Aldhun of Durham (died 1018 or 1019), also known as Ealdhun, was the last

Bishop of Lindisfarne The Bishop of Durham is the Church of England, Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Pau ...

(based at Chester-le-Street) and the first

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

. He was of "noble descent". Since the late 9th century the see of Lindisfarne was based at

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...

because of constant attacks from invading

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...

. However, in 994 King Æthelred II of England had paid a

Danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the ''geld'' or ''gafol'' in eleventh-century sources. It ...

(protection money) to King

Sweyn I of Denmark Sweyn Forkbeard ( non, Sveinn Haraldsson tjúguskegg ; da, Svend Tveskæg; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 to 1014, also at times King of the English and King of Norway. He was the father of King Harald II of D ...

and King

Olaf I of Norway Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of N ...

in return for peace. The pay-off worked and there followed a period of freedom from

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

raids. This encouraged Aldhun to return the remains of

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of ...

to their original resting place at Lindisfarne, and to reinstate the diocese there. En route to their destination however Aldhun claimed to have received a vision from Cuthbert saying that the saint's remains should be laid to rest at

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. The

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s detoured then to Durham, and the title Bishop of Lindisfarne was transferred to Bishop of Durham. The removal of the see from Chester-le-Street to Durham took place in 995.

Symeon of Durham __NOTOC__ Symeon (or Simeon) of Durham (died after 1129) was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. Biography Symeon entered the Benedictine monastery at Jarrow as a youth. It moved to Durham in 1074, and he was professed in 1085 or ...

is the main source for the moving of the see, and he states that

Uhtred the Bold Uhtred of Bamburgh (sometimes Uchtred); died c. 1016), was ruler of Bamburgh and from 1006 to 1016 the ealdorman of Northumbria. He was the son of Waltheof I, ruler of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose family the Eadwulfings had ruled the surrou ...

helped the monks clear the site of the new cathedral, which was consecrated in 998. Aldhun was a bishop for 24 years, which puts his death in 1018 or 1019. He was said to have died of heartbreak because of the defeat of the Northumbrians by the Scots at the

battle of Carham The Battle of Carham (c. 1018) was fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed. Uhtred, son of Waltheof of Bamburgh (or his brother Eadwulf), fought the combined forces of Malcolm II of Scotland and Owen the ...

. Aldhun's daughter Ecgfrida married first

who was

Earl of Northumbria Earl of Northumbria or Ealdorman of Northumbria was a title in the late Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The ealdordom was a successor of the Norse Kingdom of York. In the seventh century, the Anglo-Saxo ...

from 1006 to 1016. Their son Ealdred was the grandfather of

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria ( enm, Wallef, on, Valþjóf) (died 31 May 1076) was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I. Early life Waltheof was the second son of Siwa ...

. After he repudiated her, she married a northern

thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...

Kilvert. The marriage probably took place close to the time when Uhtred helped her father move the see to Durham.

Citations

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldhun Of Durham 1018 deaths 1019 deaths Roman Catholic monks Bishops of Lindisfarne Bishops of Durham 10th-century English bishops 11th-century English Roman Catholic bishops English Christian monks Year of birth unknown