Généalogie and Heritage

Source: Waltheof in 'The Siege of Durham'

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Type	Valeur
Titre	Waltheof in 'The Siege of Durham'

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Symeon of Durham records: ".... and Waltheof, who was earl of Northumbria, had shut himself up in Bamburgh. For he was of extreme age, so that he could display no valour against the enemy.”* In this context, the term Northumbria refers only to the northern province of Northumbria, governed from Bamburgh. Waltheof's son, Uhtred, “a youth of great vigour and the highest military aptitude”, who was, at this time, married to Bishop Ealdhun's daughter: “... seeing that the land was ravaged by the enemy and Durham invested by a siege, and that his father did nothing to prevent it, united the army of the Northumbrians and of the men of York [i.e. the southern province of Northumbria] in no small band; andslew nearly the whole host of the Scots, while their king scarce escaped with a few by flight. And the heads of the slain, ornamented as was the fashion at that time with braided hair, he caused to be conveyed to Durham; and caused them to be well washed by four women, and set on stakes around the walls. And to each of the women who had washed them they gave a cow as wage.... durham01 .... When King Æthelred heard these things he called to him the aforesaid youth and, although his father Waltheof still lived, for the merit of his vigour and for the war which he had so manfully carried through he gave him his father's earldom, adding toit also the earldom of York.”

Symeon of Durham records:

".... and Waltheof, who was earl of Northumbria, had shut himself up in Bamburgh. For he was of extreme age, so that he could display no valour against the enemy.”*
In this context, the term Northumbria refers only to the northern province of Northumbria, governed from Bamburgh. Waltheof's son, Uhtred, “a youth of great vigour and the highest military aptitude”, who was, at this time, married to Bishop Ealdhun's daughter:

“... seeing that the land was ravaged by the enemy and Durham invested by a siege, and that his father did nothing to prevent it, united the army of the Northumbrians and of the men of York [i.e. the southern province of Northumbria] in no small band; andslew nearly the whole host of the Scots, while their king scarce escaped with a few by flight. And the heads of the slain, ornamented as was the fashion at that time with braided hair, he caused to be conveyed to Durham; and caused them to be well washed by four women, and set on stakes around the walls. And to each of the women who had washed them they gave a cow as wage....
durham01

.... When King Æthelred heard these things he called to him the aforesaid youth and, although his father Waltheof still lived, for the merit of his vigour and for the war which he had so manfully carried through he gave him his father's earldom, adding toit also the earldom of York.”