BURY ST EDMUNDS from its beginning [until 1539]
Before the body of Saint Edmund was transferred to Bury (in the first half of the tenth century) the place was called Beodricsworth. The shrine of the saint made a great difference to the settlement’s fortunes. During the latter half of the tenth century pilgrimages to Bury St Edmunds started to bring increasing wealth to West Suffolk. The priests who tended the shrine had organised themselves in a college of secular canons, but in the year 990 a Benedictine monk called Ailwin from the Abbey of St Benet’s of Hulme (on the river Bure in Norfolk) was placed in charge of the relics.
A postcard of St Edmund – a representation in church
The coming years were to be a time of conflict, as the Vikings (who had killed Edmund over a century before) once again began their onslaught on England. East Anglia was exposed to the Viking army and Ailwin thought it prudent to remove the saint’s body to London, where it remained for three years until the year 1013. The Vikings were ultimately successful against the English and the Norse king Canute extended his empire to include this country. Among the common people of England the principal attraction of St Edmund was his defence of the Anglo-Saxons people against he Danes. His opposition to the Vikings naturally placed within the opposition to King Canute. This naturally put the future of his shrine in Bury St Edmunds in peril, as a Viking now ruled the country. It was therefore an astute move of Canute to create a Royal Abbey at Bury St Edmunds to honour the saint. The lay canons of Beodricsworth then made way for Benedictine monks imported from St Benet’s of Hulme. The foundation was begun in 1020 and building continued for the next twelve years before it was consecrated.
The death of Canute plunged his Norse Empire into confusion and rebellion, and his heirs died without issue; they were followed by Edward the Confessor. The Norman Conquest led to William the Conqueror appointing many of his henchmen to positions of power within the church, but not at Bury; there the Abbot (called Baldwin) bult the great Abbey Church which was reputedly the most impressive such place of worship in the land. It was consecrated in 1095.
The shrine only increased in wealth and influence. In 1217, during the 1st Barons’ War which broke out while King Henry III was establishing his rule, is traditionally asserted that the body of St Edmund was stolen and transferred to Toulouse in France; was it really? A lot of ink has been spilt in debating this, and no definite answer is available. Whatever the truth, it was obviously in the shrine’s interests to maintain that the body remained in Bury. Certainly documents asserted this fact during the ensuing centuries.
All this came to an end in 1539 with the dissolution of the monasteries in England under King Henry VIII. The saint avoided some of the denigration heaped upon other saints of the Roman Catholic period, but in spite of the special nature of St Edmund as a national hero Bury did not escape confiscation. There is currently a campaign to excavate a tennis court in the Abbey grounds, to which site his body is thought to have been removed in 1539; obviously those who think this way have no confidence in the claims of Toulouse! There has recently been a multi-disciplinary study of the Abbey grounds which is turning up much more information on this long period of Suffolk’s history.
If you are interested in discovering more about St Edmund in the early period (i.e before 1066) I can recommend my book St Edmund and the Vikings. This book was selling well and has now gone out of print! YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND ON THE SECONDHAND MARKET, IN WHICH CASE I GIVE YOU THE DETAILS BELOW. St Edmund and the Vikings 869–1066 by Joseph C. W. Mason
Paperback, 234×156 mm, 168 pp. With 7 maps, 27 colour and 7 b/w illustrations. ISBN: 978-1-9997752-1-6
joemasonspage 