Tedmund (died 875) was the West Saxon ealdorman of Kent in 875 AD.
Biography[]
Tedmund was born in Canterbury, Kent to a family of Anglo-Saxon minor nobility, and he was raised as a thegn. He developed a reputation for being a coward, but, in 875 AD, King Alfred the Great decided to appoint Tedmund to replace the late Ealdorman of Kent. Tedmund hired the monk Shergar to serve as his body double and sent him instructions via letter, holing up in the fortress of Rochester out of fear of Danish attacks. The ambitious Abbot Cynegar had the Norwegian Viking Eivor and the Hidden Ones member Basim ibn Ishaq kidnap Tedmund with the goal of staging a faux rescue attempt and currying favor with Tedmund, but they instead kidnapped Shergar from the village of Beamasfield and discovered his true identity. This forced Eivor to assemble an army of Danes and disguised Mercians to storm the "impregnable" fortress of Rochester, and the allies succeeded, breaching the walls in a combined land and naval assault. Tedmund was captured by Eivor after a short duel, and he was then brought to the gates by Eivor when it was announced that Cynegar was approaching with an army. The conversation between the captive Tedmund and his "rescuer" became awkward when Tedmund brought up the many coincidences involved in his capture and sudden rescue, but he then began to choke and fell to the ground, dead. Basim deduced that Tedmund had poisoned himself to prevent his being captured and ransomed, foiling Cynebert's plan to win the ealdorman's favor.