Aubrey de Coucy

Aubrey de Coucy was the earl of Northumbria from 1080 until about 1086. In 1080, William Walcher, bishop of Durham and earl of Northumbria, was murdered during a feud between his household knights and the old Northumbrian aristocracy. William the Conqueror then gave the earldom to Aubrey, a Norman baron from Coucy[1] with large possessions in the midlands.[2].

However, de Coucy soon resigned, probably shortly after a threat of Danish invasion in 1085. He is listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book, but the notices suggest that he had recently forfeited his English possessions.[3] According to the chronicler Symeon of Durham, de Coucy, "being of very little use in difficult affairs, returned to his country".[4] Robert de Mowbray was then given the earldom.

References

  1. ^ Judith A. Green (2002), The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge University Press, p. 42.
  2. ^ Frank Stenton (1971) Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition. Oxford University Press, p. 614
  3. ^ William M. Aird, Robert de Mowbray, Online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
  4. ^ Symeon of Durham, Historia Regum, quoted in dot-domesday
Peerage of England
Preceded by
William Walcher		 Earl of Northumbria
1080–1086		 Succeeded by
Robert de Mowbray