Possible site of Late Anglo Saxon battlefield, Battle of Haegelisdun, Hazeleigh (EHER 81725)

Battle of Haegelisdun 870 AD. The possible location for the battle between the raiding-army of Danish and the East Anglian army led by King Edmund. Edmund was killed either in battle or afterwards, leading to his martyrdom. This is one of several sites proposed for the location.

NRHE data transfer: Battle of Haegelisdun AD 870. Hazeleigh, Maldon is put forward by Dr. Keith Briggs as the site for the battle and death of St Edmund. He points to the place-name 'Halesdunam' which appears in Domesday Book at Hazeleigh, near Maldon in Essex. Disregarding the Latinisation gives us the name 'Halesdun', appearing after 1272 as 'Hailisduna'. The location may refer to a hill near Hazeleigh or, it has been suggested, to the hill that named Maldon itself: 'mæl-dún' or 'hill with a monument/cross'. Dr. Briggs posits that the cross may have actually been a monument to the martyrdom of Edmund, but memory of its significance was later lost or suppressed. Edmund may have been here, far from his home territory, to aid an Essex ally in their defence against the Danes. The name Hazeleigh itself translates as 'Hægel's wood', etymologically, 'Halesdunam' is as valid as Hellesdon, and probably more so than 'Hellesden Ley' at Bradfield. <1>