A WINTER’S TALE

The last time the favoured and fair land of the English lay under the heel of a conquering invader was nearly a thousand years ago.


Following the disaster at Hastings the Normans held this land in their mailed fist. The English did not submit meekly. The castles that are visited by our families on bank holidays stand as a testament to the simmering rebelliousness that persisted for centuries. They are a lasting symbol of military oppression.

Being a kind and forgiving people this scar has totally healed and the battlemented ruins are now curiosities. The grudges have been buried under centuries of unrivalled and unparalleled English success and progress in all fields of human endeavour.

But it is well to remember.

The rebellions against the Norman invader were hard fought. Many heroic deeds were done. None more so than those performed by Hereward, who came from the eastern fens. But this story isn’t about Hereward, although there is a connection, it is about one of his allies - Waltheof. While Hereward is a semi mystical and legendary figure, Waltheof’s life was well recorded.

In 1066 Waltheof was just a teenager and had been given the small earldoms of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. He was judged too young to govern his ancestral earldom of Northumbria as it was one of the most important and difficult to govern parts of Anglo-Saxon England.

After William of Normandy’s victory at Hastings in 1066, most of the surviving English nobles, including Waltheof, submitted, although he was kept under close scrutiny at court.

However in 1069 he broke away and joined a revolt that was led by Hereward. York was captured and most Normans in Northumbria were put to the sword. But some Englishmen had sided with the Normans, mainly as a result of local political intrigue. Northumbria was notorious for feuding and infighting.

Waltheof’s great grandfather, Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria had been murdered in 1016 by a rival, Thurbrand the Hold. Thurbrand was probably was a major landowner in the Holderness area of East Yorkshire. Thurbrand in turn was killed by Uhtred’s son Ealdred. Thurbrand’s son Carl killed Ealdred in 1038. Ealdred was Waltheof’s grandfather.

Thurbrand’s descendents sided with the Normans and when the English patriots captured York they took revenge on their own traitors. Thurbrand’s family suffered in particular.

However, the English rebels were not very united. William of Normandy marshalled his forces and swept north. The rebels melted away and William laid waste to Northumbria in revenge.

Waltheof made terms and in 1070 was given William the Conqueror’s Norman niece Judith as his wife. This was an attempt to bind the remaining English nobility into the new regime. In tie him further William gave Waltheof his rightful earldom of Northumbria in 1072.

This led to the feud with Thurbrand’s descendents reigniting and in 1074 and two of Carl’s sons were killed by Waltheof’s men. This was the background to a conspiracy involving some Norman earls in 1075. Waltheof was implicated by his own wife in this plot. Waltheof denied it but was executed by William nevertheless in 1076. It seems that he was the victim of intrigue by his enemies.

Waltheof was buried in Crowland Abbey, near Peterborough. His shrine became a place of pilgrimage, no doubt as a symbol of English resistance and visitors were miraculously healed of their ailments. As a result Waltheof became a local saint.

One of Waltheof’s daughters married King David I of Scotland and through that line the Kings and Queens of England are descended.

It is probable that Waltheof’s connection to Huntingdonshire led to the later legend that Robin Hood, another later freedom fighter against the Norman invasion, was the true Earl of Huntingdon.

But Waltheof’s ancestry also offers a fascinating insight into the history of the English.

Waltheof’s grandfather Ealdred, the one who was murdered by Carl, had a daughter called Aelfflaed. She married the renowned Siward, who was appointed by the great King Canute as Earl of Northumbria in the mid 1030s.

Siward was nicknamed Digre, meaning the Stout or Strong. Siward features in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and he defeated the Scots in 1054 at the Battle of the Seven Sleepers or the Battle of Dunsinane. His eldest son Osbeorn Bulax was killed at Dunsinane and Siward famously hoped that all his wounds were to the front.

Siward died in 1055 but Waltheof was too young as we have seen to take up his position as Earl of Northumbria, which was his right through descent from both Siward and Uhtred.

Siward was an outstanding warrior and was of Danish origin. England in the early 11th century was a rich mixture of the earlier Anglo-Saxons and more recent Danish settlers.

Both were of similar stock. The Angles, from whom the name England derives, came from Angeln which is in northern Schleswig, right on the border of present day Denmark. The Jutes, another one of the earlier Germanic tribes to settle England at the fall of the Roman Empire came from Jutland – which is the major part of mainland Denmark. The Saxons came from northern Germany, just below Denmark. The Danish settlement in the Viking period was little more than a continuation of the earlier migrations.

THE FAIRY BEAR

To the Vikings the most feared natural danger was the bear. Particularly the white bear – the Polar Bear that they came across when they ranged to the far north.

The bear was feared for its strength, viciousness and intelligence. To fight and kill a bear, particularly a Polar Bear, was regarded as an act that required almost superhuman strength. The most feared warriors in the northland were called berserkers and they wore the skin of a bear in combat. The most treasured possession of Crowland Abbey were twelve white bearskins. Hereward’s first act of bravery was to kill a Polar Bear that had escaped from its cage and was menacing a young beautiful princess called Alftruda who he met on his travels in Ghent and who he went on to marry.

The bear loomed large in the tales of our ancestors.

Now Siward was the son of Beorn Bearsson. Beorn Bearsson being the offspring of the union between a fairy or magical white bear and a Danish princess!

Siward by repute had pointed ears, this being the mark of the bear. Waltheof being his son was also of the house of the bear. That was a thousand years ago. The blood line of that union has been diluted but the signs are still there.