De obsessione Dunelmi
Encyclopedia
De obsessione Dunelmi is a historical work written in the north of England
during the Anglo-Norman period, almost certainly at Durham
, and probably in either the late 11th- or early 12th-century.
). In its surviving form, it was written down between 1161 and 1167. The manuscript was at Sawley Abbey
, Lancashire
by the late 12th century. Derek Baker in 1975 argued that it was probably compiled at Fountains Abbey
. M. R. James
had argued in 1912 that the manuscript was compiled at Hexham
, Northumberland
. Theodor Mommsen
in 1898, Peter Hunter Blair
in 1963 and David Dumville
in 1974 (repeated in 1990) argued that the compilation took place at Sawley.
It is almost certain, however, that the text predates its transcription into the Cambridge MS. Bernard Meehan argued that the bulk of the text was composed between 1073 and 1076, before the execution of Earl Waltheof (1076) but after the date of a massacre at Settrington
(1073). This is largely on the basis that Waltheof's death goes unrelated, an argument that Morris attacked by pointing out that such things were not important for this particular text, noting other great figures mentioned whose deaths also go unrelated. Morris, for a variety of reasons, favoured a date inside the first two decades of the 12th-century, though he conceded that a date in the 1070s was a possibility.
The source which resembles De obsessione Dunelmi most is a letter, immediately preceding De obsessione Dunhelmi in the manuscript, written by Symeon of Durham
to Hugh, Dean
of York Cathedral. Both sources open with similar dating clauses and share a similar style, and it is possible that De obsessione Dunelmi was originally a letter too. A 16th-century incipit
in the manuscript attributes the work to Symeon of Durham, though this is too late to be reliable. It is of however of note that Dean Hugh, when he resigned his deanship in 1135, retired to Fountains Abbey, supposedly taking with him a collection of books.
, the career of the earls of Bamburgh
along with their blood feud
against Thurbrand the Hold
and his descendants. It contains many incidental claims and assertions, is the only source for a large proportion of such claims.
The historian Antonia Gransden viewed it as a biography of Earl Uhtred and described it as the first known attempt to write a history of an English earldom. The "main story" however according to the text itself is the history of six manors belonging, rightfully it is asserted, to the diocese of Durham
; the accounts tells how these were transferred several times during the course of the events described. The six manors are:
The story begins with a Scottish
invasion (placed, incredibly, in 969) by Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. The Scots devastate the whole of Northumbria while the elderly Waltheof is shut up in Bamburgh
. Ealdhun, Bishop of Durham, gives his daughter Ecgfrida to Waltheof's son Uhtred, along with the six manors, the latter given only so long as Uhtred remains married to Ecgfrida.
Uhtred defeats the Scots, and is given the earldoms of Bamburgh and York as a reward. He proceeds to divorce Ecgfrida in favour of Sige, daughter of Styr, with Bishop Ealdhun supposedly regaining his six vill
s. The condition of the marriage to Sige is that Uhtred kill Thurbrand, an enemy of Styr. Uhtred then marries Ælfgifu, daughter of King Æthelred the Unready. The text relates that their daughter, Ealdgyth, married a thegn called Maldred son of Crinan, to whom she bore Gospatric
, the father of Dolfin
, Waltheof and Gospatric.
Ecgfrida is subsequentely married off to Kilvert, son of Ligulf, a thegn from Yorkshire, through whom she mothers a daughter named Sigrid. Sigrid marries Arkil son of Ecgfrith, and they have a son named Gospatric. This Gospatric is said to have married a daughter of Dolfin son of Torfin, producing a son also called, once again, Gospatric. It is related that this last Gospatric "recently" fought a man named Waltheof son of Ælfsige. It is further related however that Kilvert divorced Ecgfrida, and Ecgfrida returned to Ealdhun with Barmpton, Skirningham and Elton, and retired to a monastery.
At this point the text returns to Uhtred. Cnut
and Swegn of Denmark invade England and ask for Uhtred's help against Æthelred, but the earl remains loyal to the English king. After Swegn and Cnut are victorious, they demand Uhtred's fealty. When Uhtred travels to deliver it at a place called Wiheal, he is murdered by Thurbrand, the man he had earlier pledged to kill in order to marry Sige.
The story moves on to the succession of Eadulf Cudel, mentioning that the latter ceded Lothian
to the Scots out of fear, before resuming the story of the bloodfeud. Eadulf's successor, Ealdred
, kills Thurbrand and finds himself in conflict with Thurbrand's son, Carl, until they agree to go to Rome together on pilgrimage. Carl however betrays Ealdred and murders him in a forest called Risewood. Later, Ealdred's grandson Waltheof II gets revenge by massacring Carl's sons while they are feasting at a house in Settrington
. The narrative then moves back to "the main story" and finishes by relating the disputes and claims that emerge over the six manors.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the Anglo-Norman period, almost certainly at Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, and probably in either the late 11th- or early 12th-century.
Provenance
The text survives in only one manuscript, Cambridge University Library, Ff. i.27 (also called Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139 is a northern English manuscript compiled in c. 1170. Apart from preliminary additions , it contains two separate volumes, comprising 180 folios in total. The original first volume has 165 folios in twenty gatherings, about half of which are occupied by the...
). In its surviving form, it was written down between 1161 and 1167. The manuscript was at Sawley Abbey
Sawley Abbey
Sawley Abbey was an abbey of Cistercian monks in the village of Sawley, Lancashire, in England . Created as a daughter-house of Newminster Abbey, it existed from 1147 until its dissolution in 1536, during the reign of King Henry VIII of all England, Ireland, and France...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
by the late 12th century. Derek Baker in 1975 argued that it was probably compiled at Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey is near to Aldfield, approximately two miles southwest of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. It is a ruined Cistercian monastery, founded in 1132. Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. It is a Grade I listed building and owned by the...
. M. R. James
M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, , who used the publication name M. R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge and of Eton College . He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre...
had argued in 1912 that the manuscript was compiled at Hexham
Hexham
Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
in 1898, Peter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair was an English academic and historian specializing in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 1969 he married Pauline Clarke. She edited his Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 1984....
in 1963 and David Dumville
David Dumville
Professor David Norman Dumville is a British medievalist and Celtic scholar. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Ludwig-Maximilian Universität, Munich, and received his PhD. at the University of Edinburgh in 1976. In 1974, he married Sally Lois Hannay, with whom he had one son...
in 1974 (repeated in 1990) argued that the compilation took place at Sawley.
It is almost certain, however, that the text predates its transcription into the Cambridge MS. Bernard Meehan argued that the bulk of the text was composed between 1073 and 1076, before the execution of Earl Waltheof (1076) but after the date of a massacre at Settrington
Settrington
Settrington is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It once had a railway station that lay on the Malton and Driffield Railway.-History:...
(1073). This is largely on the basis that Waltheof's death goes unrelated, an argument that Morris attacked by pointing out that such things were not important for this particular text, noting other great figures mentioned whose deaths also go unrelated. Morris, for a variety of reasons, favoured a date inside the first two decades of the 12th-century, though he conceded that a date in the 1070s was a possibility.
The source which resembles De obsessione Dunelmi most is a letter, immediately preceding De obsessione Dunhelmi in the manuscript, written by Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. When William of Saint-Calais returned from his Norman exile in 1091, Symeon was probably in his company...
to Hugh, Dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
of York Cathedral. Both sources open with similar dating clauses and share a similar style, and it is possible that De obsessione Dunelmi was originally a letter too. A 16th-century incipit
Incipit
Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...
in the manuscript attributes the work to Symeon of Durham, though this is too late to be reliable. It is of however of note that Dean Hugh, when he resigned his deanship in 1135, retired to Fountains Abbey, supposedly taking with him a collection of books.
Historical account
The text of De Obsessione Dunelmi describes, among other things, the history of 11th-century NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
, the career of the earls of Bamburgh
Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia. Under the Norse kingdom of York, there were earls of...
along with their blood feud
Blood Feud
"Blood Feud" is the twenty-second and final episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 11, 1991. In the episode, Mr. Burns falls ill and desperately needs a blood transfusion. Homer discovers Bart has Burns' rare blood type and urges...
against Thurbrand the Hold
Thurbrand the Hold
Thurbrand , nicknamed "the Hold", was a Northumbrian magnate in the early 11th-century. Perhaps based in Holderness and East Yorkshire, Thurbrand was recorded as the killer of Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria...
and his descendants. It contains many incidental claims and assertions, is the only source for a large proportion of such claims.
The historian Antonia Gransden viewed it as a biography of Earl Uhtred and described it as the first known attempt to write a history of an English earldom. The "main story" however according to the text itself is the history of six manors belonging, rightfully it is asserted, to the diocese of Durham
Diocese of Durham
The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the historic County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne...
; the accounts tells how these were transferred several times during the course of the events described. The six manors are:
- BarmptonBarmptonBarmpton is a small village in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county ofCounty Durham, England. It is situated a short distance to the north-east of Darlington, on the River Skerne, a tributary of the Tees....
- Skirningham
- EltonElton, County DurhamElton is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated a short distance to the west of Stockton-on-Tees.-External links:...
- CarltonCarlton, County DurhamCarlton is a village and civil parish within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated a few miles to the north-west of Stockton-on-Tees, a short distance from the village of Redmarshall. Located within the village are Carlton Village Stores and...
- School AycliffeSchool AycliffeSchool Aycliffe is a village located in County Durham, England. It is situated a short distance to the west of Newton Aycliffe and to the east of Heighington, County Durham. The name derives from a Viking called Scula who owned land in this part of South Durham.School Aycliffe is split into two by...
- Monk Heselden
The story begins with a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
invasion (placed, incredibly, in 969) by Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. The Scots devastate the whole of Northumbria while the elderly Waltheof is shut up in Bamburgh
Bamburgh
Bamburgh is a large village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 454.It is notable for two reasons: the imposing Bamburgh Castle, overlooking the beach, seat of the former Kings of Northumbria, and at present owned by the Armstrong family ; and its...
. Ealdhun, Bishop of Durham, gives his daughter Ecgfrida to Waltheof's son Uhtred, along with the six manors, the latter given only so long as Uhtred remains married to Ecgfrida.
Uhtred defeats the Scots, and is given the earldoms of Bamburgh and York as a reward. He proceeds to divorce Ecgfrida in favour of Sige, daughter of Styr, with Bishop Ealdhun supposedly regaining his six vill
Vill
Vill is a term used in English history to describe a land unit which might otherwise be described as a parish, manor or tithing.The term is used in the period immediately after the Norman conquest and into the late medieval. Land units in Domesday are frequently referred to as vills, although the...
s. The condition of the marriage to Sige is that Uhtred kill Thurbrand, an enemy of Styr. Uhtred then marries Ælfgifu, daughter of King Æthelred the Unready. The text relates that their daughter, Ealdgyth, married a thegn called Maldred son of Crinan, to whom she bore Gospatric
Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria
Gospatric or Cospatric , , was Earl of Northumbria, or of Bernicia, and later lord of sizable estates around Dunbar...
, the father of Dolfin
Dolfin of Carlisle
Dolfin was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon magnate in Northumbria. His father was probably Gospatric, one of the most powerful regional figures in the mid-11th century having been earl of Northumbria in the early years of William the Conqueror's reign...
, Waltheof and Gospatric.
Ecgfrida is subsequentely married off to Kilvert, son of Ligulf, a thegn from Yorkshire, through whom she mothers a daughter named Sigrid. Sigrid marries Arkil son of Ecgfrith, and they have a son named Gospatric. This Gospatric is said to have married a daughter of Dolfin son of Torfin, producing a son also called, once again, Gospatric. It is related that this last Gospatric "recently" fought a man named Waltheof son of Ælfsige. It is further related however that Kilvert divorced Ecgfrida, and Ecgfrida returned to Ealdhun with Barmpton, Skirningham and Elton, and retired to a monastery.
At this point the text returns to Uhtred. Cnut
Canute the Great
Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...
and Swegn of Denmark invade England and ask for Uhtred's help against Æthelred, but the earl remains loyal to the English king. After Swegn and Cnut are victorious, they demand Uhtred's fealty. When Uhtred travels to deliver it at a place called Wiheal, he is murdered by Thurbrand, the man he had earlier pledged to kill in order to marry Sige.
The story moves on to the succession of Eadulf Cudel, mentioning that the latter ceded Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
to the Scots out of fear, before resuming the story of the bloodfeud. Eadulf's successor, Ealdred
Ealdred, Earl of Bernicia
Ealdred was Earl of Bernicia from 1020/25 until his murder in 1038. He was the son of Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria, who was murdered by Thurbrand the Hold in 1016 with the connivance of Cnut...
, kills Thurbrand and finds himself in conflict with Thurbrand's son, Carl, until they agree to go to Rome together on pilgrimage. Carl however betrays Ealdred and murders him in a forest called Risewood. Later, Ealdred's grandson Waltheof II gets revenge by massacring Carl's sons while they are feasting at a house in Settrington
Settrington
Settrington is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It once had a railway station that lay on the Malton and Driffield Railway.-History:...
. The narrative then moves back to "the main story" and finishes by relating the disputes and claims that emerge over the six manors.