Byrhtnoth ( ang, Byrhtnoð), Ealdorman of

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 Grea ...

( 931 - 11 August 991), died at the

Battle of Maldon The Battle of Maldon took place on 11 August 991 AD near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battl ...

. His name is composed of the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''beorht'' (bright) and ''noþ'' (courage). He is the subject of ''

The Battle of Maldon "The Battle of Maldon" is the name given to an Old English poem of uncertain date celebrating the real Battle of Maldon of 991, at which an Anglo-Saxon army failed to repulse a Viking raid. Only 325 lines of the poem are extant; both the beginni ...

'', an Old English poem, J.R.R. Tolkien's short play in verse, '' The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son'', and a modern statue at

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

Death in battle

His death, while leading the Anglo-Saxon forces against the

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 ...

s in 991, is the subject of the famous Old English poem ''

''. As presented there, his decision to allow the Vikings to move to a better position was heroic but fatal. He was said to stand well over six feet in height, and was around the age of sixty years at the Battle of Maldon, with "swan-white hair". Although it is believed that he fell early in the battle, some say that it took three men to kill him, one of them almost severing Byrhtnoth's arm in the process. He had previously had several military successes, presumably also against Viking raiders.

Patronage and burial

Byrhtnoth was a patron of Ely Abbey, giving it many villages (including Spaldwick,

Trumpington Trumpington is a village and parish to the south of Cambridge, England. The village is an electoral ward of the City of Cambridge and a ward of South Cambridgeshire District Council. The 2011 Census recorded the ward's population as 8,034. T ...

Rettendon Rettendon is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chelmsford in Essex, England, about south east of the city of Chelmsford. Situated near the River Crouch, the village was once owned by the Bishop of Ely. The A130 formerly passed ...

Soham Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census. History Archaeology The region between De ...

, Fulbourn,

Impington Impington is a settlement and civil parish about 3 miles north of Cambridge city centre, in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It forms part of the Cambridge built-up area. In 2011 the parish had a populat ...

Pampisford Pampisford is a village, south of Cambridge, on the A505 road near Sawston, Cambridgeshire, England. The remaining section of a defensive ditch, dug to close the gap between forest and marsh, is known as Brent Ditch, which runs between Abington ...

and Teversham). He was buried there alongside Archbishop Wulfstan the homilist. The ''

Liber Eliensis The ''Liber Eliensis'' is a 12th-century English chronicle and history, written in Latin. Composed in three books, it was written at Ely Abbey on the island of Ely in the fenlands of eastern Cambridgeshire. Ely Abbey became the cathedral of a ...

'' records that his widow gave the Abbey a

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

or hanging celebrating his deeds, presumably in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, the only surviving example of such a work. This was given immediately after his death, so had probably been hanging in his home previously.

Reburials

After his burial, his remains, along with six other Saxon 'benefactors of Ely Church' (also known as the seven 'Confessors of Christ') have been moved and reburied three times. Archbishop

Wulfstan (died 1023) Wulfstan (sometimes Wulfstan II or Lupus;Wormald "Wulfstan" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' died 28 May 1023) was an English Bishop of London, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York. He is thought to have begun his ecclesiast ...

, with six Bishops ( Osmund of Sweden, Athelstan of Elmham, Ælfwine of Elmham, Ælfgar of Elmham, Eadnoth of Dorchester) and Byrhtnoth were all exhumed from their burial places in the old Saxon Abbey Church, and in the mid-1150s the remains were reinterred in the 'Northern Part' of the new Norman Church, which by then had been made Ely Cathedral. Following the collapse of the central tower, in 1322, a new octagonal space was created, and a wall was built on its north side to separate the monastic area of the choir from the pilgrim entrance and route to the shrine of

Æthelthryth Æthelthryth (or Æðelþryð or Æþelðryþe; 23 June 679 AD) was an East Anglian princess, a Fenland and Northumbrian queen and Abbess of Ely. She is an Anglo-Saxon saint, and is also known as Etheldreda or Audrey, especially in religious ...

(St Etheldreda). Within this wall the seven benefactors were buried, with wall paintings of each in an elaborate arcade, facing the pilgrim entrance, perhaps to remind visitors of the enduring respect that can accrue from such generosity. The shrines were destroyed and pilgrimages ceased at the Reformation, but in 1769, when the choir stalls were moved out of the Octagon, the wall was demolished and James Bentham found that the remains of the seven benefactors were still there, each in a separate compartment, although Byrhtnoth's was headless. All the clerics were estimated to be over tall, and Byrhtnoth's bones suggested that he stood at . On 31 July 1781 they were again re-interred, with considerable ceremony, at the far east end of the cathedral, in niches constructed within the gothic splendour of Bishop Nicholas West's Chantry chapel.

Family

Byrhtnoth was married to Ælfflæd, sister of the dowager Queen

Æthelflæd of Damerham Æthelflæd of Damerham was Queen of the English as the second wife of King Edmund I from their marriage 944 until Edmund died in 946. Æthelflæd was a daughter of ealdorman Ælfgar, probably the ealdorman of Essex. Her mother's name is not ...

, making Byrhtnoth a kinsman of King Edgar by marriage. Byrhtnoth and Ælfflæd are identified to have had a daughter who married Oswig, who died 5 May 1010 in the Battle of Ringmere Byrhtnoth is reported to have had a daughter called Leofflæd, however she is not mentioned in any pre-

Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

source. This Leofflæd is likely the same as the daughter who married Oswig.

Legacy

In October 2006, a statue created by John Doubleday was placed at the end of the Maldon Promenade Walk, facing the battle site of

Northey Island Northey Island is an island in the estuary of the River Blackwater, Essex. It is linked to the south bank of the river by a causeway, covered for two hours either side of high tide. The island is approximately 1 mile (2 km) to the eas ...

and the Causeway. The battle site itself has a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

plaque recording his 'heroic defeat and death'. As well as the Anglo-Saxon poem, ''

'', J.R.R. Tolkien's short alliterative play, '' The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son'' takes place on the battlefield of Maldon and deals with the search for Byrhtnoth's body. In 2015 Timebomb Comics released 'Defiant! The Legend of Brithnoth', an original graphic novel based on the story of Brithnoth and The Battle of Malden, written by Andy Winter and illustrated by Daniel Bell.

References

External links

*
''Maldon Battle and Campaign''
Report compiled by Glenn Foard, 2003, for The UK Battlefields Resource Centre, Provided b
The Battlefields Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrhtnoth 991 deaths Anglo-Saxons killed in battle Anglo-Saxon ealdormen Anglo-Saxon warriors English heroic legends People from Essex Maldon, Essex