Saint Edmund (841-869) was a king of East Anglia. He was born in 841, the son of AEthelweard, an obscure East Anglian king, whom it was said Edmund succeeded when he was 14. He became a model king until his death.
Brought up as a Christian, he fought alongside King Alfred of Wessex against the pagan Viking and Norse invaders until 869 when his forces were defeated and Edmund was captured by the Vikings. He was ordered to renounce his faith and share power with the pagan Vikings, but he refused. Edmund was bound to a tree, shot through by arrows, and beheaded. His remains were moved to Bedricsworth where King Athelstan founded a religious community to care for his shrine which became a place of national pilgrimage.