Waltheof of Bamburgh

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Waltheof was high-reeve or ealdorman of Bamburgh (fl. 994). He was the son of Ealdred, and the grandson of Oswulf I [1] and was father of Uhtred the Bold, Ealdorman of Northumbria. His name is Scandinavian which may imply that he had Viking ancestors.

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The name 'Waltheof' remained in his family when Earl Siward married his great-granddaughter and named his son Waltheof. This son of Siward became Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, and one of his descendants being Saint Waltheof of Melrose.

Additionally, another branch of the family would use the Waltheof name including: Waltheof of Allerdale who was son of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria. Waltheof of Inverkeithing and Dalmeny was son of Cospatric, and grandson of Waltheof of Allerdale. Another descendant of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria was Waltheof, Earl of Dunbar.

In 1006 Malcolm II of Scotland invaded Northumbria and besieged the newly founded episcopal city of Durham. At that time the Danes were raiding southern England and King Æthelred was unable to send help to the Northumbrians. Ealdorman Waltheof was too old to fight and remained in his castle at Bamburgh. Ealdorman Ælfhelm of York also took no action. Waltheof's son Uhtred, acting for his father, called together an army from Bernicia and Yorkshire and led it against the Scots. The result was a decisive victory for Uhtred. Local women washed the severed heads of the Scots, receiving a payment of a cow for each, and the heads were fixed on stakes to Durham's walls. Uhtred was rewarded by King Æthelred II with the ealdormanry of Bamburgh even though his father was still alive.

Issue

Waltheof has been identified as the father of two sons; their mothers are unknown:

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Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siward, Earl of Northumbria</span> 11th-century Earl of Northumbria in England

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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.

Gospatric or Cospatric, , was Earl of Northumbria, or of Bernicia, and later lord of sizable estates around Dunbar. His male-line descendants held the Earldom of Dunbar, later known as the Earldom of March, in south-east Scotland until 1435, and the Lordship and Earldom of Home from 1473 until the present day.

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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oswulf I of Bamburgh</span> High-reeve of Bamburgh

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Carham</span> Battle between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed

The Battle of Carham was fought between the English ruler of Bamburgh and the king of Scotland in alliance with the Cumbrians. The encounter took place in the 1010s, most likely 1018, at Carham on Tweed in what is now Northumberland, England. Uhtred, son of Waltheof of Bamburgh, fought the combined forces of Malcolm II of Scotland and Owen the Bald, king of the Cumbrians. The result of the battle was a victory for the Scots and Cumbrians.

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.

De obsessione Dunelmi is an historical work written in the north of England during the Anglo-Norman period, almost certainly at Durham, and probably in either the late 11th or early 12th century.

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Siward Barn was an 11th-century English thegn and landowner-warrior. He appears in the extant sources in the period following the Norman Conquest of England, joining the northern resistance to William the Conqueror by the end of the 1060s. Siward's resistance continued until his capture on the Isle of Ely alongside Æthelwine, Bishop of Durham, Earl Morcar, and Hereward as cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Siward and his confiscated properties in central and northern England were mentioned in Domesday Book, and from this it is clear that he was one of the main antecessors of Henry de Ferrers, father of Robert de Ferrers, the first Earl of Derby.

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.

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References

  1. De Northumbria post Britannos says that Oswulf had a son named Ealdred, father of Waltheof of Bamburgh, father of Uhtred of Northumbria; see McGuigan, ′Ælla and the descendants of Ivar′, pp. 25, 33.

Sources

Regnal titles
Preceded by Ruler of Bamburgh
fl. 994
Succeeded by