Ulfcytel

Ulfcytel (died 1016) was an early eleventh-century East Anglian military leader. He commanded local English forces in a battle in 1004 against Danish Viking invaders led by Sweyn Forkbeard, and although he lost the Danes said that "they never met worse fighting in England than Ulfcytel dealt to them. He also led East Anglian forces, again to defeat, in the Battle of Ringmere in 1010, and died in 1016 in the Battle of Assandun. Scandinavian sources give him the byname "snilling", meaning bold, and called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after him.

Background

England suffered from the threat of foreign invasion from the early ninth century to the 950s, but there was then a generation of peace. Danish Viking attacks resumed early in the reign of Æthelred the Unready, with small-scale raids in the 980s. In 991, a Danish fleet began a sustained campaign on the south-east coast of England. The Vikings occupied Northey Island, in the estuary of the River Blackwater, and Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, brought an army to challenge the invaders. The result was a defeat for the English at the Battle of Maldon and the death of Byrhtnoth. He was the second most senior ealdorman (the highest rank of the aristocracy after the king), and the historian Levi Roach comments that his defeat and death "sent shockwaves throughout the realm". The king and his councillors decided to give a tribute to the Danes of 10,000 pounds to leave England, but they soon returned, and further invasions and payments of tribute followed in the 990s. In 1000 the Viking fleet left for Normandy, but it returned the following year and ravaged southern England. In 1002 the Vikings were paid a tribute of 24,000 pounds, and the next year a Danish army under Sweyn Forkbeard, who was to be briefly king of England in 1013-1014, was active in the south-west.

Name and status

Ulfcytel is first recorded as a signatory to royal charters in 1002. By 1004 he was the dominant figure in East Anglia, and he held this status until his death in 1016, but his origin and background are unknown. Ulfcytel carried out the functions of an ealdorman, the second rank of Anglo-Saxon nobility after the king, but he attested charters as a minister, the Latin for thegn, the third rank. Ealdormen were local rulers acting in the king's name and on his behalf, and leading men in battle. The historians Levi Roach and Lucy Marten describe him as the de facto ealdorman of East Anglia. and Anglo-Norman historians described him as an earl, which replaced the term ealdorman shortly after Ulfcytel's death. Æthelred often left ealdormanries vacant for long periods and relied on reeves and high-reeves to carry out their duties. These officers could cover the duties of ealdormen, and Roach suggests that Ulfcytel may have been a reeve or high-reeve. The historian Ryan Lavelle comments that Æthelred may have kept the East Anglian ealdormanry vacant because the previous holder of the position, Æthelwine, had been troublesome. The etymology of Ulfcytel's name is Scandinavian, and Marten suggests that he may have been a Danish Viking in English service, which could explain his anomalous status.

Military career

Ulfcytel is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1004 as the military leader of the East Anglians. The Chronicle states that Sweyn brought his fleet to Norwich and destroyed the town. Ulfcytel and the councillors of the East Anglians decided that as he had not had time to gather his army it would be best to buy off the Danes. A truce was agreed, but the Danes broke it and headed from their ships to Thetford. Ulfcytel ordered the ships to be destroyed, but those charged with the task failed to carry it out. The Danes ravaged Thetford and on their way back to their ships they were met by Ulfcytel and a hastily assembled army. Many fell on both sides, but the Danish army got back to their ships. According to the Chronicle, the Danes would not have escaped if the East Anglians had been able to assemble their whole army, and the Danes said that "they never met worse fighting in England than Ulfcytel dealt to them". The military historian Richard Abels comments: "The Danes gained a pyrrhic victory; badly mauled, they withdrew to their ships." Abels sees the ability of Ulfcytel to operate act independently without seeking the consent of the king as an example of the viceregal powers of great local magnates under Æthelred. Payment of tribute to the Vikings was common and severely criticised in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; the portrayal of Ulfcytel's decision as sensible is an exception, and in the view of the historian Ann Williams it is an example of the Chronicle's partiality.

A Danish Viking army led by Thorkell the Tall over-wintered in 1009/10 in Kent and Essex. After Easter it went to East Anglia, and heard that Ulfcytel was camped with an army of men of East Anglia and Cambridgeshire at Ringmere in East Wretham, five miles north-east of Thetford. The Danes came to challenge Ulfcytel's army and the Battle of Ringmere was fought on 5 May. The East Anglians fled at the start of the battle, but the men of Cambridgeshire stood firm. The Anglo-Saxons suffered a heavy defeat and lost many of their leaders; the Danes then ravaged East Anglia and burnt down Thetford and Cambridge. Williams sees the invasion in 1010 as a "grudge attack", revenge for the mauling the Danes had suffered in 1004.

Æthelred died in April 1016 and was succeeded by his son Edmund Ironside, who contested the throne with Sweyn's son Cnut in a series of battles over the following months. Ulfcytel is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in its account of the battles of 1016, apart from his death, but Skaldic poems present him as one of the leaders of Anglo-Saxon forces in the last stage of English resistance, and the Liðsmannaflokkr praises his role. He is described as having been wounded while leading the English in a battle west of London, perhaps when Edmund was in Wessex, and may have led the successful subsequent resistance to a Danish siege of London. The historian Russell Poole states that in the Liðsmannaflokkr, "Æthelred and his son Edmund are completely ignored in favour of Ulfcytel: an awareness that from the outset he was the Vikings' staunchest and ablest opponent may be implied".

Ulfcytel was one of several English leaders who was killed in the English defeat at the Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016. Cnut and Edmund then agreed to divide the kingdom, but Cnut became king of the whole realm following Edmund's death shortly afterwards. According to the Supplement to the Jómsvíkinga saga, preserved in the late fourteenth-century Flateyjarbók, Thorkell the Tall killed Ulfcytel in revenge for the death of his brother. Abels comments that it is impossible to know whether this is true.

Civilian life

Charter S 922 dated 1009 with the attestation of Ulfcytel sixth down in the fourth column

Williams writes that "as well as being a great warrior, Ulfcytel was a pious man and a benefactor of Bury St Edmunds". In an undated charter, he granted estates at Rickinghall, Rougham, Woolpit, Hinderclay and Redgrave, all in Suffolk, to the abbey. He is probably the Ulfcytel who was a previous owner of a silver-hilted sword which Æthelred's eldest son, Æthelstan, bequeathed to his father in his will in 1014. Ulfcytel attested charters as a thegn between 1002 and 1016, and from 1013 he was listed as the first in that rank.

According to the fourteenth-century Supplement to the Jómsvíkinga Saga, his wife was Wulfhild, a daughter of King Æthelred, and she married Thorkell the Tall after he killed Ulfcytel. Historians regard this late source as unreliable and most think that it is unlikely that Ulfcytel married a daughter of Æthelred, but some think that the claim is plausible.

Reputation

Ulfcytel has a high reputation both in contemporary sources and among modern historians. The twelfth-century historian William of Malmesbury singles him out as the only leader who resisted the invaders with such energy that, even though they were nominally victorious in 1004, they suffered greater losses than the English. Marten comments:

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle annals for the reign of Æthelred, references to East Anglia are linked with the heroic exploits of its military commander, Ulfcytel. Ulfcytel is an interesting character, not least because we read as much about him in Scandinavian skaldic verse as we do in English sources...Ulfcytel earned an enviable reputation as a warrior throughout the Scandinavian world.

In Abels's view: "Although Ulfcytel was on the losing side of all three battles he fought against the Danes, his tenacity and fierce courage won him the respect of his enemies and the admiration of the author of this section of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." The contemporary Scandinavian court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after Ulfcytel, and he gave him the byname snilling, meaning valiant or bold.

Sources

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External links

• Ulfcytel 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England