Northumbria was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland.
Eadred was King of the English from 26 May 946 until his death. He was the younger son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Eadgifu, and a grandson of Alfred the Great. His elder brother, Edmund, was killed trying to protect his seneschal from an attack by a violent thief. Edmund's two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, were then young children, so Eadred became king. He suffered from ill health in the last years of his life and he died at the age of a little over thirty, having never married. He was succeeded successively by his nephews, Eadwig and Edgar.
In Anglo-Saxon England, the Earl of York or Ealdorman of York was the ruler of the southern half of Northumbria. The titles ealdorman and earl both come from Old English. The ealdormanry (earldom) seems to have been created in 966 following a period when the region was under the control of Oswulf, already high-reeve of Bamburgh in northern Northumbria, from about 954, when Norse rule at York came to an end.
Osulf or Oswulf was the son of Eadwulf IV, Earl of Bamburgh, and grandson of Uhtred the Bold, ruler of Bamburgh and ealdorman of Northumbria. Oswulf’s family ruled Bamburgh from 954 until 1041, though their independence may have been compromised after 1041 when Siward the Stout killed Eadwulf and gained hegemony over the north.
Eadwulf or Eadulf was ruler of Bamburgh in the early tenth century. A genealogy in the twelfth-century text De Northumbria post Britannos recording the ancestry of Waltheof Earl of Northampton, makes Eadwulf the son of Æthelthryth daughter of Ælla, King of Northumbria, but no source names Eadwulf's own father.
Ealdred was a ruler of Bamburgh, at least part of the former kingdom of Bernicia in northern Northumbria, in the early tenth century. He was the son of Eadwulf.
Eadulf IV or Eadwulf IV was the earl of Bernicia from 1038 until his death. He was a son of Uhtred the Bold and his second wife Sige, daughter of Styr Ulfsson. Eadwulf had one full sibling, a younger brother Gospatric. He succeeded his older half-brother Ealdred, who was murdered by the son of Thurbrand the Hold in a bloodfeud started when Thurbrand murdered Uhtred. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle asserts that in 1041 Eadwulf was "betrayed" by King Harthacnut. The "betrayal" seems to have been carried out by Siward, Earl of Northumbria; When the Libellus de Exordio and other sources write about the same event, they say that Siward attacked and killed Eadulf. Siward then became earl of all Northumbria, perhaps the first person to do so since Uhtred the Bold. Eadulf was the last of the ancient Bernician line of earls to rule, until his son Osulf usurped the Northumbrian earldom in 1067.
Uhtred of Bamburgh, was ruler of Bamburgh and from 1006 to 1016 the ealdorman of Northumbria. He was the son of Waltheof I, ruler of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose family the Eadwulfings had ruled the surrounding region for over a century. Uhtred's death by assassination was described in De obsessione Dunelmi and has been interpreted as the beginning of a blood feud. Not to be confused with Uhtred the son of Eadwulf I of Bamburgh, which is why he historically has been referred to as Uhtred the Bold.
Waltheof was high-reeve or ealdorman of Bamburgh. He was the son of Ealdred, and the grandson of Oswulf I and was father of Uhtred the Bold, Ealdorman of Northumbria. His name is Scandinavian which may imply that he had Viking ancestors.
Eadwulf III of Bamburgh or Eadwulf Cudel or Cutel was ruler of Bamburgh for some period in the early eleventh century. Following the successful takeover of York by the Vikings in 866/7, southern Northumbria became part of the Danelaw, but in the north English rulers held on from a base at Bamburgh. They were variously described as kings, earls, princes or high-reeves, and their independence from the kings of England and Scotland is uncertain. Uhtred the Bold and Eadwulf Cudel were sons of Waltheof, ruler of Bamburgh, who died in 1006. He was succeeded by Uhtred, who was appointed by Æthelred the Unready as earl in York, with responsibility for the whole of Northumbria. Uhtred was murdered in 1016, and king Cnut then appointed Erik, son of Hakon, earl at York, while Eadwulf succeeded at Bamburgh.
Ealdred was an Earl in north-east England from the death of his uncle, Eadwulf Cudel, soon after 1018 until his murder in 1038. He is variously described by historians as Earl of Northumbria, Earl of Bernicia and Earl of Bamburgh, his stronghold on the Northumbrian coast. He was the son of Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria, who was murdered by Thurbrand the Hold in 1016 with the connivance of Cnut. Ealdred's mother was Ecgfrida, daughter of Aldhun, bishop of Durham.
Events from the 10th century in the Kingdom of England.
Eadulf or Eadwulf Rus was an 11th-century Northumbrian noble. He was either the son or grandson of Gospatric, possibly the man who soon after Christmas 1064 was allegedly killed on behalf of Tostig, Earl of Northumbria. This murder by Tostig led to a great northern revolt against Edward the Confessor, a revolt that turned both King Edward and Harold Godwinson against Tostig and led to the appointment of the Mercian, Morcar, as Earl of northern England.
Oslac ealdorman of York from around 963 to 975. His territory included but may not have been limited to the southern half of Northumbria. His background is obscure because of poor source documentation. The latter has facilitated disagreement amongst historians regarding his family and ethnicity.
Thored was a 10th-century Ealdorman of York, ruler of the southern half of the old Kingdom of Northumbria on behalf of the king of England. He was the son of either Gunnar or Oslac, northern ealdormen. If he was the former, he may have attained adulthood by the 960s, when a man of his name raided Westmorland. Other potential appearances in the records are likewise uncertain until 979, the point from which Thored's period as ealdorman can be accurately dated.
Northman was a late 10th-century English earl, with a territorial base in Northumbria north of the River Tees. A figure with this name appears in two different strands of source material. These are, namely, a textual tradition from Durham witnessed by Historia de Sancto Cuthberto and by the Durham Liber Vitae; and the other an appearance in a witness list of a charter of King Æthelred II dated to 994. The latter is Northman's only appearance south of the Humber, and occurred the year after Northumbria was attacked by Vikings.
Ælfhelm was the ealdorman of Northumbria, in practice southern Northumbria, from about 994 until his death. An ealdorman was a senior nobleman who governed a province—a shire or group of shires—on behalf of the king. Ælfhelm's powerful and wealthy family came from Mercia, a territory and former kingdom incorporating most of central England, and he achieved his position despite being an outsider. Ælfhelm first appears in charters as dux ("ealdorman") in about 994.
Thurbrand, nicknamed "the Hold", was a Northumbrian magnate in the early 11th century. Perhaps based in Holderness and East Yorkshire, Thurbrand was recorded as the killer of Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria. The killing appears to have been part of the war between Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut the Great against the English king Æthelred the Unready, Uhtred being the latter's chief Northumbrian supporter. Thurbrand may also have attested a charter of 1009 and given a horse to Æthelred's son Æthelstan Ætheling. The killing is the first-known act, if it did not initiate, a bloodfeud between Thurbrand's family and Uhtred going into the time of Earl Waltheof. It is possible that Holderness took its name because of Thurbrand's presence or ownership of the peninsula.
Eadwulf II, nicknamed Evil-child, was ruler of Bamburgh in the latter half of the tenth century. Although Eadwulf is sometimes described as the Earl of Northumbria, he ruled only a northern portion of Northumbria, a polity centred on Bamburgh that once stretched from the Firth of Forth to the River Tees.
