St. Alcmund was the son of King Alchred of Northumbria and Osgith, his wife. In AD 774, when a mere youth, he was obliged to fly north, with his family, from the hands of his rebellious subjects. For upwards of twenty years, both father and son lived among the Picts, Alcmund apparently preaching the word of God as he grew older. In AD 889, his brother, Osred II, managed to reclaim the family’s inheritance and took the throne for a little over a year. The dynastic struggles, which typified this period of Northumbrian history, continued however, and it was probably soon after a number of Royal murders, that many of Alcmund’s people, begged this good man to return (AD 796). He immediately placed himself at the head of a liberation army and was successful in winning a number of battles. There is some confusion among his chroniclers as to the mode of his death; but it seems most probable that he was seized by the henchmen of the reigning monarch, Erdwulf, and treacherously slain on 19th March AD 800.

Alcmund was first buried at Lilleshall in Shropshire, where a church was either built over his relics, Not long afterwards, through fear of an incursion by the Danish enemy, his remains were hastily removed and translated to Derby, where he was honoured in St. Alcmund’s Church until the Reformation.

Britannia Biographies A   Addison, Joseph   Alanbrooke, Lord   Albert, Prince   Alexander, H.R.L.G.   Ambrosius Aurelianus   Arthur, King   Arviragus   Ashe, Geoffrey   Austen, Jane B   Bates, Thomas   Bede, the Venerable   Bedivere, Sir   Bell, Alexander Graham   Blair, Tony   Boudicca   Bradford, John   Burns, Robert C   Caratacus   Carlyle, Thomas   Carnegie, Andrew   Catesby, Robert   Cecil, Robert (Lord Salisbury)   Chaucer, Geoffrey   Churchill, Sir Winston   Claudius, Emperor   Constantine I, Emperor D   Diana, Princess of Wales   Dickens, Charles   Dickens, Cedric Charles   Digby, Sir Everard   Disraeli, Benjamin   Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan   du Maurier, Daphne   Duns Scotus   Dunstan, St. E   Elaine, Queen of Garlot F   Fawkes, Guy   Fleming, Alexander G   Geoffrey of Monmouth   George, St.   Gerald of Wales   Gladstone, William   Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall   Grant, John   Guinevere H   Hadrian, Emperor   Hengest   Hitchcock, Sir Alfred   Hooker, Thomas   Howard, John J   John, Prince   Jones, John Paul   Joseph of Arimathea   Julius Caesar K   Keats, John   Kenneth I, MacAlpin   Kentigern, St.   Keyes, Robert   Knox, John L   Leland, John   Lewis, C.S.   Livingstone, David   Louise, Princess M   Malory, Sir Thomas   Margaret, Princess   Mary, Queen of Scots   Maximus, Magnus   Merlin   Morgan-le-Fay N   Nightingale, Florence   Nimue, Lady of the Lake P   Parker, William (Lord Monteagle)   Peel, Sir Robert   Pelagius   Pepys, Samuel   Percy, Thomas   Philip, Prince   Phyfe, Duncan   Piltdown "Man"   Potter, Beatrix   Priestly, Joseph R   Robert I, the Bruce   Rookwood, Ambrose S   Scott, Sir Walter   Shakespeare, William   Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft   Smith, Adam   Stukeley, William T   Telford, Thomas   Thatcher, Margaret   Thomas, Dylan   Thomas the Rhymer   Tolkien, J.R.R.   Tresham, Francis   Trollope, Anthony   Turner, J.M.W.   Tylor, Sir Edward Burnett   Tyndale, William   Tyndall, John U   Uther Pendragon V   Vortigern W   Walpole, Sir Robert   Wallace, William (Braveheart)   Watt, James   Wilberforce, William   Wintour, Robert   Wintour, Thomas   Wright, Christopher   Wright, John Y   Ygerna (Igraine)