Gospatric of Dunbar

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 23 Aug 1138
• Alternate death: Bef 16 Aug 1139

Notes:

Possibly killed in the Battle of the Standard, commanding the men of Lothian; alternately, Moriarty (citation details below) thinks he was most likely killed at the battle of Northallerton.

Note from AR8: "Sybil Morel, dau. of Arkil Morel, d. 1095, was the wife of his son, Edward."

From The Scots Peerage, citation details below:

GOSPATRIC, who in one place calls himself Earl, and certainly held the rank and place of Earl or ruler of Lothian, does not appear on record until after 1100, the year of the accession of King Henry I of England, and his earliest mention in Scottish writs is in 1119. Another peculiarity about his designation is that during his lifetime he is never but once, by himself, in a charter to the monks of Coldingham, styled Earl in Scottish charters. He is referred to, whether as a witness to charters, or a granter or recipient of charters, in nearly every case as Gospatric, brother of Dolfin. In 1119 he is a witness to the charter to the monks of Selkirk, and to the Inquisition of the see of Glasgow, as well as, later, to the foundation charter of Scone. He has also the same designation in the first grant to Holyrood. These are the chief references to him during his life in Scottish records, and while he evidently held a high position, he is never styled Earl until after his death.

King Henry I, also in a charter of unknown date, but certainly some time after 1100, conferred upon him, as Gospatric, brother of Dolfin, a large tract of land lying between Wooler and Morpeth, in Northumberland. This extensive grant, which was confirmed at York about 1136, was held, not by knight's service or other service usual from a barony, though it is sometimes described as the barony of Beanley. It was held in grand serjeanty, the Earl and his descendants bound to be "inborwe" and "utborwe" between England and Scotland; that is, they were to be security for persons passing to and fro between the two countries, who would not be allowed to travel north or south without permission of the lords of Beanley, a fact which practically gave to the Earls of Dunbar the important position of Wardens on both sides of the East March.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gospatric of Dunbar died in 1166.
2. Juliana of Dunbar
3. Edgar of Dunbar died after 1140.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 1040 and 1048
• Alternate death: Abt 1075

Notes:

Earl of Northumberland; Lord of Carlisle and Allerdale. Visited Rome, 1061.

"Gospatric, earl of Northumbria (d. 1073x5), magnate, was the son of Maldred, whose father, Crinan, named in one source as Crinan 'the thegn', is usually identified with the lay abbot of Dunkeld of that name, who was father of Duncan I, king of Scots, and was killed in battle in 1045. That identification cannot be regarded as certain, but there is no doubt that Maldred was a man of high status, who married Ealdgyth, the daughter of Earl Uhtred of Northumbria and his wife, Ælfgifu, daughter of King Æthelred II, and that Ealdgyth was Gospatric's mother." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Notes:

Also called Aldred; Maldred MacCrinan.

According to The Scots Peerage (citation details below), he was probably killed in the same battle as his father Crinan, attempting to avenge the murder of his brother Duncan by Macbeth.

The Henry Project calls Maldred a "probable" child of the Crinan who married Bethoc, daughter of Malcolm II, King of Scotland (this Crinan and Bethoc being the parents of the Scots king Duncan I), but THP also notes that there is no direct evidence that Bethoc was Maldred's mother.

From The Henry Project:

Maldred is given as a son of a Crinán in three of the works of Simeon of Durham, with Crínán given the title of "thane" (tein) in one of these works. Maldred married Ealdgyth, daughter of Uhtred, earl of Northumbria, by whom he Dolphin, Waltheof, and Cospatric (ancestor of the House of Dunbar) ["Postea vero illo, scilicet Ucthredo, proficiente magis et magis in re militari, rex Ethelredus filiam suam Elfgivam ei copulavit uxorem. Ex qua habuit filiam Aldgitham, quam pater in conjugium dedit Maldredo filio Crinan tein, ex qua Maldredus Cospatricum, patrem Dolphini et Walteofi, et Cospatrici." Sim. Durh., De Obsessione Dunelmi, c. 2 (1: 216); "... Cospatricus, filius Maldredi filii Crinani ... Erat enim ex matre Algitha, filia Uchtredi comitis, quam habuit ex Algiva filia Agelredi Regis. Hanc Algitham pater dedit in conjugium Maldredo filio Crinani." Sim. Durh., Historia Regum, c. 159 (2: 199); "Deinde Uctredus filius Walthefi administravit comitatum omnium Northanhymbrorum provinciarum. Huic rex Eathelredus suam filiam Ælfgeovam dederat uxorem. Ex qua filiam habens Aldgitham, dedit in conjugium prædiviti cuidam, Maldredo filio Crinani: de qua habuit Cospatricum comitem, patrem Dolphini, Walthefi, et Cospatrici." Sim. Durh., De Primo Saxonum Adventu (2: 383)]. Anderson states that Maldred appears to have ruled in Cumbria [ESSH 1: 577], but there does not seem to be a clear source for that statement [however, see ESSH 2: 37 for the possible Cumbrian origin of Maldred's son Cospatric I]. No primary source explicitly identifies the Crínán who was Maldred's father with the Crínán who was Duncan's father.

[Key to abbreviations in the above:]

Sim. Durh. = Thomas Arnold, ed., Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (Rolls Series 75, 1882-5.)

ESSH = Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922, reprinted Stamford, 1990). [Contains English translations of many of the primary records.]

Maldred married Ealdgyth of Northumbria. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Aeldgyth; Ealdgith; Algitha; Edith.

Notes:

Earl of Northumbria. On his way to a meeting with king Cnut, Uchtred and forty of his men were slain by a force led by Northumbrian magnate Thurbrand the Hold, supposedly with assistance of Uchtred's servant Wighill and with the connivance of Cnut. This either set off, or was the first recorded act of, a Northumbrian blood feud that lasted several decades.

Uchtred married Ælfgifu about 1014. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Elgiva, Algiva.

Notes:

Ealdorman of Northumbria.

Notes:

"The Redeless"; "Unraed" (Ill-counseled).

Æthelred married Ælfgifu, Queen Consort of England in 985. Ælfgifu (daughter of Thored) was born about 970; died about 1002. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 970
• Alternate death: Abt 1002

Notes:

Ealdorman of Northumbria.

"Ealdred was probably the father of Oswulf, who later ruled in Northumbria under King Eadred (d. 955). Oswulf engineered the downfall of Erik Bloodaxe (d. 954), the last king of an independent Northumbria, so that the kingdom could be annexed by Eadred. Oswulf was a witness to several royal charters where he is identified as 'high-reeve of Bamburgh'." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Eadgar married Ælfthryth, Queen Consort of England. Ælfthryth (daughter of Ordgar) died between 999 and 1002. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Alfrida; Elfrida; Elfthryth.

Notes:

Ealdorman of York.