Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Waltheof

Male - 1076


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  • Name Waltheof  
    Gender Male 
    Died 31/31 May 1075/6  St. Giles Hill, Winchester, Hampshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Croyland Abbey, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I6085  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Siward,   b. , , Denmark Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1055, York, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Ælfflaed,   b. of Bamburgh, Northumberland, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2622  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Judith of Lens,   b. Abt 1054,   d. Abt 1090  (Age ~ 36 years) 
    Married Jan 1070 
    Children 
     1. Maud of Northumberland,   b. Abt 1072,   d. From 1130 to 1131, , , Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 58 years)
     2. Alice of Northumberland,   d. Aft 1148
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F2613  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
      “JUDITH OF LENS, born about 1054. She married after January 1070 WALTHEOF, Earl of Northumberland, lord of Potton, Bedfordshire, Waltharnstow, Essex, Conington, Leighton Bromswold, Little Catford, and Sawtry, Huntingdonshire, Barnack, East Farndon, Fotheringay, Harringworth, and Lilford, Northamptonshire, etc., son and heir of Siward, Earl of Northumberland, by Ælfflaed, daughter of Earl Ealdred. They had two daughters, Maud [Queen of Scotland] and Alice. He was still young at the death of his father in 1055. He was active against the Norman in the northern counties and especially at York in 1069. In 1070 he made his peace with King William the Conqueror. He occurs as one of the witnesses to King William's charter to Wells dated 1068. He was present at the marriage of Ralph de Wader at Exning, Cambridgeshire, where the guests entered into a conspiracy against the king. In this he was to some slight extent implicated, but acting on the advise of Archbishop Lanfranc, he crossed over to Normandy to the king, and disclosed the matter to him. The conspiracy having been crushed, the king kept Waltheof with him. But he was accused by his wife, Judith, of more than a mere knowledge of the plot. After a year's deliberation, during which he was imprisoned at Winchester, Waltheof was executed at Winchester, Hampshire 31 May 1075 (or 1076). Two weeks afterwards the king allowed his body to be removed to Croyland Abbey, Lincolnshire, where the abbot buried him in the chapterhouse; his remains were subsequently translated into the church near the altar. At an unknown date, Judith was granted the manor of Elstow, Bedfordshire by her uncle, King William the Conqueror. Sometime prior to 1086, she founded a nunnery at Elstow and endowed it with the vill. She was living in 1086, and presumably died about 1090.
      Wharton Anglia Sacra (1691): 159 (Chronicon Sanctæ Crucis Edinburgensis sub A.D. 1076: "Walthevus Comes decollatus est."). Lysons Environs of London 1(2) (1811): 699-700. Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum 5 (1825): 522-523. Palgrave Docs. & Recs. illus. the Hist. of Scotland 1 (1837): 100-101 xxx (Cronica Canonicorum Beate Marie Huntingdon: "David qui regnavit et duxit Matildam Comitissam Huntingd' neptem Willelmi Regis Anglorum filiam Ivette que fuit filia Lamberti de Louns Comitis."). Col. Top. et Gen. 6 (1840): 261-265. Edwards Liber Monasterii de Hyda (Rolls Ser. 45) (1866): 294-295 (Judith [of Lens], wife of Earl Waltheof, styled "king's kinswoman" [consanguineam regis] [i.e., kinswoman of King William the Conqueror]). Freeman Hist. of the Norman Conquest of England 4 (1871): 813-815 (re. connection of Earl Waltheof with conspiracy of Ralph). Remarks & Colls. of Thomas Hearne 3 (Oxford Hist. Soc.) (1889): 104 (ped. chart). Searle Ingulf & the Historia Croylandensis (1894): 104-110 (biog. of Earl Waltheof, the martyr). Notes & Queries 9th Ser. 8 (1901): 525-526. Rutland Mag. & County Hist. Rec. 3 (1908): 97-106, 129-137. VCH Bedford 2 (1908): 237-242; 3 (1912): 280-281, 296-305. Pubs. of Bedfordshire Hist. Rec. Soc. 9 (1925): 23-34. VCH Northampton 3 (1930): 227-231. VCH Huntingdon 3 (1936): 86-92, 144-151, 203-212. Arch. Aeliana 30 (1952): 200-201. Giles Vita et Passio Waldevi comitis in Original Lives of Anglo-Saxons and others who lived before the Conquest (Caxton Soc. 16) (1954): 1-30. Offler Durham Episcopal Charters 1071-1152 (1968): 2, 5, 6, 16n, 27, 30-31, 39-47. VCH Essex 6 (1973): 253-263. VCH Cambridge 6 (1978): 177-182. Winter Descs. of Charlemagne (800-1400) (1987): XI.227, XII.398-XII.399. Schwennicke Europaische Stammtafeln 3(4) (1989): 621 (sub Boulogne). Bower Scotichronicon 3 (1995): 64-65 & 126-127 (instances of Judith, wife of Earl Waltheof, styled "niece" [neptis] of King William the Conqueror). Van Houts Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigny 2 (1995): 270-273 (Deeds of the Norman Dukes: "Waltheof had three daughters by his wife [Judith], a daughter of the countess of Aumâle, who was a uterine sister of William the elder, king of the English. Simon de Senlis married another of Earl Waltheof’s daughters and received with her the earldom of Huntingdon. He had by her a son called Simon. After the death of Earl Simon, David, brother of secundae Maud, queen of the English, married his widow, by whom he had one son. After the death of his brothers Duncan and Alexander, kings of Scots, he became king. Another of Waltheof’s daughters, Judith [recte Alice], married Rodolf de Toeny, as we have already mentioned. The third daughter [recte granddaughter] was married by Robert Fitz Richard, as we have also mentioned above."). William The English & the Norman Conquest (1995). Tanner Fams., Friends, & Allies (2004): 290 (chart).
      Children of Judith of Lens, by Waltheof of Northumberland:
      i. MAUD OF NORTHUMBERLAND [see next].
      ii. ALICE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, married RALPH DE TONY, of Flamstead, Hertfordshire [see TONY 3].”

      2. From Wikipedia accessed 1 Sep 2019
      "Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria
      "Waltheof of Northumbria" redirects here. For the earlier earl of that name, see Waltheof of Bamburgh.
      Waltheof
      Earl of Northumbria
      Reign: 1072–1076
      Predecessor: Cospatrick of Northumbria
      Successor: William Walcher
      Died: 31 May 1076
      St. Giles's Hill, Winchester
      Buried: Croyland Abbey
      Spouse(s): Judith of Lens
      Issue
      Maud, Countess of Huntingdon
      Adelise
      Father Siward, Earl of Northumbria
      Mother Ælfflaed
      Waltheof, 1st Earl of Northumbria (died 31 May 1076) was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I.
      Early life
      Waltheof was the second son of Siward, Earl of Northumbria. His mother was Aelfflaed, daughter of Ealdred, Earl of Bernicia, son of Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria. In 1054, Waltheof's brother, Osbearn, who was much older than he, was killed in battle, making Waltheof his father's heir. Siward himself died in 1055, and Waltheof being far too young to succeed as Earl of Northumbria, King Edward appointed Tostig Godwinson to the earldom.
      Waltheof was said to be devout and charitable and was probably educated for a monastic life. Around 1065, however, he became an earl, governing Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. Following the Battle of Hastings he submitted to William and was allowed to keep his pre-Conquest title and possessions. He remained at William's court until 1068.
      First revolt
      When Sweyn II invaded Northern England in 1069, Waltheof and Edgar Aetheling joined the Danes and took part in the attack on York. He would again make a fresh submission to William after the departure of the invaders in 1070. He was restored to his earldom, and went on to marry William's niece, Judith of Lens. In 1072, he was appointed Earl of Northampton.
      The Domesday Book mentions Waltheof ("Walleff"): "'In Hallam ("Halun"), one manor with its sixteen hamlets, there are twenty-nine carucates [~14 km²] to be taxed. There Earl Waltheof had an "Aula" [hall or court]. There may have been about twenty ploughs. This land Roger de Busli holds of the Countess Judith." (Hallam, or Hallamshire, is now part of the city of Sheffield)
      In 1072, William expelled Gospatric from the earldom of Northumbria. Gospatric was Waltheof's cousin and had taken part in the attack on York with him, but like Waltheof, had been pardoned by William. Gospatric fled into exile and William appointed Waltheof as the new earl.
      Waltheof had many enemies in the north. Amongst them were members of a family who had killed Waltheof's maternal great-grandfather, Uchtred the Bold, and his grandfather Ealdred. This was part of a long-running blood feud. In 1074, Waltheof moved against the family by sending his retainers to ambush them, succeeding in killing the two eldest of four brothers.
      Second revolt and death
      In 1075 Waltheof joined the Revolt of the Earls against William. His motives for taking part in the revolt are unclear, as is the depth of his involvement. However he repented, confessing his guilt first to Archbishop Lanfranc and then in person to William, who was at the time in Normandy. He returned to England with William but was arrested, brought twice before the king's court and sentenced to death.
      He spent almost a year in confinement before being beheaded on 31 May 1076 at St. Giles's Hill, near Winchester. He was said to have spent the months of his captivity in prayer and fasting. Many people believed in his innocence and were surprised when the execution was carried out. His body was initially thrown into a ditch, but was later retrieved and buried in the chapter house of Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire.
      Cult of martyrdom
      [Image of stone statue with the following explanation:] Statue traditionally identified as Waltheof, at Croyland Abbey, west front of ruined nave, 4th tier
      In 1092, after a fire in the chapter house, the abbot had Waltheof's body moved to a prominent place in the abbey church. When the coffin was opened, it is reported that the corpse was found to be intact with the severed head re-joined to the trunk.[1] This was regarded as a miracle, and the abbey, which had a financial interest in the matter began to publicise it. As a result, pilgrims began to visit Waltheof's tomb. He was commemorated on 31 August.[2][3]
      After a few years healing miracles were reputed to occur in the vicinity of Waltheof's tomb, often involving the restoration of the pilgrim's lost sight.
      Waltheof also became the subject of popular media, heroic but inaccurate accounts of his life being preserved in the Vita et Passio Waldevi comitis, a Middle English Waltheof saga, since lost, and the Anglo-Norman Waldef.
      Family and children
      In 1070 Waltheof married Judith de Lens, daughter of Lambert II, Count of Lens and Adelaide of Normandy, Countess of Aumale. They had three children, the eldest of whom, Maud, brought the earldom of Huntingdon to her second husband, David I of Scotland, and another, Adelise, married the Anglo-Norman noble Raoul III of Tosny.
      One of Waltheof's grandsons was Waltheof (d. 1159), abbot of Melrose.
      In popular culture
      Waltheof was portrayed by actor Marcus Gilbert in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).
      Waltheof is the subject of Juliet Dymoke's 1970 historical novel Of the Ring of Earls
      Waltheof is a major character in Elizabeth Chadwick's 2002 historical novel The Winter Mantle
      Waltheof is a character in Parke Godwin's 1991 historical novel Sherwood
      References
      1. Webb, Diana Pilgrimage in Medieval England Hambledon and London 2000 pp32-3 ISBN 185285250X
      2. "Den hellige Waldef av Croyland ( -1076)". Den katolske kirke. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
      3. Farmer, David (14 April 2011). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Fifth Edition Revised. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 August 2017 – via Google Books.
      Sources
      This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Waltheof". Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
      Chronicle of Britain ISBN 1-872031-35-8
      Hunt, William (1899). "Waltheof (d.1076)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
      Lewis, C. P. "Waltheof, earl of Northumbria (c.1050–1076)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28646.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
      External links
      Waltheof 2 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England"

      3. Website "English Monarchs" http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/vikings_18.html accessed 1 Sep 2019:
      "Siward Earl of Northumbria, d. 1055
      The larger than life figure of Siward, earl of Northumbria first appears on the pages of history in the year 1033, when he stood as a witness in a charter by King Canute for Archbishop Ælfric of York.
      Siward is generally considered to be of Danish stock, the 'Vita Ædwardi Regis', which was compiled by an anonymous author circa 1067 and commissioned by Queen Edith, the widow of King Edward the Confessor, records that Siward's nickname was 'Digri', or 'Digara', deriving from the Danish Diger meaning 'the Stout', or 'the Strong'. The biography of Siward's son Waltheof, states that Siward was the son of a Scandinavian earl named Bjorn. A legend preserved in the twelfth century claims that Bjorn was descended from the union of a lady and a white bear.
      Siward grew to be powerful figure in the north of England during the reign of King Canute the Great, a formidable Viking warrior who conquered England and made himself king in the first decade of the eleventh century. Siward was one of many Danes who arrived in England in the wake of Canute's conquest of the country, although the date and context of his arrival in England are not known.
      He succeeded Erik of Hlathir, earl of Northumbria, as ruler of southern Northumbria between 1023 and 1033. Siward then entrenched his position in northern England by marrying Ælfflæd, the daughter of Ealdred, Earl of Bamburgh and granddaughter of Uhtred the Bold. After slaying Ealdred's successor Eadulf in 1041, Siward acquired control of all of Northumbria. He was delegated authority in England by the king while Canute was otherwise occupied in his Scandinavian territories.
      On the death of Canute in 1035, the throne was siezed by his illegitimate son Harold Harefoot. Canute's legitimate son Hardicanute was in Denmark at the time of his father's death, his involvement in a war against King Magnus I of Norway resulted in his not being able to secure his claim to the throne of England. As Hardicanute was preparing an invasion of England, Harold died in 1040 and was succeeded by his brother. Hardicanute's first act on arriving in his new kingdom, was to have his half-brother Harold's body disinterred, beheaded and slung into a marsh, causing outrage amongst churchmen. Siward appears as 'Sywardus Comes' in 1038, as witness to a charter of King Hardicanute to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. He further witnessed a confirmation granted by Harthacnut to Fécamp Abbey, between 1040 and 1042. Hardicanute reigned in England for but two years dying in 1042, like his half-brother, he met his end in the throes of a fit, incurred during a riotous drinking bout at Clapham.
      Hardicanute was succeeded by Saxon half-brother Edward the Confessor. Siward was to become one of the Confessor's most powerful supporters. On 16 November 1043, Siward, Godwine Earl of Wessex and Leofric Earl of Mercia, aided the king against his mother, Emma of Normandy.
      Edward's attitude to Emma was cold and reserved. He resented her second marriage to his father's rival, King Canute, and Emma's preference for her children by Canute over himself and his brother, Alfred. Edward complained that his mother had "done less for him than he wanted before he became king, and also afterwards". He confiscated her considerable wealth and then went on to accuse his mother of treason, it was claimed that Emma had incited King Magnus of Norway to attack England.
      Along with Earl Leofric and Ralph the Timid, Earl of Hereford, Siward assisted the king to combat a rebellion by the powerful Earl Godwine and his sons in 1051 which resulted in the exile of Godwine. Godwine returned to England in 1052. Siward further extended his influence in the south, bringing the shire of Northampton under his control in the 1040s and Huntingdon in the 1050s.
      In 1039 or 1040, the Scottish king Duncan I invaded Northumbria and lay siege to the town of Durham. Within a year, he was killed by King Macbeth, who after defeating him in battle, succeeded to the throne of Scotland. The elder of Duncan's sons, Malcolm, enlisted the aid of Edward the Confessor. The twelfth century Annals of Lindisfarne and Durham, record that in the year 1046 -
      Earl Siward with a great army came to Scotland, and expelled king Mac Bethad, and appointed another; but after his departure Mac Bethad recovered his kingdom'
      Siward met Macbeth in battle to the north of the Firth of Forth, the battle is variously referred to as the "Battle of the Seven Sleepers" or the "Battle of Dunsinane", although the earliest reference to Dunsinane as the location occurs in the early fifteenth century by Andrew of Wyntoun. The earliest contemporary English account of the battle is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The battle, in which the Annals of Ulster report 3,000 Scots and 1,500 English died, was fierce and bloody, Siward's eldest son, Osbjorn and his son-in-law were among the dead.
      "Around this time Siward, the mighty earl of Northumbria, almost a giant in stature, very strong mentally and physically, sent his son to conquer Scotland. When they came back and reported to his father that he had been killed in battle, he asked 'Did he receive his fatal wound in the front or the back of his body?' The messengers said 'In the front'. Then he said, 'That makes me very happy, for I consider no other death worthy for me or my son'. Then Siward set out for Scotland, and defeated the king in battle, destroyed the whole realm, and having destroyed it, subjected it to himself" --the Historia Anglorum of Henry of Huntingdon.
      The great warrior Earl Siward, reported by contemporaries to be a giant of a man in stature, died not in battle, but much to his disdain, in his bed, of dysentry in 1055, during which he bemoaned the fact that instead of dying in one of the many battles he had fought in, he was forced to die like a cow. He insisted on being dressed in his battle armour, with helmet on his head and axe and shield in hand so he could end his days like a warrior and thus attired went to meet his maker.
      'Siward, the stalwart earl, being stricken by dysentery, felt that death was near, and said, "How shameful it is that I, who could not die in so many battles, should have been saved for the ignominious death of a cow! At least clothe me in my impenetrable breastplate, gird me with my sword, place my helmet on my head, my shield in my left hand, my gilded battle-axe in my right, that I, the bravest of soldiers, may die like a soldier." He spoke, and armed as he had requested, he gave up his spirit with honour' The Historia Anglorum, Henry of Huntingdon.
      The Vita Ædwardi Regis records that Siward died at York and was buried in "the monastery of St Olaf" at Galmanho, which is confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, John of Worcester, and the Historia Regum.
      One of Siward's sons is known to have survived him, Waltheof, whose mother was Ælfflæd. As Waltheof was at the time of his father's death still a young child, King Edward the Confessor appointed Tostig Godwineson, the unruly brother of Harold Godwineson (the future Harold II) as Earl of Northumbria. Waltheof later however became Earl of Northumbria, destined to become the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls, he joined a rebellion against William the Conqueror, and was betrayed by his wife Judith of Lens and executed in May 1076.
      Waltheof's daughter, Maud of Huntingdon married David I, King of the Scots, the son of Malcolm Canmore and through this marriage Siward was to became the ancestor of later Scottish and English monarchs."