Ælfheah was murdered on 19 April 1012: the first Archbishop of Canterbury to suffer a violent death. Possibly born in Gloucestershire, Ælfheah professed as a monk, rose to be abbot of Bath, and may have become prior at Glastonbury. When appointed bishop of Winchester, he enlarged the cathedral, and enhanced the organ earlier installed by Æthelwold. “The sound makes so much clamour,” Wulfstan Cantor wrote, “that men stop their ears with their hands … and the melody of the pipes is heard all over the city”. In 1006, Ælfheah was appointed 29th archbishop of Canterbury, and became a key part of King Æthelred’s court. In September 1011, Vikings who had been harrying the south coast besieged Canterbury. A traitor, Ælfmær, eventually let them into the city, which they sacked, capturing Ælfheah. The Vikings demanded £48,000 in return for peace, to be paid by the following Easter, 13 April 1012. The sum was paid, but the Vikings then demanded a ransom for the archbishop. Ælfheah forbade any taxes to be levied on the poor to raise money for him. Angered, on 19 April the Vikings turned on Ælfheah during a drunken feast, pelting him with bones and ox-heads. One of their leaders, Thorkell the Tall (Þorkill inn Hávi), intervened, ashamed of his fellow Vikings’ conduct, but he did not manage to prevent someone killing Ælfheah with an axe blow to the head. The church of St Alfege (a variant spelling of Ælfheah) in Greenwich marks the traditional spot of his martyrdom. Later that year, Thorkell defected from the Vikings to King Æthelred, bringing 45 ships with him. Ælfheah was buried in St Paul’s in London. Later, King Cnut had Ælfheah's bones transferred to Canterbury, possibly with a strong escort of housecarls, as Londoners were fond of the saint's relics. In Canterbury, Ælfheah and Dunstan – two Anglo-Saxon saints – had pride of place to the north and south of the high altar. When Thomas Becket was martyred in the cathedral a century and a half later, he commended himself to Ælfheah’s care.