page_title: Cult of saints in Anglo-Saxon England
section_title: Martyred royal saints
hierarchical_section_title: Cult of saints in Anglo-Saxon England / Saints / Royal saints / Martyred royal saints
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the three known coins of Æthelberht II, King of the East Angles
context_page_description: A cult of saints played a key part within Anglo-Saxon Christianity, a form of Roman Catholicism practiced in Anglo-Saxon England from the late sixth to the mid eleventh century.
  Ecclesiastical authors produced hagiographies of many of these saints. These texts were aimed largely at an ecclesiastical audience, although some were also aimed at royalty and nobility, and outlined how to live an ideal Christian life.
context_section_description: In various cases, these royal saints had been killed by other Christians. Of the martyred royal saints, the earliest date from the seventh century, with very few appearing throughout the eighth century, and then a number emerging in the late eighth and first half of the ninth centuries in the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, with the very last known example coming from Wessex. The fact that motifs and tropes repeat in the various hagiographies of martyred saints led Rollason to suggest that the different authors were operating in a known hagiographical tradition and were borrowing from earlier works. For instance, the motif of a beam of divine light revealing the location of the body is associated with eight of these martyrs in their hagiographies; nine entail the murder being committed by a servant ordered to carry it out by their master; and seven claim that a religious foundation was established in the aftermath of the killing.
  The earliest example of a martyred royal saint was Oswine of Deira, who was killed on the order of his rival, Oswiu of Bernicia. That Oswine was soon sanctified is suggested by the tone in which Bede describes him and his inclusion in the eighth-century kalendar of St Willibrord. The best documented example of a martyred royal saint is Edward the Martyr, who was killed in 978 or 979 while visiting his half-brother Æthelred the Unready. That he was sanctified purely for the manner of his death is suggested by the Vita Oswaldi—probably authored by Byrhtferth of Ramsey between 995 and 1005—which does not describe him as having exhibited any particular virtues during his lifetime. Three royal men of Northumbria were also martyred saints: the kings Eardwulf and Ælfwald and the prince Ealhmund. Eardwulf appears to differ from most other martyred royal saints in that he appeared to survive his execution. According to the story set forth in the Historia Regum annals, Eardwulf was put to death outside the gates of Ripon Minster, after which the monks carried his body to a church, where he revived during the night.
  Two seventh-century Kentish princes, Æthelred and Æethelberht, are also presented as martyred saints in a number of eleventh century and later sources. There is nevertheless evidence that they were venerated as saints from at least the early eighth century. There is also much evidence for the veneration of a ninth-century Mercian prince, Wigstan, and according to late medieval sources he too had been martyred. In this story, Wigstan had declined to inherit the throne after his father's death, but was then murdered in 849 by another prince, Beorhtfrith, in retaliation for Wigstan's opposition to his own mother, Ælflædd, marrying Beorhtfrith's father, the new king Beorhtwulf. Another sanctified Mercian royal was Æthelberht II of East Anglia, who—according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle—was killed by Offa of Mercia in 794. As with Wigstan, the details of his murder are only found in later medieval sources. Kenelm is also a putative murdered Mercian who became a saint, although the sources dealing with his murder are late medieval and display some contradictions with early medieval sources discussing the Mercian royal succession. Also attested only by late medieval sources are the murders of the Mercian princes Wulflad and Rufinus, allegedly by their father, who sought to punish them for converting to Christianity. There are various inconsistencies with this account, although it may represent the survival of a seventh-century event in garbled form.
  One possibility as to why various murdered royals were sanctified was that the Church was seeking to dissuade such killings and thus promote societal stability. In such a scenario, kings might have reconsidered killing their rivals and enemies if they feared that the latter would actively be sanctified as a result of the killing. It is perhaps relevant that the apparent proliferation of martyred royal saints occurred in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, shortly after the 786 visit of the Papal legates to England, during which they had strongly
caption: One of the four known coins depicting Æthelberht II, who posthumously became one of the martyred royal saints
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