History

Legend has it that Fremund was a son of King Offa of Mercia

Offa of Mercia

Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...

. However he gave up his royal life to become a hermit and sailing with twelve companions from Caerleon

Caerleon

Caerleon is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport, South Wales. Caerleon is a site of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman legionary fortress, Isca Augusta, and an Iron Age hill fort...

-on-Usk, eventually landed on an island called "llefaye" (sometimes identified with Lundy

Lundy

Lundy is the largest island in the Bristol Channel, lying off the coast of Devon, England, approximately one third of the distance across the channel between England and Wales. It measures about at its widest. Lundy gives its name to a British sea area and is one of the islands of England.As of...

) where they established a hermit

Hermit

A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...

age. Meanwhile Vikings invaded Mercia

Mercia

Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...

 following their victory in East Anglia

East Anglia

East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

 which had resulted in the martyrdom of King Edmund

Edmund the Martyr

St Edmund the Martyr was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.D'Evelyn, Charlotte, and Mill, Anna J., , 1956. Reprinted 1967...

. The Mercian people were without a leader, King Offa having died, so a group went in search of their lost prince. Finding him on the island, they led him back home as their war leader. A great battle ensued at Radford Semele

Radford Semele

Radford Semele is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, close to the town of Leamington Spa. According to the 2001 UK census, Radford Semele parish had a population of 2,034. It lies to the east of Leamington, on the A425 road between Leamington and Southam. It has a 16th century pub...

 in which Fremund was completely victorious. However as Fremund knelt in prayer of thanksgiving one of his own men envious of his success struck off his head. His corpse stood up, picked up his head and walked away; eventually stopping somewhere between Harbury

Harbury

Harbury is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 2,485....

 and Whitton (Whitnash

Whitnash

Whitnash is a small town contiguous with both Royal Leamington Spa and Warwick in Warwickshire, England. In 2001, it had a population of 7,798.-History:...

?), a miraculous well sprung up at his feet, in the water of which he washed his head then lay down and died.

After his death Fremund's body was taken to Offchurch

Offchurch

Offchurch is a village and civil parish on the River Leam, east of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.-History:There is a possibility that it was home to Offa, who was King of Mercia from 757 to 796. King Offa had a church built in the village...

 in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 where his tomb became a place of pilgrimage for those seeking healing. In about AD 931 his remains were taken to Cropredy

Cropredy

Cropredy is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-Early history:The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book...

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. In about 1207-1210 some of his relics were removed from Cropredy to a new shrine at Dunstable Priory

Dunstable Priory

The Priory Church of St Peter with its monastery was founded in 1132 by Henry I for Augustinian Canons in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. St Peter’s today is a large and impressive building, but this is only the nave of what remains of an originally much larger Augustinian priory church...

 in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, but his shrine at Cropredy continued to be venerated until early in the 16th century. His shrines at both Cropredy and Dunstable were destroyed in the 1540s during the English Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

.

St. Fremund's feast day in May continued to be celebrated as a Fair in Dunstable until early in the 20th century. A parish church of St. Fremund the Martyr was built in 1967-68 to serve a new housing estate in Dunstable .