Tovi the Proud (also Tofi or Tofig, Tofi pruda), , was a rich and powerful 11th-century Danish
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 ...
who held a number of estates in various parts of southern
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. A translation of the legend of Waltham Abbey cites the Lord of Waltham as 'Tovi le Prude', "totius Angliae post regnem primus" (prude = prudent, wise, sagacious). He was
staller (a placeman or court office-holder) to King
Cnut the Great
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
.
Early life
Little is known about the years of Tovi the Proud pre-1026 though he appears to have had a role in the administration of East Anglia and Essex, these interests and gifted land holdings there indicate that prior to 1017, he was either in Cnut the Great's retinue or in that of
Thorkell the Tall
Thorkell the Tall, also known as Thorkell the High in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (Old Norse: Þorke(ti)ll inn hávi; no, Torkjell Høge; Swedish: ''Torkel Höge''; da, Torkild den Høje), was a prominent member of the Jomsviking order and ...
who was Jarl of East Anglia 1017 to 1023.
By 1017 he was in possession of Reading, he went on to hold crucial roles in court 'guiding the monarch and closest to the king in his counsels'.
Chronological problems of documents show Tovi pruda to appear to have been added as a revision to earlier lists of secular officials from 1020-1, his name placed at the head of secular officials, alongside his contemporary Osgod Clapa.
Although in good enough health to have travelled from the far side of the kingdom where he had been on business with the king, he was considered already 'old and feeble' in the story of the legend of Waltham Holy Cross in the first half of the 1030s. This ''Waltham Chronicle'' also records that Tovi was 'a man of great wealth' (''preduies''), acquired not only through inheritance and the king's largesse, but also because his relationship with the king enabled him 'to benefit or harm anyone he wished.'
The Legend of the Holy Cross
According to the ''Waltham Chronicle'', it was on his manor at
Montacute
Montacute is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 831 (2011 census). The name Montacute is thought by some to derive from the Latin "Mons Acutus", referrin ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
that a black
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
or
Holy Rood
Holyrood may refer to:
Religion
*Holyrood (cross), a Christian relic alleged to be part of the True Cross on which Jesus died
*Feast of the Cross, or Holy Rood day, in the Christian liturgical calendar
Places United Kingdom
* Holyrood, Edinburgh ...
was unearthed following a dream in 1030. The account relates that Tovi loaded the life-sized cross onto a cart, but the oxen refused to move until he mentioned another of his estates at
Waltham in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
where he already had a hunting lodge.
[''The Waltham Chronicle'', ed. Watkiss and Chibnall, pages 15, 18] Tovi rebuilt the church at Waltham to house the cross, on which he bestowed his own sword. His devout second wife Gytha (or Glitha), the daughter of
Osgod Clapa Osgod Clapa (died 1054), also Osgot, was a nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England during the reigns of Kings Cnut the Great, Harold Harefoot, Harthacnut, and Edward the Confessor. His name comes from the Old Danish Asgot, the byname Clapa meaning coarse, o ...
, adorned the figure with a crown, bands of gold and precious stones. The cross became the object of pilgrimage, notably by
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
. 'Thurkill the Sacristan', an eyewitness to the episode told of the cross giving a sign foretelling the failure of Harold's Battle at Hastings in 1066, as told by the Canon of Waltham author of ''De Inventione Sancte Crucus Nostre'' in the 12th century.
1040s
It was at Tovi's wedding at
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
on 8 June 1042 that King
Harthacnut
Harthacnut ( da, Hardeknud; "Tough-knot"; – 8 June 1042), traditionally Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III, was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and King of the English from 1040 to 1042.
Harthacnut was the son of King ...
suddenly died of a convulsion "while standing at his drink". Harthacnut had little support as king and his mother
Emma of Normandy
Emma of Normandy (referred to as Ælfgifu in royal documents; c. 984 – 6 March 1052) was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the ...
, second wife of Cnut the Great, is implicated in bolstering Harthacnut's succession using her links with the East Anglian
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 ...
s in Cnut the Great's court. A return of stallers such as Tovi the Proud and Osgod Clapa to witness lists is found at this time.
There is no specific record for Tovi pruda after 1043. The Waltham Chronicle records Tovi and Glytha showering the Holy Cross with gifts which presumably would be in the period following their marriage in 1042. It is possible that Tovi died, simply left court to return to his estates, or was exiled following the dynastic pendulum swing back in favour of the native born Edward the Confessor in the early 1040s.
Tovi's contemporary and new father-in-law Osgod Clapa, who appears to have been in opposition to Edward the Confessor's succession and led an unsuccessful revolt, was outlawed around 1046, later apparently to die in exile.
Certainly the threat of invasion from
Magnus the Good
Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson''; Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus Olavsson''; – 25 October 1047), better known as Magnus the Good (Old Norse: ''Magnús góði'', Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus den gode''), was King of Norwa ...
of Norway split the English court and led to King Edward confiscating the property of his mother,
Queen Emma, who was planning to use it to help Magnus. However it is unclear if any of the above are reasons for Tovi pruda's absence or if political events elsewhere, in the by now disintegrated
North Sea Empire
The North Sea Empire, also known as the Anglo-Scandinavian Empire, was the personal union of the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway for most of the period between 1013 and 1042 towards the end of the Viking Age. This ephemeral Norse-ruled ...
, can account for it.
Adam of Breman briefly describes that in 1047 King Sven of Sweden and an otherwise unknown Earl Tovi drove
Magnus
Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...
from Denmark, and when Magnus resumed the war he
agnusdied on board his ship. The contemporary ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' reports that Sven of Sweden asked for 50 ships to help in the fight against Magnus and that, in England, Magnus was considered a serious threat, "but the battle between him and
Sven
Sven (in Danish and Norwegian, also Svend and also in Norwegian most commonly Svein) is a Scandinavian first name which is also used in the Low Countries and German-speaking countries. The name itself is Old Norse for "young man" or "young warr ...
prevented him from coming here". Notable circumstantially is that Osgod Clapa is thought to have entered the service of Sven in late 1046 and in the years following the victory in Denmark, Sven of Sweden's coinage shows many influences and a continued link with Anglo-Scandinavian England. It is possible that Tovi the Proud is the Tovi ''comes'' to whom King Edward gave two hides at ''Burghe'' in 1048.
Land holdings
The Domesday records are a major source of information regarding Tovi's estates. Tovi the Sheriff, a Somerset landholder in 1086 is likely to be a descendant of Tovi the Proud. Unclear though, is how much land Tovi gifted to the church or to his kinsman during his lifetime. Evidence survives of a Tovi leaving land at Stilton, now in Cambridgeshire, to the church. It is known the estates pertaining to Tovi's position as ''staller'' passed to his son Athelstan (or Æthelstan) and to Tovi's grandson Asgar
also known as the major land holder
Ansgar the Staller
Ansgar the Staller or Esegar (c. 1025-1085) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful nobles in late Anglo-Saxon England. He escaped badly wounded from the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, then led the defence of London.
His family were of ...
, marshal in the court of
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
. The Waltham Chronicle mentions Athelstan as losing those lands not connected to the position of staller through his 'insufficiencies' and the Chronicle translators cite suggestions that Athelstan is Ælfstan the ''Staller'' documented in Florence of Worcester's account of the Osgod Clapa led raids.
Following the Norman Conquest, Asgar the Staller's long running land dispute with the Diocese of Ely came to the attention of King
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, who then had Asgar confined to a castle in France. Neither Asgar nor his two sons were to return to England. Asgar's estates were given to the Norman Baron
Geoffrey de Mandeville. Waltham Abbey was described as being given to Harold Godwinson by St Edward (Edward the Confessor) in the ''Waltham Chronicle''.
Origins of his name
The root and meaning of the Tovi name is very ancient, with the clearest link for an older origin being found in the dedication on the
Sønder Vissing Runestone
Sønder Vissing I or DR 55 is a runestone located in the church of Sønder Vissing in eastern Jutland, Denmark. Sønder Vissing is a small settlement located in Horsens municipality approximately south of Silkeborg, west of Skanderborg and nort ...
. The carvings describe the stone as having been raised by
Tófa, in memory of her mother. The first character of her name is ᛏ, the Rune for
Týr
(; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology, a valorous and powerful member of the and patron of warriors and mythological heroes. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic people ...
, a Northern European deity thought to be of early origins in an Indo-European Pantheon. He was a sky god, god of justice, sacrifice and war. Later associations with Thor seen throughout the internet, in heraldry and publications, appear to have arisen not from evidence but from more modern speculations and probable confusion from the simplifications of multiple Norse deities. The dominance of Odin and Thor in the Norse pantheon coincides with the time that monotheistic religions such as Christianity were influencing and challenging the polytheism of the older cultures in Northern European regions. The letter ''V'', often used as evidence that Tovi derives from a diminutive of a longer name was a Latinisation of the Rune
ᚠ and Medieval additions to the Younger Futharc duplicated the use of some of the 16 Runic characters used in the 9th to 11th centuries. The Rune for ''V'' is the same as that used for ''F''.
Pruda is from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
, meaning "proud/splendid fine; magnificent; stately; splendid; gallant; brave".
It is tempting to speculate that ''Tófi prúðr'' (Tovi pruda) was a younger relation named after ''Tófa'' (
Tove of the Obotrites
Tove of the Obotrites, also called ''Tova'', ''Tofa'' or ''Thora'', (10th century) was a Slavic princess and a Danish Viking Age queen consort, the spouse of King Harald Bluetooth.
Tofa, her name carved in runes as ᛏᚢᚠᛅ'','' was the d ...
), but no direct evidence to support this has come to light at present other than the presence of a Tovi Wendish fl. 1066 in the Domesday records as land holder in parts of Gloucestershire However an Earl Tovi's presence in Denmark during 1047 adds a personal dimension to the conflict in the region at that time.
Magnus the Good
Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson''; Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus Olavsson''; – 25 October 1047), better known as Magnus the Good (Old Norse: ''Magnús góði'', Norwegian and Danish: ''Magnus den gode''), was King of Norwa ...
is attributed to have been responsible for the destruction of parts of Wendland; most notable in this instance as the heartland of the legendary
Jomsvikings
The Jomsvikings were purportedly a legendary order of Viking mercenaries or conquerors of the 10th and 11th centuries. Though reputed to be staunchly dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse gods, they would allegedly fight for any lord who ...
and ancestral homeland of Tove of the Obotrites. The earlier echoes of the Tovi and the Asgar names can be seen on the
Sjörup Runestone
The Sjörup Runestone is a runestone in Scania, Sweden, from approximately 1000 AD that is classified as being in runestone style RAK. The Karlevi Runestone, the Egtved Runestone and the Hällestad Runestones may be connected to it.
History
T ...
attributed to the
Jomsviking
The Jomsvikings were purportedly a legendary order of Viking mercenaries or conquerors of the 10th and 11th centuries. Though reputed to be staunchly dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse gods, they would allegedly fight for any lord who ...
participation in the
Battle of Fýrisvellir at Uppsala, but there is no other link to prove a family connection of ''Tófi prúðr'' (''Tovi pruda'') to Ásbjörn, the son of Tófi/Tóki other than by name. Other runestone translations also link a Tofi of an earlier generation to the lineage of
Gorm the Old
Gorm the Old ( da, Gorm den Gamle; non, Gormr gamli; la, Gormus Senex), also called Gorm the Languid ( da, Gorm Løge, Gorm den Dvaske), was ruler of Denmark, reigning from to his death or a few years later.Lund, N. (2020), p. 147 .
While it is often difficult to identify Tovi pruda from other Tovi thegns of Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor's court,
circumstantially a link to Tove of the Obotrites and the court of
Harald Bluetooth
Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway.
He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 95 ...
would do much to explain the preeminent position of Tovi pruda at the court of
Cnut the Great
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
during the establishment of the
North Sea Empire
The North Sea Empire, also known as the Anglo-Scandinavian Empire, was the personal union of the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway for most of the period between 1013 and 1042 towards the end of the Viking Age. This ephemeral Norse-ruled ...
. If Tovi had been in Thorkell the Tall's retinue in his early years, he would have been one of those to whom the ''
Encomium Emmae was'' aimed, who remembered Thorkell as the great war leader in service to the king.
;Present Day
Residents of Waltham Abbey regularly hold a commemorative day to celebrate the carrying of the Holy Cross from Somerset to Waltham, inviting possible descendants of Tovi pruda to take part.
Notes
References
*
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External links
* ; apparently different from e.g. "hwita"; may or may not match other entries eg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tovi The Proud
11th-century births
11th-century deaths
Medieval Danish nobility
11th-century Danish people