Thurbrand the Hold

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Thurbrand the Hold
Bornbirth date unknown
birth place unknown
Diedc. 1024
Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria
Children1 known son: Carl. 4 known grandsons: Thurbrand, Cnut, Sumarlithr, and another (whose name is lost)
Parentunknown

Thurbrand (

English king Æthelred the Unready, Uhtred being the latter's chief Northumbrian supporter. Thurbrand may also have attested a charter of 1009 and given a horse to Æthelred's son Æthelstan Ætheling. The killing is the first-known act, if it did not initiate, a bloodfeud between Thurbrand's family and Uhtred going into the time of Earl Waltheof
. It is possible that Holderness took its name because of Thurbrand's presence or ownership of the peninsula.

Background

Coin of Cnut from the British Museum (in London)
Holderness from space

Thurbrand's

wergild to a royal high-reeve, above a thegn but below an ealdorman.[2] There is a strong possibility that Thurbrand ruled Holderness (see below).[3]

In a charter of 1009, recording King Æthelred's grant of land in Derbyshire to a thegn named Morcar, the 26th thegn on the witness list is named Thurbrand (Þurbrand).[4] In the will of Æthelstan Ætheling, dating to 1014, a Þurbrand is said to have given the ætheling a horse.[5] It is possible that either or both are Thurbrand the Hold.[6]

According to the late-11th- or early-12th-century Durham tract called

Uhtred the Bold married Styr's daughter Sige on the condition that he would kill Thurbrand, becoming "a kind of contract killer" [Fletcher].[9] It becomes apparent, however, that Uhtred failed to carry out his task—although it is presumed he tried—as Thurbrand lived to slay Uhtred.[10]

Killing of Uhtred

De Obsessione relates that Uhtred had taken King

Eric of Hlathir as earl.[14]

The killing has been dated to 1016, as this is the year it falls under in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Chronicle of John of Worcester and the Historia Regum.

A. A. M. Duncan has argued that this date is unreliable. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, reflecting closely the source for the Historia Regum and the Worcester Chronicle on this entry, does not say that Uhtred died in this year, merely adding as an aside that Uhtred and Thurcytel were later killed despite having submitted to Cnut in this year.[16] The location of this killing is given as Wiheal. This has been identified as Wighill, a place just north-west of the Roman road north of Tadcaster but south of York. This identity, however, is far from secure, an alleged weak point being that the early spellings of Wighill (e.g. Wichele) do not resemble De Obsessione's Wiheal very closely.[17] Another possibility is Worrall near Sheffield, spelled Wihala and Wihale in the Domesday Book.[18]

Death and legacy

If De Obsessione is to be believed, Thurbrand met his death at the hands of Uhtred's son,

East Yorkshire peninsula of Holderness, it has been suggested that Thurbrand may have been the hold from whom the peninsula gained its name, "Cape of the Hold".[3]

Ealdred was killed by Carl, and two of Carl's sons in turn were killed by Ealdred's grandson, Earl Waltheof.[21] The multi-generational feud allegedly behind all these killings are the subject of Richard A. Fletcher's Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England, published in 2002 by Penguin Books. Fletcher's fellow historian William E. Kapelle had argued that these events do not signify a pre-existing bloodfeud at all.[22] Kapelle thought that the dispute between Uhtred and Thurbrand was a result of Uhtred's attempt to control Yorkshire, and this led to the later bloodfeud.[23] Fletcher rejected Kapelle's arguments, claiming that Kapelle misunderstood the context and created a false distinction between social and political conflict.[24] William M. Aird and other historians have held that Thurbrand represented a "Scandinavian party", and Uhtred a "Wessex faction", while the dispute in general is taken as evidence of tension between ["English"] Northumbria north and ["Danish"] Northumbria south of the River Tees.[25]

References

  1. ^ Arnold (ed.), Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, vol. ii, p. 148; Darlington and McGurk, Chronicle, pp. 482, 483; Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 19; Stevenson, History of the Kings, p. 107–08
  2. ^ The North People's Law (Fordham); Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 19; Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 469
  3. ^ a b Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 51; Williams, English, pp. 30–31
  4. ^ Sawyer 922; Hart (ed.), Early Charters, pp. 219–28 (Burton no. xxxi), 361; Keynes, Atlas of Attestations, Table LXIII (9 of 9)
  5. ^ Sawyer 1503; Hart (ed.), Early Charters, p. 361
  6. ^ Hart (ed.), Early Charters, p. 361
  7. ^ Morris, Marriage and Murder, p. 2
  8. ^ Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 53; Hart, Early Charters, p. 147, n. 2; Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 242, n. 38; Rollason (ed.), Libellus, pp. 152, 153, 14; South (ed.), Historia, p. 67
  9. ^ Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 52; Morris, Marriage and Murder, p. 2
  10. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 17
  11. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 17; Morris, Marriage and Murder, pp. 2–3
  12. ^ Morris, Marriage and Murder, p. 3
  13. ^ ASC, C, D, E; Darlington and McGurk, Chronicle, pp. 482, 483; Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 248
  14. ^ Aird, St Cuthbert, p. 48, n. 145; Darlington and McGurk, Chronicle, pp. 482, 483; Keynes, "Cnut's Earls", pp. 57–58, 86, n. 228; Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 248
  15. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 17; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 236
  16. ^ Duncan, "Battle of Carham", pp 20–28; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 236
  17. ^ Aird, "Uhtred"; Fletcher, Bloodfeud, pp. 2–3
  18. ^ Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 2
  19. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, pp. 17–18
  20. ^ a b Williams, English, p. 30
  21. ^ Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 5; Kapelle, Norman Conquest, pp. 17, 19, 23; Williams, English, pp. 30–31
  22. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, p. 19
  23. ^ Kapelle, Norman Conquest, pp. 22–23
  24. ^ Fletcher, Bloodfeud, p. 52; Keynes, "Cnut's Earls", p. 86, n. 228, comments on one of Kapelle's arguments regarding Carl
  25. ^ Aird, St Cuthbert, pp. 48–49; Fletcher, Bloodfeud, pp. 51–52; Kapelle, Norman Conquest, pp. 19–20

Sources
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