Eadwulf I[1] (died 913) wasruler of Bamburgh in the early tenth century. A genealogy in the twelfth-century textDe Northumbria post Britannos recording the ancestry ofWaltheof Earl of Northampton (and, briefly, Northumbria), makes Eadwulf the son of Æthelthryth daughter ofÆlla, King of Northumbria, but no source names Eadwulf's own father.[2]
One of the few things that can be said with reasonable certainty of Eadwulf is that he died in 913 in Northumbria, an event recorded by the chronicle ofÆthelweard and by theIrishAnnals of Ulster andAnnals of Clonmacnoise. The Irish sources call him "king of the Northern English" while Æthelweard says Eadwulf "ruled asactor [possibly 'reeve'] of the town calledBamburgh". TheHistoria de Sancto Cuthberto states that Eadwulf had been a favourite (dilectus) of KingAlfred the Great.
Historians have traditionally followed Æthelweard and portrayed Eadwulf as ruler of only the northern part of Northumbria, perhaps corresponding to the former kingdom ofBernicia, withScandinavian orNorse-Gael kings ruling the southern part, the former kingdom ofDeira, an area broadly similar toYorkshire. Some historians have questioned this. For example, Benjamin Hudson writes that Eadwulf "might have ruled just the northern part of Northumbria, the old Kingdom of Bernicia, although it is not impossible that he ruled all of Northumbria".[3]
Eadwulf's period in office is uncertain but may have been long.Clare Downham notes that the death of Eadwulf "is so widely reported in 913 that it seems hard to envisage that his fame derived from a three-year reign".[4] Some interpretations make Eadwulf ruler in Bernicia afterEcgberht II, that is to say from the 870s approximately.David Rollason described Eadwulf as an earl who flourished between about 890 and 912, and ruled an area north of theRiver Tyne and extending into what is now southern Scotland from the old Northumbrian royal centre at Bamburgh.[5] According toBenjamin Hudson, in 913 Eadred son of Rixinc invaded Eadwulf's territory and killed him, then seized his wife and went to the sanctuary of the lands of St Cuthbert south of the River Tyne.[6]
TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to sons of Eadwulf and two sons are recorded:Ealdred (died after 927) and Uhtred (perhapsUhtred); both may have ruled some part of Northumbria. Another two sons are attested elsewhere:Adulf (which McGuigan suggests represents ′Æthelwulf′) is the ′King of the Northern Saxons′ whose obit was recorded in theAnnals of Clonmacnoise for a year representing 934; another, Oswulf, is named in a genealogy reproduced byDe Northumbria post Britannos (this is probably the later 'high reeve'Oswulf, fl. 934–954).[7]
Although the name of his wife (or wives) is not known, Eadwulf is identified as the father of four sons:
^See Ian W. Walker,Lords of Alba: The Making of Scotland (Sutton Publishing, 2006), Table 6, for his numbering as a ruler of Bamburgh. If treated as a ruler of all Northumbria, he may be numbered Eadwulf II, as in John Morby, ed.,Dynasties of the World, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2014), s.v."Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms".
Downham, Clare (2007),Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Edinburgh: Dunedin,ISBN978-1-903765-89-0
Hall, Richard (2001), "A kingdom too far: York in the early tenth century", in Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.),Edward the Elder 899–924, London: Routledge, pp. 188–199,ISBN0-415-21497-1
^Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". InLapidge, Michael (ed.).The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.ISBN978-0-470-65632-7.
^Kirby, D. P.The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge.ISBN978-0-4152-4211-0.
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