EDMUND, king of East Anglia (c. 840-870), succeeded to the East Anglian throne in 8S5 while yet a boy. According to tradition he was born at Nuremberg, and was the son of King Alkmund and Queen Scivare. Offa, king of the East Angles, visited Alkmund on his way to the Holy Land, and adopted Ed mund as his heir. Edmund succeeded him in 855, landing at Hun stanton. His coronation took place in the next year at "Burna" (i.e., probably Bures St. Mary, Suffolk), which was then the royal capital.
Of the life of St. Edmund during the next 14 years we know nothing. In 87o the Danes, who had been wintering at York, marched through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford. Edward engaged them fiercely in battle at Hoxne, but the Danes under their leaders, Ubba and Inguar, were victorious. The king himself was slain, whether on the actual field of battle or in later martyrdom is not certain, but the version of the story which makes him fall a martyr to the Danish arrows when he had refused to renounce his faith or hold his kingdom as a vassal from the heathen overlords, may be true. The king's body was ultimately interred at Beadoricesworth, the modern Bury St. Edmunds. The shrine of Edmund soon became one of the most famous in England, and the reputation of the saint was European. The date of his canonization is unknown, but churches dedicated to his memory are found all over England.
See Asser's Life of Alfred, ed. W. H. Stevenson; Annals of St. Neots; Saxon Chronicle; Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Series), including the Passio Sancti Edmundi of Abbo of Fleury ; and the Corolla Sancti Eadmundi, ed. Lord Francis Hervey (pm).