William Walcher

William Walcher (also simply Walcher, Walchere and Walker ; † May 14, 1080 in Gateshead ) was Bishop of Durham from 1071; he came from Lower Lorraine and was the first non-English holder of this bishopric. He was appointed by William the Conqueror after the sack of the north . He was murdered in 1080, which prompted Wilhelm to send an army to the north again and haunt the region a second time.

Career

Walcher was a priest from Liege in Lower Lorraine, and a secular clerk. He was invited by William I of England to fill the post of Bishop of Durham, ordained bishop in 1071, and probably put on the throne on April 3, 1071. During the first part of his tenure as bishop he was friends with Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria , so that Waltheof sat with the clergy when Walcher held synods. After Waltheof rebelled and lost his earldom, Walcher was allowed to buy the earldom. Walcher planned to include monks in his cathedral chapter and was referred to as someone who encouraged monasticism in his diocese. In particular, he was known as the patron saint of Reinfried and Aldwine, who tried to restore Whitby Abbey . Eventually the group settled in Durham under Walcher's successor, William of St Calais . The chronicler Symeon of Durham stated that Walcher had begun construction of monastic buildings in Durham in order to settle monks in Durham.

One of Walcher's advisers was Ligulf von Lumley, who by birth was connected to the old northumbrian count family and married to the daughter of Ealdred, Earl of Bernicia . Ligulf's presence on the council of bishops established a connection with the local aristocracy. In 1079 there was a Scottish invasion that Walcher couldn't or wouldn't deal with effectively. The Scots under King Malcolm III. were able to pillage Northumberland without resistance for about three weeks before returning to Scotland with slaves and booty. Ligulf was very critical of Walcher's behavior. A feud broke out between Ligulf and two of Walcher's henchmen, his chaplain Leobwin and his relative Gilbert. Gilbert attacked Ligulf's mansion in the middle of the night, killing Ligulf and most of his household.

The Northumbrians were enraged at the murder of one of their leaders, and there was a real threat of rebellion. To calm the situation, Walcher agreed to meet Ligulf's relatives at Gateshead . He traveled with at least one hundred followers for security reasons. In Gateshead, he met the relative's leader, Eadulf Rus, and was presented with a petition on the injustice committed. Walcher refused the petition and the angry Northumbrians attacked the Normans. Walcher and his men took refuge in a nearby church, but the Northumbrians set them on fire. Leobwin died in the flames, and when Walcher, Gilbert, and the rest of his group were driven away by the fire, they were killed in Gateshead on May 14, 1080.

character

Walcher was a pious man but an incompetent leader. According to Symeon of Durham, the knights from Walcher's surroundings were allowed to plunder and kill the residents without penalty. He was considered an educated bishop, Symeon of Durham portrayed him as an honest, sincere man who diligently performed his episcopal duties.

Walcher's successor as Earl of Northumbria was Aubri de Coucy . William of St Calais became a bishop.

Consequences of his murder

Following the assassination of Walcher, the rebels attacked Walcher's castle in Durham and besieged it for four days before returning to their homes. The result of their rebellion and the assassination of Williams' appointed bishop led King William I to send his half-brother Odo of Bayeux with an army to sack Northumbria. Many native nobles were exiled and the power of the Anglo-Saxon nobility in Northumbria was broken.

literature

• Frank Barlow (1979), The English Church 1066-1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church , New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-50236-5 .
• Frank Barlow (1988), The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 , 4th Edition, New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49504-0 .
• David C. Douglas (1964), William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. OCLC 399137.
• Edmund B. Fryde, Diane E. Greenway, Stephen Porter, Ian Roy (1996). Handbook of British Chronology , 3rd revised edition, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X .
• Diana E. Greenway (1971). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Durham: Bishops , Institute of Historical Research ( online, accessed October 25, 2007 )
• William Hunt , Walcher , Dictionary of National Biography , 1885–1890, Volume 59 ( wikisource )
• William E. Chapel (1979). The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and Its Transformation , Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1371-0 .
• Henrietta Leyser (2004), Walcher, earl of Northumbria (d.1080) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (January 2011), revised edition, Oxford University Press.
• Enoch Powell , Keith Wallis (1968), The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540 , London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, OCLC 463626.
• John Sadler (1988), Battle for Northumbria , Morpeth, UK: Bridge Studios. ISBN 0-9512630-3-X .
• MG Snape (1980), Documentary Evidence for the Building of Durham Cathedral and its Monastic Buildings: Medieval Art and Architecture at Durham Cathedral , British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions for the year 1977. Leeds, UK: British Archaeological Association. Pp. 20-36. OCLC 13464190.
• Pauline Stafford (1989), Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries , London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-6532-4 .
• Ann Williams (2000), The English and the Norman Conquest , Ipswich, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-708-4 .

Remarks

1. ↑ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 241
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Williams, p. 66
3. ↑ ^{a b} Greenway
4. ^ Barlow English Church, p. 152
5. ^ Douglas, p. 240
6. ↑ ^{a b} Barlow English Church p. 62
7. ^ Douglas, p. 328
8. ^ Snape, p. 22
9. ↑ ^{a b} Sadler, p. 51
10. ↑ Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England p. 94
11. ↑ ^{a b} Chapel, p. 139
12. ^ Stafford, p. 123
13. ^ Douglas, p. 327
14. ↑ Chapel, p. 138
15. ↑ Chapel. P. 137
16. ↑ Powell and Wallis, p. 32
17. ↑ Powell and Wallis, p. 36
18. ↑ Chapel, p. 141

predecessor	Office	successor
Ethelwin	Bishop of Durham 1071-1080	William of St Calais
Waltheof II.	Earl of Northumbria 1075-1080	Aubri de Coucy