Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria

Waltheof came from one of the most influential families in Northern England. His father was Siward , Earl of Northumbria and one of the most powerful people in Britain in the middle of the XI century . Waltheof's mother was probably the granddaughter of Uchtred , the forerunner of Siward as Earl of Northumbria, whose pedigree dates back to the Anglo-Saxon rulers of Bernice . When his father died in 1056 , Waltheof was still a child, and his older brother died shortly before in the war with the Scots . Therefore, Tostig , brother of Harold Godwinson , the de facto ruler of the country under King Edward the Confessor, was appointed the new Earl of Northumbria . Only in 1065 , probably in compensation for the lost Northumbria, did Waltheof take control of the eastern regions of Central England, becoming Earl of Huntingdonshire , Northamptonshire , Bedfordshire, and possibly Cambridgeshire .

Waltheof did not take an active part in the country's defense during the invasion of England in 1066 by the army of the Norman Duke Wilhelm . Shortly after the Battle of Hastings, he recognized William as King of England. It is known that next year, together with other Anglo-Saxon tycoons, Waltheof accompanied Wilhelm on his trip to Normandy. However, already at the end of 1069, Waltheof joined the mass revolt of the Anglo-Saxons of Northern England against the Norman power. Together with the units of Edgar Etelling and Gospatrick , he participated in the capture of York and the destruction of his Norman garrison. But the approach of the large army of King William the Conqueror made the Anglo-Saxons retreat. During the winter of 1069-1070 , the Norman forces systematically ravaged Yorkshire , trying to eliminate the possibility of Anglo-Saxon resistance.

In the spring of 1070, Waltheof and Gospatrick submitted to King William and took him the oath of allegiance. Gospatrick was appointed Earl of Northumbria , and Waltheof received back his possessions in Central England and the title of Earl. Moreover, Waltheof soon won over the king and was greatly elevated at his court. In 1072 , after the deposition of Gospatrick, he was taken over by Northumbria and in the same year married Judit Lansky , the niece of King William. Thus, by the mid- 1070s, Waltheof was the only Anglo-Saxon tycoon who was part of the highest royal administration of Norman England.

Nevertheless, already in 1075, Waltheof joined the rebellion of three counts against the king. The reasons for his participation in this uprising remain incomprehensible. The point of view that this was another attempt by the Anglo-Saxons to overthrow the " Norman yoke " does not hold water, as the Anglo-Saxon population did not take part in the rebellion, and many, on the contrary, fought in the royal troops sent to suppress the uprising. Waltoff’s participation in the rebellion was far from heroic. Almost immediately after the speech of his allies, Counts Ralph and Roger , Waltheof lost his resolve and revealed the plans of the conspirators Lanfranc , Archbishop of Canterbury . On the advice of the latter, Waltheof went to Normandy to beg for forgiveness from the king. Soon the rebellion was suppressed.

Upon the return of William the Conqueror to England, a trial was held of the participants in the uprising. Their possessions and titles were confiscated. Waltheof, being an Anglo-Saxon, was convicted under the Anglo-Saxon laws on treason and sentenced to death. On May 31, 1076, he was executed on St. Giles Hill near Winchester . Thus, Waltheof became the only high-ranking Anglo-Saxon executed after the Norman conquest. The severity of the punishment contributed to the fact that after a while, Waltheof was considered a martyr for the faith, and the embellished history of his life entered many medieval chronicles ^[1] .

The death of Waltheof and the confiscation of his possessions led to the abolition of his Middle English county. Northumbria also lost its ruler for a long time, being subordinate to the Bishop of Durham , and in 1095 it was finally liquidated as an administrative unit. However, when Waltheof’s daughter, Matilda , married David I , King of Scotland , this allowed the Scottish monarchs to make claims on Northumberland , Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire , which led to several military conflicts between the two British states.

Waltheof (Waltef) and his family are the main characters in the historical novels of the modern British writer Elizabeth Chadwick : “The Winter Mantle” (2002, English The Winter Mantle ) (published in Russian in 2005) and “The Falcons of Montabard” (2002, not yet published in Russian).

• Hunt W. Waltheof (d.1076) // Dictionary of National Biography / Edited by Sidney Lee. - London: Elder Smith & Co, 1892. - Vol. Xxix. Inglish - John. - P. 265-267.
• Lewis CP Waltheof, earl of Northumbria (c. 1050-1076) // Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.
• Stenton, F. Anglo-Saxon England. - Oxford, 1971.
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

• Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria and Huntingdon . The Peerage. Date of treatment December 27, 2018.
• EARLS of HUNTINGDON 1070-1075 (family of WALTHEOF of NORTHUMBRIA ) . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Date of treatment December 27, 2018.