St. Alcmund of Derby

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 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.