Aelfric (died 910) was the Ealdorman of Bebbanburg from 866 to 910, succeeding Ealdorman Uhtred of Bebbanburg and preceding Wihtgar of Bebbanburg. He usurped the seal and banner of Bebbanburg from his nephew, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, after the older Uhtred's death in battle at York in 866, and he was loyal to the Danes under Earl Kjartan. However, he was killed by his estranged son in 910.
Biography[]
Aelfric in 866
Aelfric was born in Bebbanburg, Northumbria, the brother of Ealdorman Uhtred of Bebbanburg, whom he served as Steward. In 866, as Viking longships approached Bamburgh Castle, Uhtred sent Aelfric to send word to rouse the country and bring every man inside of the fortress to assist in its defense. When Uhtred decided to leave the castle to join King Aella of Northumbria's army at Eoferwic, Aelfric was entrusted with selecting 30 men to serve as bodyguards to his son Uhtred, Uhtred's heir, leaving Aelfric to care for his nephew as steward. The treacherous Alferic secretly instructed Scallion that, if his brother died in battle, the boy must fall. The younger Uhtred secretly escaped and followed his father to the Siege of York, where the older Uhtred was killed. The younger Uhtred was then taken as a slave by Earl Ragnar, who raised him to become a pagan. Aelfric came to be the de facto ruler of Bebbanburg, and, in 867, he was approached by the exiled Viking Kjartan, who offered Aelfric the ability to buy back his nephew, revealing that Uhtred was still alive. At the ransom meeting with the Vikings, the priest Beocca reunited with the young Uhtred, and, while pretending to inspect his necklace, he quietly warned Uhtred that Aelfric would have him murdered so that he himself could become the new Ealdorman and a King of Northumbria. Ultimately, Ragnar purchased Uhtred, preventing Aelfric from taking him.
Aelfric then sent Scallion to kill Uhtred, allying with Kjartan. Aelfric and Kjartan's men burned down the great hall at Leeds, killing Ragnar, his father Ravn, and his wife, and Uhtred was initially believed to have been among the dead; the only located survivor was Thyra Ragnarsdottir. However, Uhtred stealthily killed Scallion, who was a member of the war party, and Uhtred and his lover Brida rode back to Bebbanburg, where Uhtred threw Scallion's head in front of the castle as Aelfric watched. Aelfric sent men to hunt down and kill both Uhtred and Brida, but they managed to escape his assassins.
In 878, King Guthred sought Aelfric's alliance against Kjartan, asking him to provide 200 spearmen. Aelfric said that his business with the Danes had long been over, and that he would help Guthred in exchange for the head of Uhtred (whom he called "Osbert", refusing to grant him legitimacy by calling him the heir's name of "Uhtred"). However, when Aelfric discovered that Uhtred had instead been sold into slavery instead of beheaded, he felt that he had wasted his time, and he decided to go back to Kjartan. Abbot Eadred Lulisc pressured Guthred to have his sister Gisela Harthacnutsdottir marry Aelfric as a means of bribing him into resuming his loyalty. However, Uhtred ruined this scheme and took Gisela as his own wife, but she later died in childbirth.
Fall from power[]
Aelfric in 910
By 910, Bebbanburg was under constant Scottish attack, as the Scots sought to conquer all of Northumbria from the Anglo-Saxons. Aelfric and his men were gradually whittled down by frequent Scottish raids, and, after a particularly costly raid which left half of his men dead, Aelfric was forced to seek help from outside. Aelfric had no apparent heir, as his son Wihtgar had supposedly been exiled and died in the Southern Sea a year earlier, and, unbeknownst to Aelfric, Uhtred and his allies were plotting a return to Bebbanburg. Aelfric' steward Aidan was unable to hire any mercenaries, and Aidan decided that no amount of silver would win Aelfric reinforcements. However, he suggested that Aelfric give the heart of Saint Oswald to Lord Aethelred's monks in exchange for Mercian assistance, but Aelfric despised Aethelred and saw the heart as a treasure of Bebbanburg and a symbol of his personal piety. He instead told Aidan to round up the farmers' sons and force them to fight in his army. When this did not work, he agreed to sell the heart of Oswald to the Mercians once the monks arrived, and, shortly after, his estranged son Wihtgar arrived with two ships. Aelfric apologized for sending Wihtgar away, but Wihtgar told him that there was no need to apologize, and that he had brought men from every corner of the earth to help his father defend Bebbanburg.
Death[]
Aelfric's death
When the monks arrived with a young traveling companion, Aelfric informed them that he was no longer interested in making a deal with Mercia, and told the monks that, if Aethelred wanted the heart, he would have to fight him sword to sword. However, the traveling companion told Aelfric that he had come from afar to admire the greatest fortress in northern England and asked Aelfric if he would deny him his childhood dream. Flattered, Aelfric let them in, but had them stay in the slave quarters. At night, the young man - Uhtred's son "Young Uhtred" - signalled his father and his band to attack the castle, but he was captured before he could open the gates. The interrogator killed both of the priests while interrogating the boy, and, when Aelfric arrived and asked the young man who he was, he called himself "Uhtred of Bebbanburg". Aelfric told the boy not to mock him, and he ordered that the boy be killed. However, Young Uhtred fought off the interrogator until his father arrived, ambushed Aelfric, and threatened to slit his throat unless his men pledged their allegiance to him and let him be a better ruler. However, Aidan pledged his allegiance to the "true heir" and pointed up at Wihtgar, who was aiming a crossbow at Uhtred. Uhtred told him that he would miss if he fired, and asked him to drop the bow. However, he fired the crossbow at Aelfric, striking him in the right eye and killing him; the entire time, he had sought to kill his father and take Bebbanburg for himself.