House of Mercia · England

Morcar

Earl of Northumbria. 1040 to Not recorded.

What is known, and how well

Fact	Value	Certainty
Birth	1040	Year
Death	Not recorded	Not recorded
Parents	Not recorded
House	House of Mercia
Realm	England
How sure we are	Not rated	Of this record as a whole

Events

5 October 1065
Northumbria rejects Tostig
A northern revolt forces the crown to choose between a brother and a realm.
With Tostig, Harold, Morcar
6 January 1066
Harold is crowned
Harold takes the crown with the support of the English nobility.
With Harold, Eadwine, Morcar
20 March 1066
Tostig seeks a return
Tostig's exile hardens into a political grievance.
With Tostig, Harold, Morcar
20 September 1066
Harald lands in the north
A second claimant opens a northern front.
With Harald, Tostig, Morcar
25 October 1066
London chooses Edgar
With Harold dead, Archbishop Ealdred and the citizens of London name the boy of the old house as king.
With Edgar, Ealdred, Eadwine, Morcar, Stigand
10 December 1066
Edgar submits at Berkhamsted
William crosses the Thames at Wallingford and the English leaders come out to meet him.
With William, Edgar, Stigand, Ealdred, Eadwine, Morcar
15 June 1068
Edwin and Morcar rise in the Midlands
The brothers leave court after the promised marriage to William’s daughter fails to happen.
With Eadwine, Morcar, William
1 October 1071
The Isle of Ely falls
Hereward and Morcar are the last to hold out; Morcar surrenders and Hereward escapes.
With Hereward, Morcar, Eadwine, William

What is uncertain

Death is not recorded.
Parentage is not recorded here.

Sources

Where this is recorded

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Avalon Project)
Vita Ædwardi Regis, in Lives of Edward the Confessor, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 1858
The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, trans. Thomas Forester
The Bayeux Tapestry (Bayeux Museum)
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, trans. Samuel Laing
William of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi, ed. R. H. C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, 1998
Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, trans. Thomas Forester

Named in the record

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Reference works

Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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