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The Pedigree of Earl Godwin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The last surviving son of Earl Godwin was named Wulfnoth. He had been kept prisoner by King William the Conqueror, and was released on William's death, but only for a short time. His name was not a common one, not more than fourteen persons who bore it in the eleventh century being recorded in Searle's ‘Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum,’ and only about nine in the tenth. The name of Wulfnoth is purely Old English. So, too, are the names of some of the other children of Earl Godwin—namely, Lêofwine, Êadgŷth, Ælfgifu and Êadgifu. But the names of Earl Godwin's other sons, Swegen, Harold, Tostig and Gyrth, are Dano-Norwegian in immediate origin. Even the name of Harold is Scandinavian, the true Old-English and West-Saxon form being ‘Hereweald.’

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1913

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References

page 129 note 1 Harold = Harald. King Harald Blātand was King Harold's mother's great-great-grandfather. Harald's queen was named ‘Gyritha’ by Saxo, , Historia Danica, x. pp. 480, 485 and 495*.Google Scholar This is a feminine form of ‘Gyrith’ or ‘Gyrth,’ the name of King Harold's younger brother, who is called ‘Guerd,’ ‘Guert’ and ‘Gurt,’ in Domesday Book. ‘Gyrth’ is most uncommon. ‘Tostig,’ the name of another of the Godwinsons, appears eight times in the eleventh century. Saxo calls him ‘Tosto,’ ibid. p. 522. ‘Anglorum satrapa Godewinus’ is father of Harald, Biorno and Tosto, ibid.

page 130 note 1 Harold's daughter Gytha is alleged to have married Wladimir of Novogorod, son of Tsar Uselovod. His other daughter, Gunhilda, bore a very common name. We find G., aunt of Cnut; daughter of Cnut; niece of Cnut; and daughter of Godwin.

page 130 note 2 The Cotton MS. Domitian A VIII is described by MrPlummer, in Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ii, (1899) p. xxxvi.Google Scholar

page 130 note 3 See Plummer, , u.s., p. xxxiii.Google Scholar

page 132 note 1 E.g. West Saxon rēn, þēn and w n (= rain, thane and wain), beside rěgn, Péěgn and w gn.

page 132 note 2 Historia Ecclesiœ Elyensis, II. li.Google Scholar, ed. Gale, , ‘Scriptores Quindecim,’ iii.Google Scholar This was compiled c. 1150 by Thomas of Ely.

page 132 note 3 See Liber Monasterii de Hyda, ed. Edwards, Edward, 1866, ‘R.B.SS.,’ No. 45.Google Scholar

page 132 note 4 See Searle, 's Onomasticon, p. 43, Æthelmær.Google Scholar

page 132 note 5 See Earle, John's Handbook to the Land Charters, 224.Google Scholar

page 132 note 6 De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, cap. clxii., ed. Hamilton, N. E. S. A., 1870, ‘R.B.SS.,’ No. 52.Google Scholar

To say that the title of Cild means puer is like saying that Infante means ‘boy.’

page 134 note 1 Cf. Kemble, No. 1347 (a.c. 976); and Kemble, No. 638 (a. c. 983). This .Æthelmær was already dux in 976. He died before 984, when Ælfric signs as ealdorman of Hants.

page 135 note 1 Kemble, 629, 1312. Ethelred's charter to Abingdon in 985 runs: ‘Haec praefatarum descriptio terrarum facta est per admonitionem Ordulfi auunculi mei [ob. 1005] atque Aethelmari consanguinitate mihi conglutinati’: K., vi. 174. This grant was made after the banishment of Aelfric Child (in 985), who is referred to in the Book of Ely, cap. v., u.s., iii. 466.Google Scholar

page 135 note 2 ‘MXIII … þa wende Swegen cyng … to Baþan and s t pær mid hîs fyrde. ond com Æþelmær ealdorman pyder ond þa westernan pægenas mid him ond bugon ealle to Swegene ond hi gisludon’: Cotton MS, Tiberius B. I. (the Abingdon Chron., C) scr. c. 1050.

page 136 note 1 See Kemble, , Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, No. 722, iii. 363.Google Scholar Also Sandys, , Consuetudines Kanciœ, p. 292.Google Scholar

page 137 note 1 Norman Conquest, i. 703.Google Scholar

page 138 note 1 ‘… et licet per omnes fere Angliae partes potestas eius extenderetur, principalis tamen comitatus eius australis erat regio quae linguâ eorum dicitur Sudsexia’: Liber de Hyda, p. 288.Google Scholar

page 138 note 2 Cf. ‘wolf’ for O.E. wulf; ‘son’ for sunu; ‘Soleham’ in Domesday, Book, p. 11Google Scholar, for Sulham; ‘Soninges’ in Domesday Book, p. 5, for Sunninges; ‘Offentone,’ ibid. p. 7, for Uffinton.

page 139 note 1 Gesta Pontificum, cap. lxxxiv.Google Scholar

page 140 note 1 Gesta Pontificum, cap. clxii.Google Scholar In support of William's identification cf. infra, p. 16, note 1.Google Scholar

page 140 note 2 Ethelwerd's salutation is as follows: ‘Perpetnam Patricius Consul Fabius Quaestor Ethelwerdus Mahtildi consobrinae optat in Christo disertissimae et uerae Christi ancillae Ethelwerdus in Domino patricius Mahtildi salutem’: Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 499.Google Scholar

page 141 note 1 Ethelwerd's attestations are very numerous. In 973, in Edgar's charter to Alfric Ethelwerd is the first of the ministri: B. 1292. In 974, in Edgar's charter to Alfric, abbot of Malmesbury, we may read—‘Ego Athelwerd et frater meas Alfwerd, ministri, cons, et subs.’: B. 1301. In Edgar's foundation charter to Ramsey of December 28, 974, Ethelwerd signs last of the duces: B. 1311. The two brothers attest many charters from 965 (B. 1172) to 973 (B. 1286). The relative position of Ethelwerd in twenty-five charters is—first in 3; second in 5; third in 5; fourth in 8; fifth in 3; second or third in 1. Alfwerd is rightly neither first nor second in any; third in 3; fourth in 3; fifth in 2.

page 142 note 1 ‘Hactenus, nugositate relicta, de filiis Athulfi incipiam loqui;. quartus Ethered qui post obitum Eðelbyrhti successit in regnum, qui et meus atauus; quintus Elfred post omnes successor principatus totius, qui et atauus uester’: M.H.B., p. 514.Google Scholar

page 142 note 2 See Birch, , Cartularium Saxonicum, 1887, ii., No. 553, p. 178.Google Scholar Alfred bequeaths to his brother Ethelred's son, Æthelm, lands œt Ealdingburnan, œt Cumtune, œt Beadingum, œt Beadingahamme, œt Burnham, œt Thunresfeldam, and œt Æscengum. No. 3 is in Hants; the last two are in Surrey; all the rest are in Sussex.

page 143 note 1 Compare Mr. Plummer's account of the events that led up to the victory of Buttington (Two Chronicles, ii. 108, 109Google Scholar), where Ethelwerd's special information is presented in square brackets.

page 143 note 2 The Middle English version in the Book of Hyde reads: ‘And I wyll that tho men that I my fre lond have beqwethyd, that they gyve it nat from my kynn over theyr day;… than is me levyst that it go to the masle child byget, as long while as eny werthe be. Myne yldyr fadyr his lond on the same wyse beqwethyd to the maulys.’

page 143 note 3 See Annalium Reginonis Treuirensis Continuatio, Pertz, , ‘SS.’, i. 620Google Scholar: ‘Eodem anno (949) Liutolfo filio regis Mathildis filia nascitur.’ Ludolf, Duke of Swabia and Alemania, died on September 6, 957. He was born in 930, and was the son of the Emperor Otto and Eadgyth, daughter of King Edward the Elder. She died in 947. Otto married again in 951 and had a daughter Matilda, who became abbess of Quedlinburg and died in 999. She was succeeded by Ludolf's daughter, Ethelwerd's cousin, and according to the Annales Quedlinburgenses, Pertz, , ‘SS.,’ III. 80Google Scholar, the latter died in an. 1011: ‘Abstulit et de regali stemmate gemmam Machtildam abbatissam Liudolfi filiam.’ It is difficult to understand why there is so much confusion about Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, the daughter of Duke Ludolf.

page 144 note 1 In Ælfhēah's will, e. 971, an Ethelwerd is called ‘mæg,’ sc. kinsman, and land is bequeathed to him ‘æt Wigurnum’ [ms. Wicurnum], i.e. near Worcester. With this compare the grant of land made by Oswald, Bishop of Worcester (961–992), to his thane .Æðelweard with remainder to an Æðelmær whose relationship to Æðelweard does not transpire. This may be our Ethelwerd. He certainly had a brother Æðelweard, and both names appear among those of the legatees who were related to Alderman Ælfhēah. This Ælfhēah and his brother .Ælfhere are severally described as kinsmen of King Edwy and King Edgar, respectively. .Ælfhere had one son named Godwin, who is the ‘Goduuinus dux’ of the charters of Ethelred II.; and another named Ælfric Child, who succeeded his father as alderman of Mercia. The name of Ælfhēah, Bishop of Winchester (984–1005), and then Archbishop of Canterbury (till 1012), is recalled by that of Ælfhēah, Alderman of Hampshire, and the Bishop was surnamed ‘Godwin’ A.S. Chron., 984.Google Scholar

page 145 note 1 Ethelwerd shows special knowledge of the Aldermen of Somerset. E.g.—‘823. Hun ibi [se. Ellendune] occiditur, dux prouinciæ Sumorsæton, requiescitque nunc in urbe Uuintana’: III. ii., M.H.B., p. 510. 845.Google Scholar Eanwulf, Alderman of Somerset, gains a victory over the Danes at the mouth of the Parret. In 867 Ethelwerd records his death and says he was buried in the monastery of Glastonbury. In 877 Ethelwerd tells us about the doings of the famous leader Æthelnoth: vide supra, note to Buttington, p. 15.

page 146 note 1 See Two Saxon Chronicles, ed. Plummer, for citations of Ethelwerd, ii. pp. 59, 89, 90, and also 173–4.Google Scholar

page 146 note 2 On the particular point see Victoria History of the County of Somerset, i. 399Google Scholar, where Mr. Horace Round shows that a Wulfward the White held land in ten counties.

page 147 note 1 See the De Nugis Curialium, ed. Thos. Wright, 1850Google Scholar; Camden Society, No. L.; De origine Godwini comitis et ejus moribus, p. 198.Google Scholar

page 148 note 1 ‘Fuit Godwinus nempe ex infimo Anglorum genere et plus sagacitate quam animi probitate,’ &c.: Liber de Hyda, p. 288.Google Scholar The same authority says similarly of Hereward the Wake that he was ‘genere infimus’: Appendix, p. 295. If we may regard Godwin as a Suthsexian, the state ment that he was of servile birth is particularly unreliable. In Domesday Book, out of 283,000 persons enumerated no fewer than 25,000 were servi, that is to say 9 per cent. In Kent the percentage was 9 also; in Surrey it was 10, and in Hampshire it was 16. In all Sussex, however, there were only 420 slaves among 10,410 persons, i.e. 4 per cent. only.

page 148 note 2 The wavering of ā into ō was present in a few words even in Godwin's time, but c. 1175, namely Map's own time, is given by philologists as the date of the change.