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Birth:          ABT  996 Denmark
Death:          1055 York, Yorkshire, England
Burial:         Galmanho Abbey, York, Yorkshire, England

Notes
came to England with the Danish invaders
Stuart gives bdate as 1020, but that does not fit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siward,_Earl_of_Northumbria
Siward or Sigurd (/'su?w?rd/ or more recently /'si?w?rd/;[1] Old English: Sigeweard)
[2] was an important earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse nickname 
Digri and its Latin translation Grossus ("the stout") are given to him by near-
contemporary texts.[3] Siward was probably of Scandinavian origin, perhaps a relative 
of Earl Ulf, and emerged as a powerful regional strongman in England during the reign 
of Cnut ("Canute the Great", 1016–1035). Cnut was a Scandinavian ruler who 
conquered England in the 1010s, and Siward was one of the many Scandinavians who 
came to England in the aftermath of that conquest. Siward subsequently rose to 
become sub-ruler of most of northern England. From 1033 at the latest Siward was in 
control of southern Northumbria, that is, present-day Yorkshire, governing as earl on 
Cnut's behalf.

He entrenched his position in northern England by marrying Ælfflæd, the daughter of 
Ealdred, Earl of Bamburgh. After killing Ealdred's successor Eadulf in 1041, Siward 
gained control of all Northumbria. He exerted his power in support of Cnut's 
successors, kings Harthacnut and Edward, assisting them with vital military aid and 
counsel. He probably gained control of the middle shires of Northampton and 
Huntingdon by the 1050s, and there is some evidence that he spread Northumbrian 
control into Cumberland. In the early 1050s Earl Siward turned against the Scottish 
ruler Mac Bethad mac Findlaích ("Macbeth"). Despite the death of his son Osbjorn, 
Siward defeated Mac Bethad in battle in 1054. More than half a millennium later the 
Scotland adventure earned him a place in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Siward 
died in 1055, leaving one son, Waltheof, who would eventually succeed to 
Northumbria. St Olave's church in York and nearby Heslington Hill are associated with 
Siward.

Historians generally claim Siward to be of Scandinavian origin, a conclusion supported 
by the Vita Ædwardi Regis, which states that Siward was "[called] Digri in the Danish 
tongue" (Danica lingua Digara).[21] Legendary material incorporated in the Vita et 
passio Waldevi comitis (or simply Vita Waldevi), the hagiographic biography of 
Siward's son Waltheof, states that Siward was the son of a Scandinavian earl named 
Bjorn and provides a genealogy claiming that he was the descendant of a polar bear,
[20] a commonplace piece of Germanic folklore.[22]

Historian Timothy Bolton has recently argued that the similarities between these 
genealogies is evidence of a shared family tradition between the descendants of 
Siward and Thorgil Sprakling. Bolton hypothesized that Siward's alleged father Bjorn 
was probably a historical figure, a brother of Thorgil Sprakling. Siward would then 
have been first cousin to Earl Ulf, the earl of Denmark who married Cnut's sister 
Estrith and founded the dynasty of Danish monarchs that eventually succeeded 
Cnut's.[23] Bolton argued that the Sprakling family had only recently risen to 
prominence in Scandinavia, and so Siward's career in England was another indication 
of that family's success in Scandinavian politics.[24]

The Vita Waldevi provides further legendary detail of Siward's journey from 
Scandinavia to England. According to the Vita, Siward passed through Orkney, killing 
a dragon there before moving on to Northumbria. There he encountered another 
dragon, before meeting an Oðinn-like old man on a hill,[25] who handed him a raven 
banner and instructed him to proceed to London to receive the patronage of the king 
of England.[26]

The 12th-century historian, Henry of Huntingdon, in his Historia Anglorum, relates that 
when Siward was attacked by dysentery, fearing to die "like a cow" and wishing 
rather to die like a soldier, he clothed himself in armour and took to hand an axe and 
shield. Ennobled in such a manner, Siward died.[106] This anecdote is of doubtful 
historicity, and is thought to be derived from the saga devoted to Earl Siward, now 
lost.[107] The Vita Ædwardi Regis states that Siward died at York and was buried in 
"the monastery of St Olaf" at Galmanho, a claim confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle, John of Worcester, and the Historia Regum.[108]

Material incorporated in two surviving sources is thought by some to attest to the 
existence of a lost saga or some other kind of literary tradition concerning Siward's 
life. The first source is the Vita et Passio Waldevi, a hagiographic history of Siward's 
cult-inspiring son Waltheof. This text contains an account of Waltheof's paternal 
origin, and in the process recounts certain adventures of his father Siward (see boxes 
throughout article). The second major witness of the tradition is Henry of Huntingdon's 
Historia Anglorum, which contains extracts of saga-like material relating to Siward's 
invasion of Scotland (1054) and his death (1055).[109] The Anglo-Saxonist Frank 
Stenton declared that Siward was "not a statesman, but a Danish warrior of the 
primitive type".[110] Writers in the half-century after his death remembered Siward as 
a strong ruler who brought peace and suppressed brigandage.[111]

Siward died more than a decade before the death of Edward the Confessor, but 
despite this the Domesday Book recorded 4 manors, 3 in Yorkshire and 1 in 
Derbyshire, owned directly by Earl Siward in 1066, all of them subsequently held by 
Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester.[112] This land was stated to have been worth 
£212, while his son Waltheof was said to have held £136 worth of land across 9 
counties.[113] Domesday records give an incomplete picture of Siward's holdings. In 
total it recorded property worth £348 for Siward and his son, which on its own would 
compare poorly with the £2493 in value recorded to have been held by the family of 
the earls of Mercia.[114] Of the latter, however, Morcar of Mercia, Earl of Northumbria 
on the day of King Edward's death, possessed land worth £968, while Tostig, exiled 
earl at the time, had land worth £491; both may have come into possession of some of 
Siward's land in the course of becoming Earls of Northumbria.[115] Moreover, the 
counties that would become Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland 
were largely omitted from the survey, while, besides being only very poorly 
documented, the lands in Yorkshire had been severely devastated and devalued 
during the Harrying of the North.[116]

Siward is said to have built a church dedicated to St Olaf at Galmanho, York.[108] 
The record of his burial in this church is the only notice of a non-royal lay burial inside 
a church in pre-Norman England.[117] Siward's Howe, i.e., Heslington Hill near York, 
was most likely named after Earl Siward, although probably because Siward held 
popular courts there rather than because it was his burial place.[118]

One of Siward's sons is known to have survived him, Waltheof, whose mother was 
Ælfflæd. Waltheof later rose to be an earl in the East Midlands before becoming Earl 
of Northumbria.[119] When Waltheof rebelled against William the Conqueror, however, 
the act led to his execution and to his subsequent veneration as a saint at Crowland 
Abbey.[120] Waltheof's daughter married David I, King of the Scots, and through this 
connection Siward became one of the many ancestors of the later Scottish and British 
monarchs.[119]

Besides Ælfflæd, Siward is known to have been married to a woman named Godgifu, 
who died before Siward. The marriage is known from a grant she made of territory 
around Stamford, Lincolnshire, to Peterborough Abbey.[43] Although no surviving 
children are attested, and no source states the name of Osbjorn's mother, this 
marriage has nonetheless raised the possibility that Waltheof and Osbjorn were born to 
different mothers, and William Kapelle suggested that Siward may have originally 
intended Osbjorn to inherit his southern territories while Waltheof inherited those 
territories in the north associated with the family of his mother Ælfflæd.[121]

Parents
ULFSSON Bjorn (ABT  975 - ABT 1045)
----- ----- ()

Siblings
BJORNSSON Sigurd (Siward) "Digera" (ABT  996 - 1055)

Marriage To OF NORTHUMBERLAND (OF BERNICIA) Aelfleda (ABT 1000 - )
    m. ABT 1015 

Notes
his first

Parents
OF BERNICEA Ealdred (Aldred) (ABT  985 - 1038)
----- ----- ()

Children by OF NORTHUMBERLAND (OF BERNICIA) Aelfleda ABT 1000 - 
FITZSIWARD Sibyl (ABT 1017 - 1070)
____ Waltheof II (ABT 1035 - 31 May 1076)

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