kings paying a dengeld to buy peace edmund and the anglo-saxons had just opened up a pandora's box that they could never close because as rodyard kipling in his poem at the dengald wrote that once you paid him the dane guild you never get rid of the dane but apart from gold and silver either the boneless insisted on an additional tribute from king edmund horses now what would a bunch admittedly a very large bunch of seafaring raiders want with horses well they were suddenly transformed into a mounted army now they could ride around england irrespective of whether there was a river inland river nearby or not and the following year 866 they struck the road north from east anglia through murcia who gave them clear access and after all why would you pick a fight with the vikings if you didn't need to and they entered northumbria unfortunately uh for northumbria they were going through a bit of a dynastic dispute at the time with two rival kings having a civil war at each other's throats and remember how the vikings liked uh undefended monasteries well weak divided kingdoms also good too they stormed the ancient roman city of york capturing it on the 1st of november 866 and proceeded to place a puppet king on the throne of northumbria and northumbria would never again be a serious player in anglo-saxon england and over time york or yorvik as the scandinavians called it would become its own viking kingdom but that is all for the future now the great heathen army turned their attention to the southern neighbor the midland kingdom of mercia in the autumn of 867 the vikings captured the mercian town of nottingham on the river trent the king of mercia appealed to his brother-in-law ethel fred king of wessex for assistance and wessex responded together the armies of mercer and wessex converged on nottingham for what was going to be a battle royal the great heathen army versus the combined mommies of mercia and wessex and accompanying ethel freyd of wessex was his younger brother alfred who appears in england's story a lot more in the future when the combined mercian wessex army reached nottingham the king of mercia paid the vikings to go home so with one kingdom conquered and a pile of cash from the other uh the great heathen army headed back towards east anglia to winter in thetford this time however king edmund of east anglia decided that he would fight the result was never really in doubt the army of east anglia was routed and edmund was killed on the 20th of november 869 and this is where things get a little bit murky the anglo-saxon chronicle says he was killed but somewhat unhelpfully doesn't say how he was killed i mean maybe he died in battle fighting the sons of ragnar lothbrok but very soon a different story began to circulate that rather than dying in battle edmund was martyred for his christian beliefs according to these stories king edmund met either the boneless in uh in edmonds hall or palace and there he refused to either fight either or to share the kingdom as some sort of puppet ruler iva ordered his men to take everyone outside tie him to a tree where they proceeded to beat him and during this beating and whipping the king called out to god for divine support which supposedly really annoyed the pagan either the boneless in fact he was so annoyed that he ordered his men to fire arrows into the helpless king until according to a later monk edmund was covered in bristles like a hedgehog and even now edmund refused to renounce his faith or indeed share his kingdom with either so either ordered him to be beheaded and edmund's body was unceremoniously dumped in a ditch minus his head when his supporters found his body it was obviously mined as his head so they went into a nearby wood to look for his head and they called out where are you friend which you have to admit is just ever so slightly weird isn't it but not as weird as when they heard edmund's voice shouting back here here here and when they followed the sound of his voice they found the king's severed head and it was being protected by a wolf who'd put it between her paws so the other animals in the forest couldn't eat it it's like a miracle seeing his companions approaching the wolf trotted off job done and you've got to admit actually this is a little bit better story than just being another viking battle statistic isn't it king edmund was buried in a wooden chapel near where he had been slain the problem is that no one is actually certain where this was with uh hoxson in suffolk dunford in cambridgeshire and bradfield saint claire near modern day barry saint evans amongst the possible candidates and it was to this simple chapel that a blind man accompanied by his son came one night for shelter and in the morning he could miraculously see the king of east anglia who died for his faith was now able to perform miracles from beyond the grave and edmund was soon being venerated as a christian saint within 20 years silver pennies and silver commemorative pennies bearing the latin inscription sancti or saint were being struck and they were being circulated as far away as your viking jorvik york in the 80s just just a decade after his death a monk of florey had been commissioned by the abbey of ramsey to compile a life of saint edmund claimed that the whole story of the martyrdom and the wolf protecting the severed head had been told to him by none other than the archbishop of canterbury dunstan dunstan who was to be elevated to sainthood in the non-too distant future said that he'd been told that story by a man who swore that he had been king edmund's sword carrier in 924 king athelstan the first king of the united england grandson of alfred the great ordered the body of saint edmund to be brought from that wooden chapel in who knows where to a proper church at bedricksworth when his grave was opened it was his body was found to be in pristine condition despite the fact it was 50 years since he died and the arrow wounds had healed and the head had been reunited with his body it was another miracle and so the king saints body was brought to bedricksworth which is now called berry saint edmunds a century later the anglo-danish king knut built an abbey on the site to venerate to venerate edmund indeed strangely seeing as he was martyred by vikings scandinavians both in england and elsewhere venerated edmund the english king and martyr in a little-known piece of english history knuts father a man called swain fortbeard had led a successful invasion of england in 2013 and was actually proclaimed king he was never crowned as he died just six weeks later now some say he fell from his horse but once again another story gained legend that saint edmund the martyr had risen from the dead and came to swain fort beard whilst he was sleeping and speared him to death in revenge for his own martyrdom by the vikings what you got to say is a lot better story than just falling off your horse isn't it st edmund shrine became one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in england for the next 500 years edmund's flag was carried into battle at agincourt alongside those of saint saint edward the confessor and the newly arrived saint george who had been discovered by richard the lionheart whilst on crusade his feast day on the 20th of november the date of his death was venerated and was held to be so auspicious that in 1214 the barons met on that day to drop their plans to confront king john which led the following year to the magna carta and which is reflected in barry saint-edmon's motto shrine of a king cradle of the law saint hebron shrine was destroyed during the english reformation under king henry viii by then however the martyred king had lost his place of pole position amongst england saints to saint george the foreigner had been elevated by edward iii when he had established the order of agata at windsor castle where its headquarters still are in saint george's chapel and it's his feast day on the 23rd of april that is now celebrated as england's national day what if poor old saint edmund the martyr well it said that his bones were spirited away from berries and edmonds when the monasteries were just and ended up in toulouse in france in the early 20th century uh the supposed bones were actually uh brought from toulouse back to england and reside in arundel castle home of the preeminent catholic family of england the dukes of norfolk but others say that his body never left east anglia at all and during the reformation monks secretly buried it in the grounds of the old abbey in barry saint edmunds but wherever he is saint edmund is no longer the patron saint of england and despite some vigorous campaigns especially in east anglia i doubt he ever will be again however you've got to say you know an english-born king who died fighting for his homeland against invaders not just any invaders viking invaders and then coming back from the dead to possibly murder swain fortbeard in his bed somehow does seem a more fitting patron saint for england than a foreigner george who never visited the country and whose chief claim in life was killing a magical beast a dragon it's a funny old world how we pick patron saints isn't it and speaking of funny old worlds you'll be pleased to know that whilst redundant as the national saint edmund is still a patron saint of several causes not least of course east anglia but somewhat appropriately for the manner of his martyrdom he is the patron saint of torture victims too and also in these current times he's the patron saint of pandemics but best of all saint edmund the martyr is the patron saint of wolves as i said it's a funny old world this patron saint gives business edmund the martyr saint king england's lost patron saint thanks for watching and if you enjoyed this video then please subscribe to my channel so you don't miss any money of my new releases maybe even support me with some crowdfunding links to both are appearing well about now they're also in the description below once again thanks for joining me and until next time take care and i look forward to seeing you very soon [Music] you

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, saint edmund the martyr, king edmund the martyr, edmund the martyr king, death of saint edmund the martyr, edmund the martyr, st edmund the martyr, st edmund and the wolf, death of edmund the martyr, edmund the martyr death, what is st edmund the patron saint of, bury st edmunds, saint edmund, the execution of edmund the martyr, king edmund of east anglia, edmund king saint, death of st edmund the martyr

Id: YZXKiAtaIL0

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 10 2022