__NOTOC__ Ælfric Modercope (; ), sometimes known as Alfric de Modercope in modern English and as Ælfric Wihtgarsson in the

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

system, was an Anglo-Norse

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

from East Anglia. While ''Ælfric'' is an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

name, his nickname ''Modercope'' or ''Modercoppe'' is Norse. This would exemplify the time when there were strong Anglo-Danish links, and three successive Danish kings had held the throne until

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

succeeded in 1042. Ælfric had a strong connection at court, but his role and status are unusual: he was described as a ''comes famoses'' in a document from Bury St Edmunds. Ælfric was the son of Wihtgar and his son was also called Wihtgar. Ælfric was one of the wealthiest of the East Anglian thegns during this period, whose estate can be traced through the lands held by his son, Wihtgar, that were recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086. His wealth and reputation derived from his connections with Emma of Normandy (d. 1052), wife of King Cnut and prior to that, second wife of

Æthelred the Unready Æthelred II (,Different spellings of this king's name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern dialect word . ; ; 966 � ...

(d. 1016). As her ''dapifer'' (steward or seneschal), Ælfric administered the eight-and-a-half hundreds of west Suffolk on her behalf. He also appears to have had family connections in the queen's household, as evidenced by a bequest left to him as 'kinsman' in a will addressed directly to the queen. Ælfric's will is in the archives of Bury St Edmunds. In it he leaves certain lands to religious institutions in Ely and Bury St Edmunds, including in Loddon, a small town in South Norfolk. He is therefore credited as the first person to record the name of Loddon or 'Lodne' in any document, and consequently his figure appears on the town's sign.

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* Anglo-Norse people Anglo-Saxon thegns 11th-century English people {{Denmark-bio-stub

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