Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722Defoe, Daniel
History
Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722
Defoe, Daniel
England -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
For the like reason, I doubt not, they translated the bones of the
martyred king St. Edmund to this place; for it is a vulgar error to say
he was murdered here. His martyrdom, it is plain, was at Hoxon or
Henilsdon, near Harlston, on the Waveney, in the farthest northern verge
of the county; but Segebert, king of the East Angles, had built a
religions house in this pleasant rich part of the county; and as the
monks began to taste the pleasure of the place, they procured the body of
this saint to be removed hither, which soon increased the wealth and
revenues of their house, by the zeal of that day, in going on pilgrimage
to the shrine of the blessed St. Edmund.
We read, however, that after this the Danes, under King Sweno,
over-running this part of the country, destroyed this monastery and burnt
it to the ground, with the church and town. But see the turn religion
gives to things in the world; his son, King Canutus, at first a Pagan and
a tyrant, and the most cruel ravager of all that crew, coming to turn
Christian, and being touched in conscience for the soul of his father, in
having robbed God and his holy martyr St. Edmund, sacrilegiously
destroying the church, and plundering the monastery; I say, touched with
remorse, and, as the monks pretend, terrified with a vision of St. Edmund
appearing to him, he rebuilt the house, the church, and the town also,
and very much added to the wealth of the abbot and his fraternity,
offering his crown at the feet of St. Edmund, giving the house to the
monks, town and all; so that they were absolute lords of the town, and
governed it by their steward for many ages. He also gave them a great
many good lordships, which they enjoyed till the general suppression of
abbeys, in the time of Henry VIII.
But I am neither writing the history or searching the antiquity of the
abbey, or town; my business is the present state of the place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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