Prior to St George being adopted as patron saint of England there was actually a Anglo-Saxon king who held that distinction: St Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia (841-69). Edmund, who is thought to have descended from previous East Anglian monarchs, was crowned king, aged just fifteen, on Christmas Day in 855.

It was a turbulent time in English history. The Vikings, who had been raiding the eastern coastline since 800, began settling in East Anglia in 865, around ten years into the young king's reign. Until then, Edmund had been a peacefully minding his own business.

A considerate ruler, he treated his subjects with respect and favour. He also immersed himself in the Christian religion, once even spending an entire year at prayer in his royal tower at Hunstanton.

However, the trouble started in early 869 when two Viking chiefs, Hubba and Hinguar, invaded King Edmund's domain. Edmund fought back fiercely and repelled the invading army, re-establishing peace in East Anglia. Unfortunately for the young king, the Danes returned in larger numbers later in the year, this time led by the wonderfully named Ivor the Boneless and his brother Ubbe Ragnarsson.

One version of the events that followed suggests Edmund engaged them in battle at Hoxne, although another, more likely, story insists that Edmund, realizing his men were hopelessly outnumbered and reluctant to see any further slaughter, disbanded his army and simply rode away. He was soon caught by the Vikings, however, who demanded he accept them as his overlords and renounce the Christian faith, but the king refused.

Even after torture Edmund declared his faith to be more important than his own life, so he was tied to a tree in front of the Viking leader Hinguar. Once again, Edmund refused to renounce his faith and so Hinguar ordered his archers to use the king for target practice. The story of the king's death and martyrdom was recorded a century later by his biographer, Abbo of Fleury, who was told it by St Dunstan, who in turn claimed to have heard it directly from one of Edmund's military commanders who had witnessed the whole thing. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells it like this: 'The heathens then became brutally angry because he called on Christ to help him. They shot then with arrows, as if to amuse themselves, until he was all covered with their missiles as with bristles of a hedgehog, just as Saint Sebastian was.'

Then Hinguar, the dishonourable Viking, saw that the noble king still did not desire to renounce Christ and with resolute faith still called to him. Hinguar then commanded to behead the king and the heathens thus did. While this was happening, Edmund still called to Christ. Then the heathens dragged the holy man to slaughter, and with a stroke struck the head from him. According to the legend, the Vikings tried to hide Edmund's severed head in a wood, but it called out and was rescued. His final resting place is the town of St Edmundsbury in Suffolk, otherwise known as Bury St Edmunds, which became famous during the final century of the first millennium because of the miracles reputedly performed at King Edmund's graveside.

In the same way that many pubs have been named in honour of our current patron saint (see THE GEORGE AND DRAGON), so St Edmund would have inspired landlords to use his name and image on their inn signs. While there is no Crown and Arrows pub at Bury St Edmunds (although the town does have a ROSE AND CROWN), a pub by that name can be found by St Edmund's Church at Shelton Lock, near Derby.