 1046 - Abt 1076 (30 years)
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| Name |
HUNTINGTON Waltheof |
| Birth |
1046 |
Northumberland, England  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Abt 31 May 1076 |
St. Giles Hill, Winchester, Hampshire, England |
| Notes |
- Waltheof of Bamburgh, Earl of Northumbria (1050 – 31 May 1076)[1]
Titles
Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton.[2] Historian Ann Williams also describes him as an Earl of Bamburgh (but not of all Northumbria).[3]
Preceded by
Gospatric I Earl of Northumbria[1]
1072 – 1076 Succeeded by
William Walcher
Parents
Siward, Earl of Northumbria (1041-55) and Aelflaed, daughter of Aldred, earl of Bernica[4]
Marriage
m. Judith of Lens 1070. Issue: 2 dau.[5]
Maud, Countess of Huntingon
m.1 Simon St. Liz de Senlis
m.2 David I of Scotland
Alice (Adeliza, etc.)
Property
By 1066 Waltheof owned manors in eight counties, mostly in the east midlands (Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and Lincolnshire), but also two big manors near London (Tottenham and Walthamstow) and the large soke of Hallamshire in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Execution
Waltheof was involved in a revolt, although he never openly rebelled against the King. Nevertheless, he was jailed and after more than a year was executed by beheading on St Giles's Hill outside Winchester on 31 May 1076.[6]
"Waltheof was the last of the Old English earls to survive under William I, his execution for treason in 1076 marking a significant stage in the aristocratic and tenurial revolution which followed 1066.
As one of the few English magnates not from the Godwin faction, he accepted and was accepted by William I, witnessing royal charters and remaining loyal to the new regime until 1069 when he joined with the Danes in their invasion of Northumbria.
He was prominent in their capture of York, hoping, no doubt, to be restored to his father's position. This opportunism is perhaps more characteristic of English magnate reactions to the political turmoil of 1065-70 than any supposed national feeling. However, the revolt and invasion were defeated by William's winter campaign of 1069-70.
It is a measure of William's insecurity that when Waltheof submitted in 1070 he was restored to royal favour and, in 1072, added the earldom of Northumbria to his holdings. To bind him more tightly to the Norman dispensation, William gave him his niece Judith in marriage. But in 1075, Waltheof was implicated in the largely French revolt led by Ralph, earl of Norfolk, and Roger, earl of Hereford. Despite his lack of military action, his confession, apparent contrition and the support of Archbishop Lanfranc, Waltheof was executed on 31 May 1076.
The king's motives are obscure. Waltheof was the only prominent Englishman to be executed in the reign. Perhaps his removal was part of William's justifiably nervous response to the problem of controlling Northumbria. It may have made sense to take the chance to remove a potential --- and proven --- focus of northern discontent. Yet Waltheof's heirs were not harried, one daughter, Matilda, marrying David I of Scotland (1042-53), and another Ralph IV of Tosny, a leading Norman baron.
Waltheof is a significant reminder that the period around 1066 was transitional, with no necessarily definite beginnings or endings. Waltheof adapted to the new order, falling foul, it seems, of the ambitions and schemes of others, not least of parvenus Frenchmen. He married into the new elite, yet embodied the old. Heir to both English and Anglo-Danish traditions, it was he who completed one of the most celebrated of Anglo-Saxon blood-feuds.
In 1016, Uchtred, earl of Northumbria was murdered by a northern nobleman called Thurbrand. He was, in turn, killed by Uchtred's son and successor, Ealdred, who was himself slain by Thurbrand's son, Carl. Waltheof's mother was Ealdred's daughter and he avenged his great-grandfather and grandfather by massacring a number of Carl's sons.
Burial
bur. Crowland Abbey where,[7]
(Royal Ancestry) Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland 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.
Waltheof had posthumous fame in a cult that venerated him as a saint by the mid-twelfth century[8] Yet his career in the north shows that not far beneath the measured tones of Norman propagandists or the efficient gloss of English bureaucratic procedures simmered the violence of Dark Age epic.[9]
Sources
↑ Powlett: p.105 Digital Image (Statue)
↑ Cockayne, Gibbs et al., Complete Peerage, 2nd ed. Vol.6 "Huntingdon" p.638.
↑ Williams, Ann (1995) The English and the Norman Conquest p.60
↑ The Battle Abbey roll : with some account of the Norman lineages. London: J. Murray, 1889; Visitation of Cornwall, Vivian ed., 1887, p.105 Digital Image (Statue); second son; Waltheof may have been born about 1050, and it was later believed that Siward intended him to rule north of the Tees. The death in battle in 1054 of a much older brother, Osbearn, made Waltheof his father's heir, but too young to succeed as earl of Northumbria when Siward himself died in 1055.
↑ Judith's page says she had 3 kids; marriage to cement Waltheof into the new ruling group around William. Waltheof and Judith had two daughters, Maud and Alice (also known as Judith).
↑ He spent almost a year in confinement before being beheaded on May 31, 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.
↑ body initially thrown in a ditch, but was retrieved and buried in chapter house of Croyland Abbey.
↑ Cult of martyrdom: 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. 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.
After a few years healing miracles began to occur in the vicinity of Waltheof’s tomb, often involving the restoration of the pilgrim’s lost sight.
↑ Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996; Encyclopædia Britannica CD, 1997; Per Jim Weber
Wright, James. History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland. 1684. London. Lineage of Waltheof. page 51.[2]
Royal Ancestry 2013 D. Richardson Vol. I p. 277-278. Vol. V page 489.
Powlett, Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina. The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages (John Murray , London, 1889)
Cawley, C. (2006). Medieval Lands v.3. [fmg.ac].
Haydn, J. (1841). Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information, (1st ed, pp.63). London: Edward Moxon and Co. Google Books.
"Beheading - or Decollatio of the Romans, introduced into England from Normandy, (as a less ignominious mode of putting high criminals to death) by William the Conqueror, 1074, when Watheof, earl of Huntingdon, Northampton, and Northumberland, was first so executed. - Salmon's Chron."
Vivian, J.L., The Visitations of Cornwall Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1530, 1573 & 1620 (William Pollard & Co., Exeter, 1887) p.105 Digital Image (Statue)
Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996; Encyclopædia Britannica CD, 1997
Wikipedia: Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria
Reports and Papers of the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of the Counties of Lincoln and Northampton (Savill and Edwards, London, 1850) Vol. 1, Page 236
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| Person ID |
I59184 |
Freeman-Smith |
| Last Modified |
27 Jan 2026 |
| Family |
LENS Judith, b. Abt May 1054, Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France d. Abt 1090, Fotheringay, Northamptonshire, England (Age 35 years) |
| Marriage |
Aft Jan 1070 |
| Children |
| | 1. HUNTINGDON Maud, b. Abt 1074, England d. Aft 1147, Scotland (Age > 74 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F26317 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
27 Jan 2026 |
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