Wigmund of Cambridgeshire (died 873), also known as Lord Wigmund of Walden, was a Mercian ealdorman who ruled over Cambridgeshire during the late 9th century AD. He led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Danish rulers of Grantebru (Cambridge) in 873 AD, resulting in his death.
Biography[]
Wigmund was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England to a noble Anglian family, and he came to be the proud Ealdorman of Cambridgeshire. During the Great Heathen Army's invasion of England in the late 9th century AD, Wigmund was deposed by the invading Vikings, and Jarl Guthrum's wife Jarlskona Soma became the new ruler of the city. Wigmund, who was affiliated with the fanatical Order of the Ancients, rallied the Anglo-Saxon peasantry in revolt against Soma (with the help of Father Cuthbert), seizing back control of the city in a revolt in 873 AD. Soma's army was scattered throughout the fenlands to the west of the city, but she rallied her forces with the aid of the Norwegian Viking Eivor. With Eivor's help, Soma retook the city by storm, although Wigmund was able to escape through a secret tunnel as his lieutenant Burchard Chaplin held off the Vikings. Soma then dispatched her lieutenants to stamp out the remnants of Wigmund's power across the shire. After eliminating Wigmund's other strongholds and executing the traitor in her ranks, Galinn, Soma proceeded to order an all-out assault on Wigmund's final stronghold, the Isle of Ely. In the ensuing battle, Wigmund holed up in the monastery, where he was cut down by a Viking warrior and then stabbed in the stomach by Eivor's hidden blade. Eivor then collected his first Order of the Ancients seal from Wigmund's body.
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