869 or 870: St. Edmund the Martyr

ExecutedToday.com ^ | November 20, 2011 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

This is the feast date and martyrdom date of middle ages English king Edmund the Martyr. This acute ruler of the East Angles, the last native East Anglian king, was stomped in battle by the marauding norsemen under Ivar the Boneless and his less interestingly-named brother Ubbe Ragnarsson. These two were sore about their father Ragnar Lodbrok, who had shipwrecked in England — maybe East Anglia, maybe elsewhere — and allegedly been thrown into a snakepit.

According to the hagiographic account, these Danish heathens attempted to force Edmund to renounce Christianity. Edmund demurred....

[Red Badger]

25 or 624?.................