Northman, son of Leofwine

In the account of Northman's death by order of Cnut the Great, the chronicler John of Worcester styled Northman "... son of Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce", Dux ("duke", "ealdorman" or "warlord"). He is described as a brother of Leofric comes ("count" or "ealdorman").Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 29; Darlington et al, Chronicle, vol. ii, p. 504 No other source claims that Northman was an ealdorman, and so the authenticity of this account is in doubt.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 30

Northman was the eldest of four known sons of Ealdorman Leofwine.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 18, figure 2.1; Williams, "Leofric" The others were Leofric, later Earl of Mercia, Eadwine (died 1039), and Godwine (died 1055).Baxter, Earls of Mercia, pp. 18, figure 2.1, 31–43 Ealdorman Leofwine's father was a man named Ælfwine. Ælfwine is difficult to identify, but was possibly the Ælfwine killed at the Battle of Maldon in 991, and was possibly a son of Ælfric Cild, ealdorman of Mercia between 983 and 985.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, 17–28

Accurately tracing Northman within the witness-lists of charters is difficult because of the contested authenticity of many of these charters, and because there was another magnate of that name, Northman of Escomb, a dux in Northumbria.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 30; Keynes, Atlas, Table LXII; PASE, s.v. {{PASE|15297|Northman 2|nm=1}} A charter from Evesham Abbey, c. 989, describes a grant of land at Hampton, Worcestershire by King Æthelred II to a Northman minister (thegn); this charter is however regarded as spurious.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 29, n. 44; PASE, s.v. {{PASE|15298|Northman 3|nm=1}}; [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+873 Sawyer 783]

It is likely that Northman is the same as Northman Miles ("Northman the knight"), to whom in 1013 King Æthelred II granted the village of Twywell in Northamptonshire.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 31; PASE, s.v. {{PASE|15299|Northman 5|nm=1}}; [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+931 Sawyer 931] This charter was preserved in the archives of Thorney Abbey, which in the 1050s was one of the abbeys controlled by Northman's kinsman, Abbot Leofric of Peterborough.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, pp. 19 (figure 2.1), 30

Northman's last non-chronicle appearance is a subscription to a lease given by Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, to his brother Ælfwig.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 31; [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+1384 Sawyer 1384]

Accounts of his death form the main sources of information about Northman. John of Worcester related that:

In July Cnut married Ælfgifu, that is Emma, Æthelred's widow, and at Christmas, when he was at London, ordered the treacherous Ealdorman Eadric (ducem Edricum) to be killed in the palace because he feared that some day he would be entrapped by Eadric's treachery, just as Eadric's former lords Æthelred and Edmund, that is Ironside, were frequently deceived, and he ordered his body to be thrown over the city wall, and left unburied. Ealdorman Northman, son of Ealdorman Leofwine, that is brother of Leofric the Ealdorman (dux Northmannus filius Leofuuini ducis, frater scilicet Leofrici comitis), and Brihtric, son of Ælfheah, governor of Devon, were killed with him, although blameless. The king made Leofric ealdorman (ducem) in place of his brother Northman, and afterwards held him in great affection.Darlington et al (eds.), Chronicle, vol. ii, pp. 504, 505

The account in the surviving versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (in recensions C, D, E) is shorter, and does not give Northman the title of dux:

In this year [1017] King Cnut succeeded to all the kingdom of England and divided it into four, Wessex for himself, East Anglia for Thorkel, Mercia for Eadric, and Northumbria for Eric. And in this year Ealdorman Eadric was killed, and Northman, son of Ealdorman Leofwine, and Æthelweard, son of Æthelmær the Stout, and Brihtric, son of Ælfheah of Devonshire. And King Cnut exiled the atheling Eadwig and afterwards had him killed.Whitelock (ed.), English Historical Documents, p. 251

The Chronicle of Crowland Abbey, the reliability of which is doubted by some historians, says that Northman was a retainer of Eadric Streona, ealdorman in much of Mercia.Baxter, Earls of Mercia, pp. 29–30, and n. 45 for reference It adds that Northman had been killed by Cnut for this reason. Despite the murder of Northman, his father Leofwine continued in his office until 1023, under the overlordship of the newly implanted Earl Hákon, and Northman's brother Leofric eventually became Earl of Mercia.Bolton, Empire, pp. 69–72

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{{refbegin}}

• {{citation | last = Baxter | first = Stephen | title = The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England | place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-19-923098-3 }}
• {{citation | last = Bolton | first = Timothy| title = The Empire of Cnut the Great: Conquest and the Consolidation of Power in Northern Europe in the Early Eleventh Century | series = The Northern World. North Europe and the Baltic c. 400–1700 A.D.: Peoples, Economies and Cultures, volume 40 | publisher = Brill | year = 1992 | location = Leiden | issn= 1569-1462 | isbn = 978-90-04-16670-7}}
• {{citation | last = Gransden | first = Antonia | author-link = Antonia Gransden | title = Historical Writing in England | place = London | publisher = Routledge | year = 1997 | volume = 1, c. 550–c.1307 | isbn = 0-415-15124-4 }}
• {{citation | last = Keynes | first = Simon | author-link = Simon Keynes | title = An Atlas of Attestations in Anglo-Saxon Charters, c. 670–1066|url=http://dk.robinson.cam.ac.uk/node/115 | place = Cambridge | publisher = Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies, University of Cambridge | series = ASNC Guides, Texts, and Studies, 5| year = 2002 | isbn = 0-9532697-6-0 | issn=1475-8520 }}
• {{cite ODNB |last= Keynes |first= Simon |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8511 |contribution= Eadric [Edric] Streona (d. 1017), magnate |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/8511 |access-date=2009-05-24 }}
• {{citation | last = Lawson | first = M. K. | title =Cnut: The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh Century | place = London | publisher = Longman | year = 1993 | isbn = 0-582-05970-4}}
• {{citation| last = Miller | first = Sean| title=New Regesta Regum Anglorum|url= http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=show&page=Charters | publisher= Anglo-Saxons.net|access-date=2009-05-24}}
• {{citation | editor-last = Whitelock | editor-first = Dorothy | editor-link = Dorothy Whitelock | title = English Historical Documents. [Vol.1], c.500–1042 | place = London | publisher = Eyre and Spottiswoode | year = 1979 | isbn = 0-19-520101-9 }}
• {{cite ODNB |last= Williams |first= Ann | author-link = Ann Williams (historian) |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16470 |contribution= Leofric, earl of Mercia (d. 1057), magnate |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/16470 |access-date=2009-05-24 }}

{{refend}}

• {{PASE|11834|Northman 4}}; probably also {{PASE|15299|Northman 5|nm=1}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northman}}

Category:1017 deaths

Category:11th-century English nobility

Category:Anglo-Saxon thegns

Category:Anglo-Saxon warriors

Category:Year of birth unknown