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Eadric the Wild

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Eadricthe Wild(orEadricSilvaticus), also known asWild Edric,[1]EadricCild(orChild[2]) andEdricthe Forester,[3]was an Anglo-Saxon magnate ofShropshireandHerefordshirewho led English resistance to theNorman Conquest,active in 1068–70.

Background[edit]

The early 12th-century historianJohn of Worcesterwrites that Eadric the Wild was a son of one Ælfric, whom he identifies as a brother ofEadric Streona,ealdormanofMerciaunder KingÆthelred the Unready.[4]While five of Eadric Streona's brothers appear to attest witness-lists of King Æthelred's charters, no Ælfric makes a plausible candidate for identification with a brother of the ealdorman.[4]It is possible that Ælfric was not a brother but a nephew of the ealdorman.[5]If so, Eadric (the Wild) would belong to the same generation as his cousin Siward son of Æthelgar, who was himself a grandson of Eadric Streona.[5]

Because Eadric's name is a common one in pre-Conquest England, identification with any of the landholders of this name listed inDomesday Bookremains a ticklish affair.[5]Nevertheless, it would seem that he held land extensively in Shropshire and also held roughly 12 hides in Herefordshire.[5]He is probably the Eadric son of Ælfric who held two estates fromMuch WenlockPriory(Shropshire).[5][6]Eadric and his cousin Siward ranked as the wealthiestthegnsin Shropshire.[4]

Resistance to Norman rule[edit]

Accounts of Eadric's act of rebellion in Herefordshire in 1067 are included in Manuscript D theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,John of Worcester'sChronicleandOrderic Vitalis.[7]

After the Conquest of England byWilliam of Normandy,Eadric refused to submit and therefore came under attack fromNormanforces based atHereford Castle,underRichard fitz Scrob.

He raised a rebellion and, allying himself with the Welsh prince ofGwyneddandPowys,Bleddyn ap Cynfyn,and his brotherRhiwallon ap Cynfyn,he unsuccessfully attacked the NormanHereford Castlein 1067. They did not take the county, and retreated to Wales to plan further raiding.[8]

During the widespread wave of English rebellions in 1069–70, he burned the town ofShrewsburyand unsuccessfully besiegedShrewsbury Castle,again helped by his Welsh allies from Gwynedd, as well as other English rebels fromCheshire.

It was probably this combination of forces which was decisively defeated by William in a battle atStaffordin late 1069. Eadric apparently submitted to King William in 1070 and later participated in William's invasion of Scotland in 1072.[9]Another account states that he was captured byRanulph de Mortimer"after long struggles and handed over to the king for life imprisonment, some of his lands afterwards descending to the abbey"[citation needed]ofWigmore.

He campaigned inMainefor King William in 1072 and according to the Mortimer genealogy heldWigmore CastleagainstRanulph de Mortimerduring the rebellion of 1075.

Post-rebellion[edit]

Domesday Bookmentions 'Edric salvage' as the former tenant of sixmanorsinShropshireand one inHerefordshire.He may have held others but there is a profusion of Eadrics in Domesday, rendering closer identification difficult if not impossible.R. W. Eytoncommented that 'a genealogical enthusiast would have little hesitation in assuming as a conclusion 'the possibility that William le Savage, who held Eudon Savage,Neen Savageand Walton Savage ofRanulph de Mortimerin the twelfth century, could have been a descendant of Eadric'. Eadric's cousin Ealdraed inherited his land atActon Scott,which was later held by William Leyngleys ('the Englishman, "died 1203), likely to have been Ealdraed's descendant.[10]The property is still in the hands of Leyngleys' descendants, the Actons, having passed down through the generations without ever being sold.[11]

Walter Map,in hisDe nugis curialium,recounts a legend where Edric and a hunting companion come across a house ofsuccubiin the woods, one of whom Edric marries and bears him a son, Alnodus or Ælfnoth. Walter cites Alnodus as a rare example of a happy and successful offspring from a human-succubus relationship.[12]

Eadric's byname[edit]

In theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle(MS D), Eadric is nicknamedCild(literally "child" ), which may signify a title of rank.[7]He was also known as "the Wild", as witnessed by such bynames asse wild,salvageand in Latin,silvaticus.[7]According to Susan Reynolds:

Historians have generally treated Eadric'ssurnameas anickname.. A... likely explanation is that Eadric was one of a group of people well known in their own day as 'silvatici'.Orderic Vitalissays in his description of the English risings of c.1068-9 that many of the rebels lived in tents, distaining to sleep in houses lest they should become soft, so that certain of them were calledsilvaticiby the Normans.... he is not the onlychroniclerto make it clear that the English resistance was very widespread or to describe the rebels as taking to the woods and marshes. TheAbingdonchronicle says that many plots were hatched by the English and that some hid in woods and some in islands, plundering and attacking those who came in their way, while others called in theDanes,and that men of different ranks took part in these attempts... That they should have made their bases in wild country and, like the twentieth-centurymaquis,have been named for it, is perfectly credible.

Reynolds further notes that:

If it is true, however, that thesilvaticiwere for some years a widespread and well-known phenomenon, that might help to explain aspects of later outlaw stories that have puzzled historians. Few outlaws in other countries have apparently left so powerful a legend asRobin Hood....The most famous outlaws of the greenwood before him were probably the Old English nobility on their way down and out.

Legacy[edit]

In later folklore Eadric is mentioned in connection with theWild Hunt,and in the tale ofWild Eadric.[13]

Various branches of theWeld familyof England traditionally claim descent from Eadric, including the Welds of the United States and the extinct line ofWeld-Blundells.[14]

Eadric was portrayed by Robert O'Mahoney in the TV dramaBlood Royal: William the Conqueror(1990).

In 2005, the English rose hybridistsDavid Austin Rosesintroduced Rosa Wild Edric <ref> See[3]

See also[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^"Wild Edric".Shropshire History.Archived fromthe originalon 8 January 2020.Retrieved13 January2022.
  2. ^Freeman, Edward Augustus (1867).The History of the Norman Conquest in England.Vol. 4. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp.64.
  3. ^Hume, David.History of England.Vol. 1. Boston: Aldine Book Publishing. pp.182.
  4. ^abcWilliams,The English and Norman Conquest,pp. 91-2.
  5. ^abcdeWilliams,The English and Norman Conquest,p. 92.
  6. ^Williams, "Eadric the Wild (fl.1067–1072). "
  7. ^abcWilliams,The English and Norman Conquest,pp. 14-5.
  8. ^Douglas, D. C.,William the Conqueror,1964: Eyre Methuen, London
  9. ^[1],(date accessed: 15 December 2006).
  10. ^"Acton Scott | British History Online".
  11. ^"Parish History: Acton Scott".Archived fromthe originalon 27 June 2011.Retrieved13 December2009.
  12. ^Map, Walter (1924).Master Walter Map's Book, De Nugis Curialium (Courtier's Trifles).Macmillan.
  13. ^See[2].Katherine Briggs,The Fairies in Tradition and Literature(p. 6 and 60 in 2002 edition) givesWalter Mapas originator of the tale of Edric and his fairy wife, surviving as a tradition in the nineteenth century in Shropshire and the Welsh borders.
  14. ^Obituary: William Weld,The Times,15 Jan 2016

Sources[edit]

  • Burke's Landed Gentry
  • Douglas, D.C. (1964).William the Conqueror.London: Eyre Methuen.
  • Eyton, R.W. (1854–60).Antiquities of Shropshire.Vol. 11 of 12. pp. 111, p.r8-50, iv. 194.
  • Remfry, P.M. (1997).Richards Castle 1048 to 1219.SCS Publishing. pp. 1–2.
  • Reynolds, Susan (1981). "Eadricsilvaticusand the English resistance ".Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research.54(129): 102–5.doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1981.tb02042.x.
  • Williams, Ann (1995).The English and the Norman Conquest.Woodbridge: Boydell.
  • Williams, Ann (2004)."Eadric the Wild (fl.1067–1072) "(fee required).Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8512.Accessed 25 June 2009

External links[edit]

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