Eadwulf III of Bamburgh or Eadwulf Cudel or Cutel (meaning
cuttlefish
Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of ...
) (died early 1020s) was ruler of
Bamburgh for some period in the early eleventh century. Following the successful takeover of York by the Vikings in 866/7, southern
Northumbria became part of the
Danelaw, but in the north English rulers held on from a base at Bamburgh. They were variously described as kings, earls, princes or high-reeves, and their independence from the kings of England and Scotland is uncertain.
Uhtred the Bold and Eadwulf Cudel were sons of
Waltheof, ruler of
Bamburgh, who died in 1006. He was succeeded by Uhtred, who was appointed by
Æthelred the Unready as earl in York, with responsibility for the whole of Northumbria. Uhtred was murdered in 1016, and king
Cnut then appointed
Erik, son of Hakon, earl at York, while Eadwulf succeeded at Bamburgh.
In 1018, the Northumbrians of Bamburgh were defeated by
Malcolm II of Scotland in the
Battle of Carham. In one twelfth-century Durham source, ''De obsessione Dunelmi'', Ealdulf is described as "a very lazy and cowardly man", who ceded
Lothian
Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...
, the northern part of Bernicia, to the Scots—though the historicity of this claim is disputed, one of several twelfth-century English accounts that try to explain the 'loss' of Lothian to Scotland. Another twelfth-century tradition relates that Lothian had been under Scottish control since the time that
King Edgar ceded it to
Kenneth II of Scotland in the early 970s. Recently, it has been argued that Lothian remained part of the principality of Bamburgh until its dissolution around 1090, during the reign of
Malcolm III.
Eadwulf does not appear in any contemporary source, though it may deduced that he died sometime in the 1020s, and that he was succeeded by Uhtred's son,
Ealdred Ealdred may refer to:
* Ealdred of Hwicce, 8th-century king of Hwicce
* Ealdred I of Bamburgh, 10th-century ruler of Bamburgh
* Ealdred (archbishop of York), 11th-century English ecclesiastic
* Ealdred II of Bamburgh, 11th-century ruler of Bambur ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eadwulf Cudel of Bernicia
1020s deaths
Anglo-Saxon warriors
Rulers of Bamburgh
Year of birth unknown