Uchtred "the Bold" Earl of Northumberland

  General Notes:

According to the Pedigree of the Medieval de Hebdens , Sheet 1, Uchtred first married Egfrida, daughter of Aldun, Bishop Durham and they had two children, Ealdred, Earl of Northumbria who was killed by Thurbrand; and Eawulf who was murdered by Siward. Uchtred married, as his second wife, Sigen, Daughter of Styr and they had two children, Gospagtric, Earl of Northumberia & murdered at Kings Court in 1064; and Arkil married to Sigrida, daughter of Kilvert (all other sources have Sigrida as the daughter of Egfrida and her second husband Kilvert) . Uchtred married a third time to Ældgytha, daughter of Æthelred II, King of England, and they had a daughter named Algatha who married Maldred, brother of Duncan, King of the Scots.

According to Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Uhtred's first wife who was "repudiated" by him as Ecgfrida (Egfrida), daughter of Aldun, Bishop of Durham; and gives no children for this first wife. Cawley gives Sigen, daughter of Styr Ulfsson as Uhtred's second wife and attributes the birth of Ealdred, Eadwulf and Gospatrick to Sigen. Uhtred's third wife given is Ælfgifu, daughter of Æthelred II, King of England. They had two daughters, Ælfgifu who married Maldred, son of Crinan; and an unamed daughter who a man named Æthelgar.

According to the Wikipedia Article [source: Kapelle, William E, The Norman Conquest of the North, 1979, University of North Carolina Press] Uhtred and his first wife, Ecgfrida, daughter of Bishop Aldhun, were the parents of his son Ealdred, Earl of Bamburgh. Uhtred and his second wife, Sige, daughter of Styr, son of Ulf, had two children, Eadulf and Gospatric. His third wife, Ælfgifu, was the mother of his daughter Ælfgifu.

According to the Yorkshire Archeological Journal, Vol. XIX, p. 55, Uctred's first wife, Egfrida, was the mother of Eadulf, Gospatric and Aldred. Egrida married, as her second husband, Kilvert, a Yorkshire thane and son of Ligulf.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Uhtred.
Simeon of Durham records that "his son Uchtred" succeeded "the elder Walthef" in Northumbria, stating that he was killed by "a powerful Dane Thurbrand surnamed Hold with the consent of Cnut" [Simeon of Durham, p. 556]. "Uhtred dux" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated 1009 to 1015 [S 921, S 922, S 926, S 931, S 931b, S 933 and S 934]. He defeated a Scottish army which had besieged Durham in 1006. After the invasion of Svend King of Denmark in 1013, Earl Uhtred submitted to him [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, E, 1013]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he was murdered on the orders of Eadric "Streona" [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, C, 1016]. Stenton refers to "northern sources of the Norman age" which show that the chief agent of the murder was Thurbrand, who was in turn killed by Uhtred's son Ealdred [Stenton (2001), p. 390], presumably referring to Simeon of Durham quoted above.

Uhtred's first wife was repudiated to be Ecgfrida, daughter Aldun Bishop of Durham. His second wife was Sigen, daughter of Styr Ulfsson. His third was was Ælfgifu, daughter of Æthelred II, King of England and his first wife Ælflæd.

• Web Reference: Ahtred the Bold from Wikipedia.
Uchtred of Uhtred, call "the Bold," was the ealdorman of all Northumbria from 1006 to 1016, when he was assassinated. He was the son of Waltheof I, ealdorman of Bamburgh, whose ancient family had ruled from the castle of Bamburgh on the Northumbrian coast.

• Background Information. ¹⁶⁰
~Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, Ælfgifu (Elgiva), married Uchtred, Earl of Northumberland, who was murdered in 1016, and was the son of Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland.

• Background Information. ¹²⁷
Gospatric, son and heir of Maldred, presumably the son of Crinan, lay abbot of Dunkeld, by Bethoc, daughter of Malcolm II of Scotland, and Ælfgifu, daughter of Ethelred II. This gave Gospatric the ancestry of the ancient Earls of Northumberland and the royal houses of England and Scotland.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vo. IX (Northumberland), p. 704

• Web Reference: Earl Uhtred's Feud.
Ethelred II recognized Uhtred as earl in his father, Waltheof I's lifetime, and added York to his father's earldom of Northumbria. The context makes clear the king's need for an young and effective warrior in the north, an area where he could never be quite sure of the loyalty of York Danes. Uhtred won a significant victory over the Scots (?1006) and celebrated it by displaying the heads of many of the defeated on the walls of York. was probably already exercising power before his formal investment. He had married Egfrida, the daughter of bishop Ealdhun of Durham, and received with her a dower of half a dozen Durham estates. Now he repudiated Egfrida, duly returned her dowry, and married Sige, the daughter of a rich York citizen, Styr f. Ulf, pretty obviously, as Kapelle points out, as part of an attempt to strengthen the royal party in the north. The marriage alliance is said to have been made "ut Turbrandum sibi inimicissimum interficeret", that is Uhtred was to kill his father-in-law's enemy, thus joining and extending an enmity already in being. This Thurbrand is labeled "Hold", and may have been the equivalent of a Danish king's reeve and thus the leader of York Danes. Whether Uhtred tried to kill him we are not told; likely so.

The marriage with Sige seems to have been childless; perhaps she died. Ethelred then gave in marriage to Uhtred his own daughter Aelfgifu, further to solidify his party loyalties. When Cnut invaded, he sought Uhtred's military asistance with promises of the confirmation of his earldom properly augmented. Uhtred refused with a ringing declaration of loyalty to his lord, (new) father-in-law, and benefactor with the significant modifier, "quamdiu vixerit". Ethelred did die. Uhtred then (1016) traveled south to come to terms with Cnut ("de pace locuturus"). En route, Thurbrand Hold caught him in an ambush and killed him with his whole Northumbrian entourage said to number forty. Our principal account believes that Cnut authorized this act and even provided his own warriors for the job. Cnut then replaced him with a Norwegian earl of York, but allowed his brother, Eadulf Dudel, to succeed to the Northunbrian earldom 1016/?1019.

Ealdred, Uhtred's son by his first wife Egfrida, soon succeeded both to the Northumbrian earldom (c. 1019-38) and to the feud. He successfully killed Thurbrand "patrisque sui interfectorem" and entered into a period of open hostilities with Thurbrand's son, Carl. Eventually, mutual amici mediated first a settlement ("concordia") followed by terms for the restitution of mutual amor, terms that apparently included some kind of brotherhood ritual and a joint penitential pilgrimage to Rome. Peace must have seemed close and possible. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented the start of the Rome trip and the moment passed. Having held convivia in Ealdred's honor at his hall, Carl then had his guest killed in a nearby wood, where a stone cross still marked the spot half a century later. He subscribed to some of Cnut's charters and probably relied on royal protection.

The earldom moved out of the direct Bambergh line. First Eadulf, a son of Egfrida's second marriage (1038-41), then the Danish Siward (1041-55) became earls of Northumbria. Siward, who had Eadulf killed, then married Ealdred's daughter, Aelfflaed, doubtless partly as Kapelle suggests, "to appease local feelings" but also to strengthen his claims to lands and legitimacy. There may also have been other gestures towards the Uhtred's family, [Kapelle, 29, 43-4]. "Justice waited until the 1070s", when Waltheof II (earl 1072-5), great-grandson to Uhtred through Ealdred's daughter, avenged Ealdred's death in appropriate fashion. He caught Carl's sons feasting in the house of the eldest brother near York and killed all the brothers save one, spared as a good man, and one other who was fortunately absent, and the grandsons too. This chilling act ("gravissime clade") was the last recorded in our principal source. Whether it was the end of the feud or Uhtred's line came to regret Waltheof's mercy is unknown.

Durham had not, however, recovered the lost dowry lands. Earl Siward had successfully claimed these by the hereditary right of his wife, and had then used them to endow her from the lands and perhaps the feud obligation had then passed to their son Waltheof. The lands lost much of their value in the course of further violence ("werra surgente") between Uhtred's descendants and those of Egfrida's second marriage to a certain Yorkshire thegn, Kilvert f. Ligulf. When our account was written, some remained with the Northunbrian earls, some with Kilvert's progeny and some few had even been regained by St. Cuthbert and the monks of Durham.

[Sources:"De obsessione Dunelmi" (Arnold 1882-5, i. 215-20); "De Northymbrorum Comitibus" (ibid., ii 382-4); Symeon of Durham, "Historia Regum" (ibid. ii. **-***) Comment: Hart 1975, 143-50; Kapelle 1979, 14-49, 127, 134-7, Fleming 1991, 47-9]

Uchtred married Ælfgifu of Wessex, daughter of Æthelred II "The Unready" King of England and Ælfgifu of Northumberland ^141,160. (Ælfgifu of Wessex was born about 968 in Wessex, England.)

Uchtred next married Sigen, daughter of Styr Ulfsson and Unknown.

Uchtred next married Egfrida, daughter of Bishop Aldun and Unknown ¹⁴⁷⁶.^,1477 (Egfrida was born before 990 in Northumbria.)