IN November 1535 Thomas Cromwell's Commissioners arrived at the abbey of Bury St Edmunds to report on the condition of the monastery and the extent of its wealth. Three years later they returned to confiscate the abbey's possessions for the Crown, writing to Cromwell of their successes:

In September 1539 the abbey was dissolved. The ‘riche shryne’ belonged to St Edmund, erstwhile king of Norfolk and Suffolk, who met his death at the hands of the Great Viking Army on 20 November 869. The value of the goods seized by the Commissioners attests to the wealth and prestige accrued by the abbey, ‘the glory and honour of Eastern England’ referred to above by the monastic chronicler, due largely to the reputation and popularity of their saintly patron. More than sixty medieval churches throughout the country bore his dedication, many of which were also adorned with his image. Between the tenth and sixteenth centuries more than thirty separate accounts of his legend were written in Latin, Old English, Anglo-Norman, Old French or Middle English. For much of the Middle Ages Bury was one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in England and Edmund's cult also enjoyed some popularity abroad, particularly in Scandinavia and Iceland, at Saint-Denis near Paris, at Lucca in Italy (from the tenth to the twelfth century) and at Toulouse in the south of France (from the thirteenth century).

Edmund was an enduring favourite with the English monarchy.