Editing Edmund the Martyr (section)

=== Other legends ===
[[File:12th-century painters - Life of St Edmund - WGA15723.jpg|thumb|alt=page from an illuminated manuscript |A 12th-century depiction of Edmund's martyrdom ([[Morgan Library & Museum]], New York)]]
''De Infantia Sancti Edmundi'', a fictitious 12th-century hagiography of Edmund's early life by the English [[Canon (priest)|canon]] [[Geoffrey of Wells]], represented him as the youngest son of 'Alcmund', a [[Saxons|Saxon]] king of Germanic descent. 'Alcmund' may never have existed.{{sfn|Phillips|1909|p=295}} Edmund's fictitious continental origins were later elaborated upon in the 15th century by the poet John Lydgate in his ''The Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund''.{{sfn|Reimer|2004|p=169}} Lydgate spoke of his parentage, his birth at [[Nuremberg]], his adoption by [[Offa of Mercia]], his nomination as successor to the king and his landing at [[Old Hunstanton]] on the North Norfolk coast to claim his kingdom.{{sfn|Reimer|2004|p=179}} 

Biographical details of Edmund in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', published in 1913, include that "he showed himself a model ruler from the first, anxious to treat all with equal justice, and closing his ears to flatterers and untrustworthy informers".{{sfn|Phillips|1909|p=295}} It was written that he withdrew for a year to his royal tower at Hunstanton and learned the whole [[Psalter]], so that he could recite it from memory.{{sfn|Houghton|1970|p=16}}

Edmund may have been killed at [[Hoxne]], in Suffolk.{{sfn|Warner|1996|p=219}} His martyrdom is mentioned in a charter that was written when the church and chapel at Hoxne were granted to Norwich Priory in 1101. Place-name evidence has been used to link the name of Hoxne with Haegelisdun, named by Abbo of Fleury as the site of Edmund's martyrdom, but this evidence is dismissed by the historian Peter Warner.{{sfn|Warner|1996|pp=139, 141}} The association of Edmund's cult with the village has continued into modern times.{{refn|Until 1849, an old tree stood in Hoxne Park that was believed to be where Edmund had been martyred. In the heart of the tree, an arrowhead was found. A piece of the tree was used to form part of an altar of a church dedicated to Edmund. Another legend relates that after being routed in battle, Edmund hid under the Goldbrook bridge at Hoxne, but his hiding place was revealed to a wedding party, who gave him away to his enemies.|group=note}} [[Dernford]] in Cambridgeshire,{{sfn|Houghton|1970|p=24}} and [[Bradfield St Clare]]<ref>{{cite web|last=Reimer|first=Stephen R.|title=The Lives of Ss. Edmund and Fremund: Introduction|url=https://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/edmund/intro/int3.htm|work=The Canon of John Lydgate Project|access-date=26 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214011805/http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/edmund/intro/int3.htm|archive-date=14 February 2012}}</ref> (near Bury St Edmunds) are other possible sites for where Edmund was martyred.{{refn|However, there is a spot where places named in the early accounts occur close together. A field called 'Hellesdon' lay just south of Pitcher's Green at [[Bradfield St Clare]]; Sutton Hall stands a mile south of Bradfield St Clare on the parish boundary; Kingshall Farm, Kingshall Green and Kingshall Street occur in [[Rushbrooke with Rougham|Rougham]], two miles to the north. Bradfield St Clare is approximately six miles from Bury St Edmunds, which was an Anglo-Saxon royal vill (settlement). A monastery already existed, founded by King Sigeberht in 633AD. There was also a building called Bradfield Hall that stood within the St Edmund's Abbey, and accounts show that the Abbey's Cellarer paid rent for small pieces of land at Bradfield St Clare Hall (6 [[Shilling (British coin)|shilling]]s 8d [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|pence]]) and Sutton Hall (3s 2d.).|group=note}} In a preface to Lydgate's ''Life'', in which Edmund's banner—depicting three crowns set on a blue background—is described,{{sfn|Frantzen|2004|pp=68{{ndash}}69}} the crowns are said to represent Edmund's martyrdom, virginity and kingship.{{sfn|Preble|1917|p=123}}{{refn|The three crowns banner (representing the [[coat of arms]] of Bury St Edmunds) appears in Lydgate's book.<ref name="BL-2278">British Library online ''Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts'': [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=15554, Harley 2278 f.3v] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910034409/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=15554, |date=10 September 2016 }} (Arms of Bury).</ref>|group=note}}

The ancient wooden [[Greensted Church|St Andrew's Church, Greensted-juxta-Ongar]] in Essex, is said to have been a resting place for his body on the way to Bury St Edmunds in 1013.{{sfn|Westwood|1986|p=152}}