WALTHEOF (d. Io76)  , earl of Northumbria, was a son of Earl Siward of Northumbria, and, although he was probably educated for a monastic life, became earl of Huntingdon and Northampton about Io65 . After the battle of Hastings he submitted to William the Conqueror; but when the Danes invaded the north of England in 1069 he joined them and took part in the attack on York, only, however, to make a fresh submission after their departure in 1070 . Then, restored to his earldom, he married William's niece, Judith, and in 1072 was appointed earl of Northumbria . In 1075 Waltheof joined the conspiracy against the king arranged by the earls of Norfolk and Hereford; but soon repenting of his action he confessed his guilt to Archbishop Lanfranc, and then to William, who was in Normandy . Re-turning to England with William he was arrested, and after being brought twice before the king's court was sentenced to death . On the 31st of May Io76 he was beheaded on St Giles's Hill, near Winchester . Weak and unreliable in character, Waltheof, like his father, is said to have been a man of immense bodily strength . Devout and charitable, he was regarded by the English as a martyr, and miracles were said to have been worked at his tomb at Crowland . The earl left three daughters, the eldest of whom, Matilda, brought the earldom of Huntingdon to her second husband, David I., king of Scotland . One of Waltheof's grandsons was Waltheof (d . 1159), abbot of Melrose . See E .

A .

Freeman, The Norman Conquest, vols. ii., iii. and iv . (z 87o-1876) .