Kings of East Anglia Eadmund 855-870AD Silver Penny Ipswich, Eadwald

Kings of East Anglia Eadmund 855-870AD Silver Penny Ipswich, Eadwald

S954, 20mm, 1.35g

Edmund (854/855-869) – arguably the most famous of the East Anglian kings, Eadmund was crowned King on December 25^th of 854 or 855 at the age of just 14. His reign coincided with a period in which Scandinavian raids on England were becoming bigger and bolder, and indeed in 865 the so-called ‘Great Heathen Army’ would arrive in East Anglia itself. Although their depredations were averted through gifts of horses and safe passage to the north (where they proceeded to attack York and despoil Northumbria), in 869 they returned. Edmund confronted them in battle but was brutally killed, allegedly being beaten, shot with arrows and decapitated. Legend holds that his followers were guided to his corpse by a ghostly wolf, which shouted ‘here, here!’ Viewed as a martyr due to his refusal to accept paganism, his body was venerated and transported to the settlement of Beadoriceworth (Bury St Edmunds) which would undergo a meteoric rise in precedence due to the popularity of his saintly cult and become one of England’s major religious centres. Such was his veneration that even today there are some who see him as a more suitable patron saint of England than St George!