EDMUND, or EADMUND (840-870), the Last of the kings of East Anglia, was born in 840. He was chosen by Offa as his successor when that king resigned and retired as a penitent to Rome. " The just and holy man" - so Simon Durham describes Edmund - began his reign over the East Angles in 855, and ruled peacefully and unevent-fully till his kingdom was invaded by the Danes in 870, when in a battle with Ingvar he was defeated and taken prisoner. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says : " The same winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes got the victory and slew the king, aud subdued all the land, and destroyed all the minsters which they came to." Abbo of Fleury, who writes a life of Edmund, relates the story of his death on the authority of Dunstan, who heard it from the lips of Edmund's sword-bearer. The Danes sent messengers to Edmund, who was dwelling at Hagilsdun. (near the present Hoxne), upon the river Waveney, offer-ing to allow him to reign under them on condition that he abjured his religion and divided with them his treasures. Edmund refuse,d these conditions, and being taken prisoner, was bound to a tree, and, after being scourged with whips and pierced with arrows, was finally behead.cid. The manner of his death raised him to a place in the roll of martyrs and saints ; and. on the spot where his head is said to have been miraculously discovered a church was erected, which was succeeded by one of the richest monasteries of England, that cf Bury St Edmunds. Here the remains of Edmund are said to have been interred.