Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, East Anglia
The new king Alfred, who succeede to the throne in 871, managed to use the memory of the martyr as a unifying force. When the Danes invaded again Edmunds body was pushed to London on a stretched fitted with wheels by Ailwin, who acted as the keeper of the body; it stayed there for three years. The archbishop of Canterbury tried to buy a fragment of the cross, that was still around Edmund's neck, for a lot of money, whilst the bishop of London tried to confiscate it. For that reason Ailwin returned the body to Beoderiesworth. He then went to the headquarters of the Danish king Sweyn, whose troops looted England at the time, and informed him that Edmund had told him that he would protect his people.
According to legend Sweyn died the following day. This probably explains the great respect that king Knut had for the shrine; in 1020 he renamed Beoderiesworth to Burgh of St Edmund and built a Benedictine abbey that became the largest of the country, wiht Ailwin as the bishop and about 80 monks that had been recruted from his old abbey in Hulme. In 1032 the large abbey and church were finished, and Edmunds body was transferred to its new shrine in the presence of Knut; on this occasion it was again established that Edmunds body did not decay, as was regularly observed thereafter. In 1212 King John came to Bury and laid the foundations for the Magna Carta, which was ratified in 1215.
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After his death a war of succession broke out, during which the Dauphin of France lost a battle and sent a detachment of the cavalry to Bury: were they after gold, the relics, St Edmund's body? Whatever, shortly thereafter the abbey of St Sernin in Toulouse became quite enthousiastic about St Edmund (S. Eadmundus Rex Angliae even became the patron saint of the city); after a fire in Bury's abbey in 1465 no remains were found, whereas St Sernin took pride in possessing a piece of the cross; it is therefore likely that they had succeeded in transporting the bodily reamins to Toulouse.
External links
About Bury St Edmunds
More about Bury St Edmunds
Abbey and Church of St Mary
More about Edmund: 1, 2, 3
See also Edmund
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