NOTE: While this paper contains various historical
facts, these are interspersed with non-sourced opinions and beliefs. Where a specific source led us to posit data beyond
that cited therein, that source is mentioned in the text.
Wulfric had
been born in Flanders c. 922 where his mother, Aelfwynn, had been sent both as a bride for Edulph son of Count Baldwin II
and to remove her from succession to the crown of Mercia. Aelfwynn was the daughter of Athelred and Lady Aethelflaid of Mercia.
We previously suggested that about 933, Aelfwynn was restored to her parent's lands in Mercia and brought her young sons home
with her.
Also living in Mercia,
at Tamworth, was a wealthy nobleman named Wulfsige Maur who had no children save a daughter, Lady Wulfrun. His ancestry
is not known, but based on his residency in Mercia and his extensive holdings of other lands, we suggest he was a base grandson
of Edward the Elder, whose unnamed daughter had briefly been a consort of Harold Fairhair, king of Norway. If raised
at the court at Wessex, such a child (descended from two kings) would have been granted sufficient lands to live a regal lifestyle.
It is only to be
expected that two of Mercia's most prominent residents would be friends, and we think Wulfsige Maur was chosen as godfather
for Aelfwynn's first grandson, the son of her eldest boy Leofric. That child had been christened Wulfsige
in his honor. We further posit that when Lady Wulfrun neared puberty c. 945, Aelfwynn arranged a marriage between Wulfrun
and her own youngest son, Wulfric. We have seen no sources which confirm that marriage, but the eldest son of Lady Wulfrun
was called Wulfric Spot, likely to distinguish him from a same-named father.
In the c. 1002 will of
Wilfric Spot, we find him holding various manors which had earlier been granted to Wulfsige Maur....having descended through
Lady Wulfrun. A 995 land grant clearly identifies Wulfric Spot as a son of Lady Wulfrun.
While he devised the majority
of his holdings to endow Burton Abbey. Wulfric Spot also gave lands to men named Aelfhelm, Wulfheah and Ufegeat. Historians
claim this particular Aelfhelm was a brother of Wulfric Spot, and that Wulfheah and Ufegeat were sons of Aelfhelm. Nothing
in the translation of that will, which is now extant, identified what relationship those men had to Wulfric Spot. But
since his gifts to them comprise paragraph 2 of his will, while provisions made for a lady he calls his daughter then follows
in paragraph 3. one might suppose those three men were his sons.
It is know that Wulfric
Spot DID have a brother named Aelfhelm, and he names him later in the will to be a "protector, friend and advocate for the
monastery which I built and of the estates which I bequeathed to it". The Saxon Chronicle entry for 1006 tells us that
men named Wulfheah and Ufegeat were blinded, a common way of removing men from actual or potential power. We assume
these were the same men found in the will of Wulfric Spot; if they were his sons or nephews, they might have been Thanes in
1006.
Perhaps the main
reason historians think they were sons of his brother, Aelfhelm, is that the same 1006 entry in the Chronicle, immediately
following the report of the blinding, continues "and Earl Aelfhelm was killed". Historians, therefore, identify that
Earl as the brother of Wulfric Spot. From other sources, we learn that Earl Aelfhelm was made Earl of Northumbria in
994 at the death of Earl Thored. We believe this Aelfhelm was a son of Earl Thored, born c. 968, not the brother of
Wulfric Spot born c. 950. Wulfric Spot, the wealthy older son of Lady Wulfrun, only appears in charters as
a Thane; why should we believe his younger (and much less wealthy) brother would be an Earl?
The chronicles of Florence of
Worcester tell us that Earl Aelfhelm was killed by Eadric Streona while the blinding of Wulfheah and Ufegeat was "at the king's
command". There is no good reason for linking the two events aside from the fact they both occurred in 1006.
In a later paragraph in the
will of Wulfric Spot, he gave one manor to an Aelfhelm who he described only as "my kinsman"", saying it was the same estate
given him by Scegth. One might assume Scegth had been his wife and he wanted to give her lands back to someone in her
family, perhaps her brother.
His provision for his daughter,
whom he did not name, included two manors for her use and benefit but only for her lifetime. She would have no
right to sell or forfeit them for any reason since they were to be handed over to Burton Abbey at her death. He
called her his "poor daughter" and appointed Aelfhelm to protect her and her lands, but did not say whether this man was his
brother or, perhaps, his own eldest son. One assumes the lady was both sickly and unmarried and not someone mentally
competent to handle her own financial affairs. She had likely lived her entire life in the manor in which she was born,
and was then perhaps 30 years old.
It is known from
other sources that Wulfric Spot also had a sister named Aelfthryth, a lady who had died prior to his making the will.
The fourth paragraph of the will gives 11 separate manors to a man named Morcar, and an additional manor to Morcar's wife
who he later calls Ealdgyth. Most historians think Ealdgyth was his sister's daughter thus a niece of Wulfric Spot,
and Morcar the man she married. One should think that if it were Ealdgyth who was related by blood to Wulfric, the bequests
would have been made mostly to her and not some unrelated man she married. I would suggest this Morcar was the son of
Wulfric's sister and can think of one more reason for believing that.
Near the end of his will, Wulfric
Spot made bequests to his god-daughter, the daughter of Morcar and Ealdgyth. To this young lady, he bequeathed one manor
and "the brooch which was her grandmother's". If it were Ealdgyth who was the child of his sister, why would that family heirloom
not have been given to her when her mother died? Clearly Wulfric wanted it to stay in the family; it probably had belonged
originally to Lady Wulfrun, and was not a suitable item to bequeath to a male so long as any eligible females were in the
family. This young lady was not called by name in the will, but she would have been under age 20 when Wulfric Spot wrote
his will.
For whatever reason, most
historians identify the Morcar in the will as the son of Arngrim who was killed in 1015. We reject that identification
on chronological grounds since the sons of Arngrim were born in the period 990x995. The will Morcar must have been born
nearer 960x970 whether or not he was the blood nephew of Wulfric Spot.
SUMMARY OF THIS FAMILY:
Wulfsige Maur was born c. 905
and had a daughter, Lady Wulfrun, about 930. She married Wulfric, younger son of Lady Aelfwynn, he born c. 922.
Their children were Wufric Spot, born c. 945, a daughter Aelfthryth born c. 948, and a son Aelfhelm born c. 950.
The possible children of each of those siblings are discussed above; their exact relationship to Wulfric Spot (save
a single daughter) is unclear, but they would all date to the period 965x980.
