Siward

- 1055

• Name	Siward   [1, 2]
  Birth	of Denmark   [3]
  Gender	Male
  Death	1055	York, Yorkshire, England   [4, 5, 6]
  Burial	Mar 1055	Galmanho (now St. Olave's), York, Yorkshire, England   [5, 7]
  Person ID	I3885	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of AW, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of GFS, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of TSW, Ancestor of TWK, Ancestor of UKL, Ancestor of WPF, Ancestor of XYZ
  Last Modified	4 Jul 2022

  
  

  Family	Ælfled of Bernicia
  Children	+ 1. Waltheof,   b. 1027, of Potton, Bedfordshire, England d. 31 May 1076, Winchester, Hampshire, England (Age 49 years)
  Family ID	F6557	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Also called Sigvarthr. Earl of Northumberland. "The life of King Edward recorded his nickname as 'Digri', or 'Digara', from the Danish Diger meaning 'the Stout', or 'the Strong'. A legend preserved in the twelfth century noted that Siward was descended from the union of a white bear and a noblewoman." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] "Siward, a Dane, who perhaps came to England with Cnut, was an Earl (probably of the southern -- Danish -- portion of the ancient Northumbria) in or before 1041. His marriage had given him some claim to the hereditary Earldom of Northumberland, and in or before 1042 the murder of his wife's uncle Eadulf put him, as Earl, in possession of the whole of Northumbria, from Humber to Tweed. He was presumably Earl also of Northampton and Huntingdon. He gave active support to the Confessor against Earl Godwin and his sons, and in 1054 led a force of English and Danes against the Scottish usurper Macbeth, which put Malcolm, regis Cumbrorum filium, upon his murdered father's throne. He m, 1stly, Elfleda, daughter of Aldred, Earl of Northumbria (d. s.p.m.); and 2ndly, Godiva, a widow. He d. 1055, at York, and was buried at the neighboring abbey of Galmanho, which he had founded." [Complete Peerage IX:702-3] "Siward succeeded Earl Erik of Hlathir in southern Northumbria between 1023 and 1033, the dates of Erik's last appearance in a charter and Siward's first. Siward was one of those to whom Cnut delegated significant authority in England while he was occupied in his Scandinavian lands. [...] Siward is named by the Norman chronicler William of Poitiers as being one of those magnates of England who swore an oath to secure Duke William of Normandy's succession to the English throne. Siward's rule in Northumbria was seen as particularly harsh but effective by contemporary sources. The life of King Edward describes how before the earl's time parties of even twenty or thirty men were not safe from robbers, but that Siward's policy of killing or mutilating the miscreants, however noble, brought security to the region. [...] Henry of Huntingdon described Earl Siward as a giant of a man 'whose vigour of mind was equal to his bodily strength' (Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum (OMT), 376). During an attack on Scotland, when one of his sons was killed, Siward enquired whether he had received his wound in front or behind. When informed that the wound had been received in front, the earl rejoiced that his son had died a fitting death. This may refer to the death of Osbeorn at the hands of the Scots in 1054. Also according to Henry of Huntingdon, Earl Siward himself died of dysentery. He felt ashamed that he was not going to die in one of his many battles and asked to be dressed in his armour, so that, with shield and battleaxe in his hands, he might die a soldier's death. This was at York, before mid-Lent 1055, when he was buried in the monastery which he had founded at ‘Galmanho’, dedicated to St Olaf, king and martyr—which indicates Siward's continued Danish sympathies." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

  
  

• Sources

  [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008. [S6417] David L. Greene, "The Royal Ancestry of the Ipswich (Massachusetts) and Long Island Lawrence Families." The Genealogist 10:3, 1989. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998., place only. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998. [S2158] Pedigree and Progress: Essays in the Genealogical Interpretation of History by Anthony Wagner. London: Phillimore & Co., 1975., year only. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., "before mid-Lent 1055".