| Notes |
- on the history of the Earldom of Huntingdon:
The first post-Conquest Earl of Huntingdon appears to have been Waltheof,son of Siward Earl of Northumberland and indeed Siward's successor in thelatter Earldom as well. Waltheof was later beheaded for conspiringagainst William the Conqueror. [Burke's Peerage]
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EARLDOM OF NORTHAMPTON (I)
EARLDOM OF HUNTINGDON (I)
WALTHEOF, son of SIWARD, EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, by Ælfled, daughter ofALDRED of Bernicia, became EARL OF HUNTINGDON and EARL OF NORTHAMPTONwhen Tostig was banished in October 1065. He is not known to have opposedthe Conqueror in 1066, but was taken to Normandy the following year. In1069 he joined the Danes in their descent on Yorkshire, distinguishinghimself in the attack on the city of York. When the Danes left England hesubmitted himself to William, in January 1070, and was restored to hisEarldom, and to his father's Earldom of Northumberland in 1072. Whileattending the wedding of Ralph de Gael, Earl of Norfolk, at Exning in thespring or summer of 1075, he was enticed to join the conspiracy of theEarls of Norfolk and Hereford to seize England for themselves. He quicklyrepented, and by Lanfranc's advice went to Normandy and asked pardon ofthe King, who treated the matter lightly at the time; but at ChristmasWaltheof was brought to trial at Westmminster, his wife Judith being awitness. He was imprisoned at Winchester, where on the resumption of thetrial in May he was condemned and beheaded on St. Giles's Hill, 31 May1076, and hastily buried .
He married, in 1070, Judith, daughter of Lambert, COUNT OF LENS, byAdelaide or Adeliz, sister of the Conqueror. He died as aforesaid, 31 May1076, and a fortnight later the Abbot Ulfketel, at Judith's request andby the King's permission, removed his body to Crowland, where it washonourably entombed.(g) His widow, who as "Judith the Countess" isrecorded in Domesday Book to have held estates in many counties in 1086,most of them apparently gifts from the King, her uncle, held Huntingdonin dower. She founded the Nunnery of Elstow, near Bedford. [CompletePeerage VI:638-40, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
[g] Many miracles are recorded, for Waltheof was by many regarded as asaint. An epitaph was written for the tomb by Orderic. Other epitaphs arein the Vita. He is described as strong in person and of great repute as awarrior, pious had learnt the psalter in his youth, was liberal to theclergy and the poor, and a benefactor in particular to Jarrow andCrowland. To the former he gave Tynemouth. The chief stain on his memoryis his part in a family bloodfeud, for he ordered the murder of the sonsof one Carl, who had killed Earl Ealdrcd, Walthcof's grandfather.
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The county which gives designation to this earldom of Huntingdon was,according to Dr. Heylin, a thickly wooded forest until the reign of the2nd Henry, when the timber was first cleared away; the chief town, fromthe celebrity of the forest as a chase, was called Huntingtown, whichsoon became abbreviated into Huntington, or Huntingdon. The Earldom ofHuntingdom was conferred by William the Conqueror upon Waltheof (son ofSyward, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland), who had m. the dau. of thatmonarch's sister, by the mother's side, Judith. He was also Earl ofNorthampton, and of Northumberland, but conspiring against the Normans,he was beheaded in 1073 at Winchester, leaving issue, Maud and Judith.[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages,Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 467-8, St. Liz, Earls ofHuntingdon]
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Waltheof was the last of the Old English earls to survive under WilliamI, his execution for treason in 1076 marking a significant stage in thearistocratic and tenurial revolution which followed 1066. Younger son ofSiward, the Danish earl of Northumbria (1041-55) and Aelflaed, daughterof Aldred, earl of Northumbria, Walth
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Abt 1036 - 1076 (40 years)
