The Legend of St Fremund

Some years ago while researching the history of St Gregory's Church, Offchurch, Warwickshire, I came across the life of an obscure Anglo-Saxon saint by the name of Fremund. The various stories I read often referred to Fremund as the son of King Offa of Mercia (d. 796 AD), and that the name of the village of Offchurch was inalienably connected to that particular King as he is said to have founded the original church. The latter cannot be confirmed as records simply do not exist, but it became readily apparent to me that this well worn trope of Fremund's parentage must be incorrect, not least because a century had elapsed between Offa's and Fremund's deaths. I set about trying to put the record straight.

Offa, King of Mercia as depicted in Matthew Paris' illuminated
manuscript of the 13th century.

A great deal has been written about the origin of the name of Offchurch and the Legend of St Fremund, and much of it is contradictory. The guide for St Gregory’s church cites some of the historical references which appear to attest to the story of the founding of a church by Offa, King of Mercia (hence Offa’s Church) as well as this rather obscure early Christian martyr and saint, but these documents themselves may be drawing on previous ones whose veracity is open to question and simply perpetuate inaccuracies, hearsay and-dare we speculate- fiction? Indeed, William Camden in his book, Britannia, published in Latin in 1586, is often quoted by subsequent writers and historians, but Camden himself is likely to be relying on accounts of predecessors who might have been attaching credence to earlier stories of poetic invention. It is also evident that some later historians have misinterpreted Campden and others and incorrectly connected St Fremund with Offa of Mercia.

The story of Fremund, variously told, is repeated here briefly; Fremund was the son of King Offa of Mercia and who withdrew himself to the life of a hermit in Wales, or perhaps Lundy where for many years he devoted himself to prayer. At some stage, however, the kingdom was being threatened by Danish invaders and Fremund was sent for to lead his people in battle, and avenge the death of his kinsman, King Edmund of East Anglia. This he did and gained a spectacular victory near Harbury or Radford Semele. At some stage later he was murdered by Oswi or Osway, variously described as an apostate kinsman or simple villain. His body was brought to Offchurch and interred in the church - a pre-existing church founded by King Offa. The remains were later taken to Cropredy in Oxfordshire, and then to Dunstable. Any remains which were attributed to Fremund were destroyed by the puritans during the 17th century. The accounts vary in their telling. “The Visitor’s descriptive Guide to Leamington Spa & Warwick” by Sarah Medley has Fremund “basely slain” while he lay asleep on the lawn of Offa’s palace at Offchurchbury. Others that he was murdered on the road between Long Itchington and Harbury. Camden in “Britannia” speaks of him as “a man of great renown”. In “Historia Compendiosa Anglican” by Thomas Gent published in 1711 ^[1] Fremund is described as a “Prince of the East Saxons”. His account describes the barbarous activities of the invading Danes in East Anglia;

Offchurch, St Gregory's church ca 1919.
Image courtesy of leamingtonpostcards.com

“…the innocent Virgins of Ely [who] also fell as unspotted victims to the Barbarians; who entering into the Heart of East-Anglia, and overcoming Count Wulkettle, and his Forces, the next that fell a Martyr to their fury, was the pious, royal Saint, King Edmund, and the venerable, Bishop Humbert. But in 877, whilst they fought the Death of the King’s Relation, the devout Fremund, Prince of the East-Saxons, by forcing him from an Hermit’s Life to defend his country…” This alludes to the well recorded account of the Danes conquering East Anglia and putting King Edmund (later St Edmund) to death. However, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not mention the “devout” Fremund (who is remarked upon by some writers as the cousin of Edmund) as ever having taken up arms against the invaders. Not really surprising, given the next account from the pen of John Capgrave, in his Nova Legendae Angliae, a collection of stories compiled in the mid 14th century from the work of John of Tynemouth (d 1349).^[2]

In 1844 William Fleming included St Fremund in his History of the British Martyrs, and tells an altogether different story. He describes Fremund as a "Prince and Hermit", confidently asserting that he was the son of King Offa of the Mercians and martyred at Hesage in Wales on 11th May 700. Fleming quotes John Capgrave's Catalogue of English Saints as his source.^[3]

However, the following account, related by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy,^[7] firmly debunks any notion that there is any parental connection between King Offa of Mercia and Fremund:

As already mentioned, John Capgrave took the work of John of Tynemouth as substance for his "Nova Legendae Anglie". Tynemouth in the second quarter of the 13th century wrote "Sanctilogium Angliae", which included a collection of stories relating the lives of the saints. Included in this work was the life of St Fremund.

The account related by Capgrave has been described as a  “head-cult” by James Rattue, historian and author of a number of books on Holy Wells: He also points out;

Battle between the Danes and Saxons.

It is likely that Capgrave’s re-arrangement and updating of Tynemouth's work was known to John Lydgate, a monk, and poet at the Benedictine Monastery in Bury St Edmunds in the 15th Century. It is also very likely that Lydgate knew Capgrave personally. Capgrave, a contemporary of Lydgate, resided at the Priory in Kings Lynn, not far from Bury St Edmunds and was sometime Provincial of the Augustinian Order in England. There is also a monarchal connection between Lydgate and Capgrave-the former wrote "The Lives of Ss Edmund and Fremund" for the young King Henry VI's visit to Bury St Edmund in circa 1433, and the latter wrote the history of the reign of Henry VI, albeit some years later. Doubtless Lydgate will have read many of the copious writings of Capgrave and seems to have taken up Capgrave’s story of Fremund in “The Lives of Ss Edmund and Fremund”, an enormous poem of seven line stanzas written in Latin. The illuminated manuscript is housed in the British Library and can be viewed here (scroll down the page to view images). In the poem (as related above by Hardy) he mentions the Battle of Harbury where Fremund vanquishes the Danes and revenges his cousin Edmund, only to be murdered a short time after. The head-cult theme is extended both to Edmund and Fremund (BL images: Edmund Fremund). Lydgate's tale is necessarily epic; it was after all being produced for a King and the illuminators have obviously used a contemporary view of proceedings; for example; the combatants at Fremund's battle are dressed in 15th century armour, rather than the simple cloth tunics which would have been worn by Anglo-Saxons (click here to view). In the section relating the life of Edmund, the poem mentions a "good and wise" King Offa of the East Angles, who is childless and adopts a son. It is apparent that this Offa is not the same as the warmongering and cruel King of Mercia who is well known for his murderous activities, and it is possible that he never existed. Read more Here.

As pointed out by Hardy, many accounts suggest the death of Fremund occurred in 866AD, though Thomas Gent has him still alive in 877^[1]. However, it is well recorded, notably in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles that Offa, King of Mercia died around 796 while Edmund, King of East Anglia was killed by the Danes in 870. It is therefore impossible that Fremund could have been Offa’s (i.e. King of Mercia) son and the discrepancies with dates make it difficult to conclude whether Fremund was killed before Edmund and therefore could not have been avenging the latter’s death! So who was Fremund? Lydgate was referring to another Offa, and not the King of Mercia, as we see from this section of the poem relating to St fremund;

Here Fremund is named as the adopted son of Offa and his infertile wife, Botild. Both were old, or "fair on in age". What is of particular interest here is that Offa is referred to as a king "reigning in marshland". In the preface of "The Garland of St Edmund", published in 1907^[7], Lord Francis Hervey suggests this particular Offa may have been a minor king, or "kinglet" of a marsh area of East Anglia, an entirely plausible conclusion given the lack of any reference to Fremund in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. At some stage in the re-telling of the story, this minor Offa has become confused with the famous King of Mercia, possibly by Campden (though he does not mention Mercia in his work). It is possible that the word "Mershlond" has been translated as "Mercia". Furthermore Botild is said to be King Edmund's sister, which would make Fremund Edmund's nephew by adoption. Herein lies a difficulty of interpretation, and a confusion over the relationship of Fremund to Edmund as in line 2122 of the poem Lydgate has previously made Fremund a cousin of Edmund.

By line 2128 Edmund is an uncle of Fremund (the term "cousin" may have been used loosely, or be substitute for "kinsman).

The death of King Edmund at the hands of the Danes from a
19th century edition of John Fox's Book of Martyrs (originally
published in 1563) where he describes how the Danes; "most
cruelly bound him unto a tree, and caused him to be shot to
death; and, lastly, caused his head to be smitten from his body,
and cast into the thick bushes which head and body at the
same time by his friends was taken up, and solemnly buried
at the said Halesdon, otherwise now named St. Edmundsbury".

The Offa connection is further confused by Lydgate's earlier introduction of another King Offa. According to Lydgate, Edmund is the son of King Alkmund and his wife Siware of Saxony. On a visit to his cousin Alkmund, King Offa of East Anglia, who was old and childless adopts Edmund as his heir presumptive. Offa dies during his return to England and Edmund immediately takes his place. There is no record in any of the extant saxon manuscripts of a King Offa of East Anglia; furthermore there is no gap in the record to allow for the reign of such an Offa, nor have any artifacts such as coins been unearthed to corroborate his existence. In the second part of his poem Lydgate introduces Fremund as the son of Offa and Bothilda. A simple reading of John Lydgate's poem would confirm to all chroniclers since the 15th century that he was not referring to Offa King of Mercia, though there is a great deal of confusion about the various relationships, not least because it seems that both Edmund and Fremund were adopted by parents who were childless. This could easily lead to the conclusion that Edmund and Fremund are one and the same person, and that Fremund had been invented as resurrected alter ego to avenge Edmund's death. In fact the similarities between these two saints lives is striking; in addition to their adoption by childless, aging monarchs; they both engage the Danes and win (at least, according to Lydgate, initially King Edmund gains a great victory over the invaders but then refuses to fight in order to preserve his countrymen from further bloodshed, forfeiting his own life instead); both are pious and prefer service to their Christian faith over conflict; both are killed by beheading and miraculously their severed heads speak, and in both cases where their heads fall, springs gush forth from the ground. These are not uncommon hagiographical miracles.

Notwithstanding all the confusion over whether Fremund is the son of King Offa of Mercia, or a regional Kinglet called Offa in East Anglia, it is clear from a dispassionate reading that Lydgate's Lives of Ss Edmund and Fremund is a moral tale, written for a young, overly pious king barely twelve years old. King Henry VI's guardian and tutor, Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick saw him as weak and feeble of mind. The concatenation of the two saints lives was necessary to provide that vital instruction to a young king. Edmund had lost his kingdom (and life) to pagans as a result of his piousness, and a failed attempt to make peace with the Danes, but despite his piety and peaceful nature, Fremund had rejoined the fight from his ascetic seclusion to vanquish the invaders. In her essay in John Lydgate : poetry, culture, and Lancastrian England, ^[6] Fiona Somerset writes:

Whether King Henry VI ever read or fully understood the moral of the tale is moot. In any event Beauchamp's assessment was correct as Henry ultimately lost vast regions of territories in France, his crown, and ultimately his life to a usurper after his defeat at the Battle of Towton in 1461 during the Wars of the Roses.

Despite the magnitude of Fremund's achievement in miraculously vanquishing the Danish invaders, his story in the intervening years since publication of Lydgate's account seems to have languished, and to have almost vanished into obscurity, unlike King Edmund's martyrdom. That is until Campden arrived on the scene in the later 16th century when he added Fremund's story to his great work, "Britannia". This is somewhat perplexing as during the 15th century Lydgate's reputation as a poet was "second only to Chaucer" and his works were some of the first to go to the newly invented printing press. He was also well patronized by the Church, kings and nobility. More modern critics of the 19th and 20th centuries have been harsher, describing his work as "tedious" or "verbiage".^[5] Perhaps those who followed Capgrave and Lydgate in the 15th and 16th centuries thought the story of St Fremund's life was just a fanciful embellishment to the writings of zealous monks in East Anglia, who were perhaps overly keen to support their local heroes, or an unnecessary adornment to the story of the more famous King of the East Angles.

For a further account of St Fremund's life and martyrdom we must stray over the border to Cropredy in Oxfordshire. In a book by F N MacNamara, "Memorials of the Danvers Family"^[8] (see also ^[12]) there is an account which gives some clues as to why, if Fremund was first buried in Offchurch, his remains were subsequently moved to Cropredy in Oxfordshire where we know for sure there was a shrine to him; at St Mary's Church in Cropredy there is still a chapel dedicated to St Fremund. In this variation of the story which quotes in full the account already related above by Thomas Duffus Hardy, but omitting his scathing conclusion, MacNamara describes Fremund (whom he calls "Fredismunde" or "Frethmund") as a "Saxon saint, a king and a martyr". However, quoting the author of Church History of Britain, 1668, Serenus Cressy, he firmly asserts that Fremund was not the son of Offa, but the son of a Duke of the East Saxons called Algar and his wife Thova, and that he lived a hermits life in solitary retirement. During King Ethelred's reign Fremund was called to assist his countrymen against the invading pagans and was slain at "Wydford near Utchington" (which we suppose might be Bishops Itchington or, more likely Long Itchington)*. MacNamara continues;

*It should be noted that MacNamara is drawing heavily on an article written in 1893 under the title "A Forgotten Saint" by the Rev Canon Wood DD of Cropredy (see below).

That there was a shrine at Cropredy is certain as there are records attesting to offerings given for its upkeep.^{[7, 8, 10]} In 1206 the Prior of Dunstable, Richard de Morins, was, by the legate of the Holy See, made visitor of all men of religion in the See of Lincoln in which Prescote and Cropredy then fell. Morins, it appears, was more adept at law, politics and finance than divinity, and had two great objects constantly in view; namely the aggrandisement, at all risks, of the monastic establishment he was attached to, and the "gratification of his own pride and vainglory".^[9] Part of the mission in his visitations in the See seems to have been to bring back to Dunstable valuables, especially relics, for the benefit of his Priory Church. It is thus probable that Morins visited Cropredy and on seeing the shrine to St Fremund who was "too precious a possession to leave in the hands of the poor vicar of Cropredy", saw fit to have his relics removed to Dunstable, to further enrich that establishment. MacNamara suggests that some form of payment would have been made to help fund a new church in Cropredy, and it is likely that the financial benefit of having a shrine at Dunstable outweighed any initial cost to Richard de Morins. There is little doubt that the translation of Fremund's bones to Dunstable paid handsome dividends to that establishment. In the Annals of Dunstable for the year 1275, we read;

It was common in Medieval times to bring diseased people to shrines of saints to pray for relief of their symptoms, a practice still followed today by the faithful in many notable parts. It was the custom as part of the ceremony to bend a silver penny in the saint's name over the diseased part of the body in the hope of a miraculous cure, or at the very least to bring luck. The coin, however, was not retained by the patient but given to the church.^[11]

Hence we have a plausible explanation of how and why the remains of St Fremund were not only removed from Offchurch to Cropredy, his natural home, but finally ended up in Dunstable. However, having removed the remains it seems that a chapel dedicated to St Fremund at Cropredy continued for some centuries. In 1893 The Rev Canon Wood, DD vicar of Cropredy searched for proof that a shrine of St Fremund had once existed and uncovered in some wills of the Danvers family of Prescote, references to sums given for the upkeep of St Fremund's Chapel. He wrote up his findings in an article published in The Antiquary called "A Forgotten Saint" in 1893.^[12] These wills have dates in the 15th and 16th centuries. St Fremund became the Danvers' patron saint, and at Dauntsey Church in Wiltshire, where one of the family subsequently moved, there was once a window depicting St Fremund standing with his head under his arm and a scroll which reads 'Sancte Fredismunde ora pro nobis' - Saint Fremund Pray for Us. Ed: I have not been able to corroborate this and not yet viewed Dauntsey church to confirm if any of this window is still present.

The Rev Wood also refers to a manuscript by William of Ramsey, a monk at Croyland (Crowland) near Peterborough, who in the early 13th century wrote the Life of St Guthlac, St Edmund and, separately St Fremund. This manuscript was housed in the Cottonian Library (MS British Library Cotton Vitellius D. 14) but was wholly destroyed in a fire. William of Ramsey's account may well have been the earliest written account of Fremund, and the source of John of Tynemouth's work. William of Ramsey was probably adapting or retelling the story of St Edmund from the account of Abbo of Fleury (c945 to 1004) a Benedictine monk from Orleans. Abbo visited England at some stage in his travels, staying at Ramsey Abbey, and hearing of the story of the martyred king wrote a passion on his life. This is likely the most accurate account as it was the first to be written, and nearer the time of the actual events of 870. Interestingly, it lacks certain parts of the story told by later writers. William of Ramsey was writing over two hundred years later, and he penned a story of St Fremund as a "vengeance tale" to bring a happier conclusion to the traumatic story of St Edmund whose actions, though thoroughly Christian, may also have been seen to be unthinkable surrender to paganism.

Dunstable Priory Church

Whatever the truth of the matter, one hesitates to gravitate towards any particular conclusion as to whether Fremund existed or not, or whether he is a product of the fertile pens of religious men with motives other than the plain truth at heart .

Certainly he is not the man Campden et al speak of. He is certainly not the son of Offa, King of Mercia, and the connection with Offchurch seems to derive from Capgrave's treatment in which he mentions "Offecherche" and "Hareburebury" (Harbury). The question of the reliability of the sources for the story should also be raised. John of Tynemouth seems to have been a diligent researcher, travelling widely to search out histories contained within monasteries and cathedral archives, and where a history of a saint's life was not extant would refer to other chroniclers such as Bede, Abbo of Fleury, William of Malmesbury and Matthew Paris.^[2] In connection with St Fremund he may also have read William Parker of Crowland's account. However, the intervening centuries between the putative events of Fremund's martyrdom and William of Ramsey's (and subsequently Tynemouth's) compilation of the story in a manuscript would mean a considerable risk of the true (or even legendary) story being corrupted along the way. One cannot rule out the possibility that the story is complete fiction, the result of an over-active imagination. As Canon Wood so ably put it;

Those of a less credulous nature, might also question whether the miracles were true, or simply an embellishment to warrant the appellation "sainthood".

Fremund more likely has a familial association with Cropredy in Oxfordshire than Offchurch, and that motives of money almost certainly influenced some to talk up and perpetuate the legend.

The story of the heroic St Fremund is very definitely the stuff of legend, written and embellished by men of faith (but with varying and questionable motives), and as such needs to be put in the context of its medieval zeitgeist, the cult of the saints, and the hegemony of the Roman Church. It was the onset of the Reformation, and later the Renaissance which consigned this particular 9th century hero, and the literary works of a few East Anglian monks to the backwaters of history.

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1. Historia Compendiosa Anglican by Thomas Gent; 1711
2. See Nova Legenda Anglie; As collected by John of Tynemouth and John Capgrave; Ed Carl Horstman 1901.
3. Flemming, W. A complete history of the British martyrs : from the Roman occupation to Elizabeth's reign, 1844, p29
4. Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the end of the Reign of King Henry VII: Vol 1 Part II: Thomus Duffus Hardy; Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts: 1862
5. The Poetry of John Lydgate by Alain Renoir 1967 p2 Routledge Kegan and Paul
6. John Lydgate : Poetry, Culture, and Lancastrian England; Scanlon S. & Simpson, J (Eds), 2006, p261
7. The Garland of Saint Edmund; 1907; Ed Lord Francis Hervey; p39
8. McNemara, F. N. Memorials of the Danvers family (of Dauntsey and Culworth); 1895.
9. History of the County of Oxford, Vol 10, references a number of documents attesting to a shrine built to St Fremund and expands on the legend. Also the entry for Prescote has further information.
10. The Cornhill Magazine Vol VI, Jul to Dec 1862 p 830.
11. Annals of Dunstable for the year 1275 as related by John Timbs in Notable things of Our Own Time; A Supplementary Volume of Things not Generally Known; 1868; p217;
12. The Antiquary May and June 1893; p202 (part I) and p247 (part II); Rev Canon Wood DD; "A Forgotten Saint"

Further Reading:

The full illuminated manuscript of John Lydgate's The Lives of Ss Edmund and Fremund is available to view at the British Library Website. There is also a useful bibliography for anyone wishing to read more.