Today in History: A King Murdered

On this day (May 20) in 794, King Aethelberht of East Anglia was murdered. He was on a visit to his fiancé, Princess Aelfthryth of Mercia, at the Mercian court of Sutton Walls when he was taken captive by Aelfthryth’s father, King Offa, and beheaded. It’s not clear why he was murdered, but one theory is that he was trying to exert East Anglia’s independence from Mercia. The story quickly developed that his severed head fell off a cart and cured a blind man. He was eventually canonized.