_Who was King Edmund, England’s first patron saint

We all know that St George is the Patron Saint of England. But who knew that the first Patron Saint of England was 9th century Anglo-Saxon King St Edmund. Instead of waving the Red Cross of St George on April 23 we should be raising the White Dragon flag of Saint Edmund, or Edmund the Martyr, on November 20.

Who was St Edmund

King Edmund was a Christian and the last independent king of East Anglia. Born in AD840 or 841, Edmund succeeded to the throne of Anglo-Saxon East Anglia in 855 following the death of his father King Æthelweard.

Edmund was only fifteen years old when he was crowned on Christmas Day by Humbert, Bishop of Elmham.

Also called Edmund the Martyr, or St Edmund King and Martyr, what we know about him comes mainly from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and from the later writings of a French monk called Abbo of Fleury. According to Abbo, his source was St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had heard Edmund’s story from an old man who had been the Anglo-Saxon king’s sword-bearer.

What happened to St Edmund

Vikings began attacking the east coast in the 8th century. By the end of the 9th century the Vikings began to over-winter in England. In late 865 a force of around 5,000 combatants, described by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as ‘a great heathen army’, came to East Anglia. King Edmund made peace with them and gave them horses and other supplies, and they stayed there until the middle of 866, when they moved to York.

A year later the Vikings returned to East Anglia. In 869 King Edmund fought alongside King Alfred of Wessex against the Viking and Norse invaders.

Who killed St Edmund

When the Anglo-Saxon forces were defeated, Edmund was captured near Thetford by Ivar Ragnarsson, also known as Ivar the Boneless.

Edmund was ordered to share power with the pagan Vikings and renounce his Christianity but refused. The story goes that, on November 20 869, after being tied to a tree and shot through by arrows, he was beheaded.

What is St Edmund and the wolf story

St Edmund’s decapitated head was thrown into the wood. As Edmund’s followers searched for him, calling out ‘Where are you, friend?’ the head answered, ‘Hic, hic, hic’ (‘Here, here, here’) until at last they found it, clasped between a wolf's paws, protected from other animals and uneaten. The followers then recovered the body.

Where is St Edmund buried

There is much debate about what happened to King Edmund’s body. In 902, Edmund's remains were moved from an unknown location in East Anglia to a timber church in Beodericsworth, now Bury St Edmunds. In 925, King Athelstan founded a religious community to care for Edmund's shrine. After King Canute became a Christian around AD1020 he ordered a new stone abbey to be built over the site, which was completed in 1032.

Possession of Edmund’s body led to the Benedictine Abbey becoming one of the wealthiest and powerful monasteries in England and one of the major pilgrimage sites in western Europe.

The royal veneration of Edmund was bound up with the origins and legitimacy of English kingship so his shrine was strongly supported by medieval rulers. Every English King between William I and Henry VII visited the abbey and several parliaments were held here.

After the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, the buildings were demolished. Medieval dressed stone from the abbey can still be seen in many walls and houses around the town. The body of St Edmund was taken from its shrine and there is some speculation that it may possibly be buried in the abbey grounds.

What was the miracle of St Edmund

Besides Edmund’s severed head talking to his followers, there is another miracle.

In 902 Edmund’s remains were moved to Beodericsworth, now Bury St. Edmunds, where King Athelstan founded a religious community to care for his shrine which became a place of national pilgrimage. When the body was exhumed, a miracle was discovered.

All the arrow wounds upon Edmund's undecayed corpse had healed and his head was reattached.

King Canute built a stone abbey on the site in 1020 to house the shrine. For centuries Edmund’s resting place was patronised by the kings of England and the abbey became increasingly wealthy as the cult of St Edmund grew.

When did King Edmund become a Saint

It’s not known for definite when King Edmund was made a Saint. Following the death of the Danish Guthrum, king of East Anglia, at the end of the 9th century, coins started to become minted in Edmund’s commemoration. The coins provide the earliest evidence that he was venerated, bearing the legend SCE EADMVND REX—'O St Edmund the king!'.

Why was St Edmund replaced by St George

St Edmund’s influence began to fade when, during the Third Crusade in 1199, King Richard I visited the tomb of St. George in Lydda, in modern Israel, on the eve of battle. The next day he won a great victory. Following this triumph, Richard adopted St. George as his personal patron and protector of the army.

Although the banner of St Edmund was still carried into battle by the English army, by the time of Edward I it had been joined by the flag of St George.

In 1346, St George was credited with helping England to win the Battle of Crécy in France. In 1348, King Edward III of England, created a new order of chivalry called the Noble Order of the Garter, the Knights of the Garter, which still exists today.

King Edward III made St George the patron of the Order and also declared him Patron Saint of England instead of St Edmund. After that time, the cross of St George became associated with England, and was later adopted as its flag.