| 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].â€
2. 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."
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
