By 1066, Uhtred had long been assassinated by Thurbrand the Hold, Aldred had avenged his fathers murder by killing Thurbrand. In turn, Carl, Thurbrand’s son, had answered his fathers death by the murder of Aldred. Aldred’s murder was avenged by his grandson Waltheof who massacred Carls sons and grandsons. That is a story in itself. One of family feuding and politics that become one of the most infamous blood feuds of English history, which almost wiped out the house of Bamburgh.

However, fifty years later, when William the Conqueror came to these shores, the late Aldred had a grandson Waltheof and the late Eadgyth had a son Cospatric, both of whom eventually became Earls of Northumbria. Cospatric was not just grandson of Uhtred but also first cousin to Malcolm III, King of Scotland.

William the Conqueror may have been crowned King of England but he was not master of the north of his realm. Northumbria, which ran from the Scottish borders to the Humber, was in itself, a mini kingdom with the Earls having more power than the king. Through the following two years, the north was in a growing, open rebellion against William and his Norman knights.

In 1068, the king was informed “the people in the north were gathered together and meant to make a stand if he came”. Cospatric was making moves to re-establish Bamburgh control of the north. William moved towards York, Cospatric fled and a Norman castle was erected in York, on the site of what is now Clifford’s Tower. The 1068 rebellion had collapsed. Williams attention now turned further north to the rebellious noises coming from Durham.

In 1069, as the Normans easily took the city of Durham, Cospatric and his Northumbrian rebels, (including his cousin Waltheof), slaughtered almost all of them in what had been a trap. The second rebellion by the Northumbrians was more successful and they took back York. In the fighting, the city was all but burnt to the ground. William knew that, to keep control of his new kingdom, he had to act swiftly and ferociously so he sent in his army and the infamous “Harrying of the North” began.

The consequences of this were dreadful with much of the land put to the torch. Crops and homes were destroyed and it is estimated that up to 100,000 people died of starvation and disease. Cospatric and Waltheof submitted to William. Surprisingly, there was no execution or punishment of the humiliated earl and his kinsman. Instead, Cospatric was restored to the earldom of Northumbria, a political move possibly, in part, due to his close relations to the Scottish king. It was also a way of ensuring Cospatric’s allegiance. However, it was a realm that had been destroyed and time and energy had to be put into rebuilding it.

Waltheof had, in 1067, been a hostage of William and taken to Normandy with his court. In those days, a hostage was an honourable captivity where there was no imprisonment but the hostages lived amongst their captors in comfort and according to their status. It would not have been a discomfort to Waltheof. It would also appear that Waltheof had also become a personal friend of William during this time.

After the rebellion, instead of exacting revenge upon Waltheof, William gave Waltheof a bride, his own niece Countess Judith of Lens. This move could well have been political as well as one of friendship. In becoming kin to Waltheof it was also a way of ensuring his allegiance but in the words of one of the respected scribes of the time, it was intended “to make the firm friendship between them last”. William would have appeared to have been a forgiving friend.

By 1072, William was making peace with Malcolm III of Scotland who submitted to the Norman king, acknowledging him as his overlord and giving him one of his sons as hostage. In the Abernathy agreement, which was forged between the two kings, Cospatric was sacrificed. William rescinded the earldom and charged him with the murder of Normans and Cospatric fled to Flanders, Scotland no longer being a safe haven for him.

Waltheof, in the meantime had settled in what became Rutland, with his family and became Earl of Huntingdon. He and Judith had two daughters, Maud and Alice. Near to their home in the Fens was the influential and important Croyland Abbey. Waltheof was reputedly a devout man and became a great benefactor of Croyland and, even today, in the walls of the ruin, there is a statue of a knight and dog that is reputedly that of Waltheof.

In 1072, Waltheof was made Earl of Bernicia (Northumbria above the Tees) and it was at this time he extracted his revenge on Carls family for the murder of his grandfather Aldred and great grandfather Uhtred.

Unfortunately for Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, he did not settle into domestic bliss or allegiance to his king. He was a Northumbrian at heart with a history of rebellion. By 1075, he was embroiled in another plot to oust William but this time it was a plot with some of William’s own Norman knights, Ralph of Norfolk and Roger of Hereford, as well as the Danes.
The plot was apparently hatched at a wedding feast but Waltheof suffered from pangs of conscience and fled to Normandy to confess all to Archbishop Lanfranc and King William. After this, he returned to England, seemingly forgiven but on his return to English shores, he was promptly thrown into prison in Winchester where he stayed for a year.
In the meantime, there was great rivalry between Lanfranc (who supported Waltheof) and Bishop Odo, William’s half brother. Waltheof may have inadvertently become a victim of their conflicts. Whilst William was abroad and after Waltheof was incarcerated for a year, Bishop Odo had him removed from prison and executed, apparently with William’s approval.

Waltheof gained the dubious honour of being the only Englishman to be executed by the Conqueror. His Norman co-conspirators escaped the ultimate punishment, despite the fact that Waltheof had confessed about the plot before it had taken off and the Norman plotters had decided to carry on their rebellion. Waltheof had been tried under English law for which the penalty was death whereas his co-conspirators were tried under Norman law, for which the penalty was life imprisonment.

He was executed at St Giles Hill, Winchester on 31st May 1076 and the story goes that in the last few moments of his life, before the sword struck, he was reciting the Lords Prayer. As his head hit the ground, it was still speaking the words “And deliver us from evil.”
However, Waltheof’s story does not end there and which parts of it are truth or fable, only you can decide.

He was first buried at Winchester but some time later, (the length of time depending on the account you read), the monks at Croyland Abbey petitioned for their great benefactor Waltheof’s body to be buried at Croyland. The body was exhumed and found not only to not have been corrupted but that the head had miraculously re-attached itself and there was no sign of it ever having been severed.
Of course, the more cynical of us might think that perhaps it was not Waltheof’s body. Perhaps the whereabouts of the site of his grave had been forgotten and an alternative substituted. Or perhaps, the Croyland monks, led by Abbot Geoffrey, were desperate for a miracle for their martyred benefactor.
Soon after Waltheof’s remains were reinterred at Croyland near the altar, miracles of healing began to happen at Waltheof’s new tomb and Abbot Geoffrey had a vision of St Bartholemew, together with St Guthlac (Crowland’s patron saint), standing at the tomb declaring Waltheof’s sanctity.
Further evidence of his sanctity was claimed when a Norman monk was struck down with a fatal illness after deriding Waltheof , saying that he was simply a traitor who received the death that he deserved. For all the efforts of the Crowland monks, Waltheof was not officially sanctified but many believed in his sainthood and the healing powers of his tomb. A cult was forged and the increase in petitioners and benefactors to Crowland was assured.

As for Crowland, Abbot Geoffrey’s successor was a monk also named Waltheof, kinsman to the Earl. Waltheof, Abbot of Croyland was the son of Gospatric, the earl of Bernicia who fled to Flanders.

What of Waltheof’s family ? Both the daughters made excellent marriages, Alice to Ralph de Toeni and Maud firstly to Simon de St Liz and then King David I of Scotland. Little else is known of his wife Judith of Lens who testified against her husband. There is one story told to this day by the guides at Crowland. Shortly after Waltheof was interred at the Abbey Judith visited, full of remorse for her part in his death. As she prayed there at his tomb for his forgiveness, a gust of wind blew past, lifting her veil from her head and carrying it to the floor. Waltheof was not in a forgiving mood.
Things were not going well for Judith. Some of her contemporaries accused her of having testified against her husband in order to marry somebody else. Ingulphus, a monk of Crowland, termed her an ungodly Jezebel. Then, after Waltheof’s death, William tried to get her to marry again to a Simon St Liz but, not enamoured of the idea, she refused. Apparently, out of anger at her refusal, William took her substantial titles and lands away, giving them to her daughter Maud who ended up married to St Liz.

Maud and Simon had three children before he died. The middle child was named Waltheof after his grandfather. Following Simons death, Maud married David I of Scotland and young Waltheof spent the rest of his childhood in the Scottish courts.
Even as a child, this Waltheof, a mild and peaceloving child, felt drawn to churches, and later to the religious life and whilst a youth, at the court of his stepfather, he became an intimate friend of St Aelred who was, at that time, master of the royal household.
When Waltheof first entered the church, he left Scotland and became a canon at the Nostell monastery in Yorkshire, rising through the ranks to be chosen as Archbishop of York in 1140. However, King Stephen, William the Conqueror’s grandson, wasn’t too enamoured with Waltheof’s Scottish connections and put a block on the appointment. Waltheof, instead became Abbot of Melrose in 1149.
He was buried in Melrose but when his body was moved forty years after burial it was, like his grandfathers, also found to be incorrupt though by the time it was moved again another 40 years later his body had gone the way of all flesh. In the 1920s a finely decorated tombstone was excavated at Melrose which is thought to be that of Waltheof’s grave.
Noted for his self imposed austerity, kindness to the poor and reputation for healing the sick and blind, Waltheof, during the famine of 1148, was also credited with miraculously feeding four thousand starving peasants for three months. Revered as and even appearing today in lists of Catholic saints, Waltheof’s sainthood was never officially sanctified by Rome.