Godwine (Mercia) of Mercia

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Godwine Mercia was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

Godwine, is named as the brother of Leofric (Godwinus quidam, frater Leofrici comitis) and presumably son of Leofwine, in only one source, Hemming's Cartulary.^[1] In this Godwine on his deathbed, restores land in Salwarpe to Worcester Monastery.

Godwine's son Æthelwine, who had been a hostage of the Danes, and had his hands cut off, refuses to accept his father's will, and with the assistance of his uncle Leofric takes back the land from the monastery. However in what is presumably divine punishment, he dies miserably in the hut of an oxherd and is buried by two of his servants.^[1]

Disputed descendants

According to Burke's, History of the commoners,^[2] Wolfric Cild, was the eldest son of this Godwin, fourth son of Leofwine, Earl and Duke of Mercia. Wolfric was "Lord of Leek, Aldithley, and Balterley in the count of Stafford, and of Croxton, Etchells and other places in the county of Chester" and married an unnamed "daughter of William Poncius, Count of Arques and Thoulouse, son of Richard II Duke of Normandy", and thus she was "cousin to William the Conqueror"

Burkes, continues to then give Wolfric fours sons;

1. Gamel de Tettesworth, "a thane of the king's, Lord of Aldithley, Talk and Balterley in the county of Stafford, and of Cedde and Mottram Andrew in the county of Chester, at the time of the Domesday survey". He was the ancestor of the Aldithley (later Audley), Stanley, Sneyd and Wolrich families;
2. Walthens, Lord of Etchells, Bredbury and Brinnington in the county of Chester", ancestor of many Cheshire families, including, Barons of Stockport, and Croxton, and Venables families;
3. Ranulphus, who also had descendants
4. Orme de Davenport.

However almost none of this information can be confirmed by any other medieval source and according to J.H. Round, this pedigree is based on documents from the Hulton Abbey manuscripts, which are of unknown provenance and almost certainly forgeries.^[3]

One of the reasons these documents are considered suspicious is that the donations by Henry de Aldithley (Henricus de Alditelegh) to Hulton abbey, also give a detailed genealogy including "Gameli abavi sui et Wulfrici Cild atavi sui et Godwini tritavi sui et Leofwini Comitis". However as Round points out "benefactors did not recite their pedigree for the convenience of remote descendants".^[3] and in fact records such as the Domesday survey "does not prove a single link in the pedigree".^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Hearne (Hearnius), Thomas. (ed.). 1723. Hemingi chartularium ecclesiae Wigorniensis, vol. 1, pp. 259-260. Oxford University. Digital image Google Books https://books.google.com.au : viewed 30 July 2017.
2. ↑ Burke, John. 1838. A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank, but uninvested with heritable honours. Vol IV, p. 757. London: Henry Colburn. Digital image, Internet Archive https://archive.org/stream/b28748773_0004#page/757/mode/1up : viewed 30 July 2017.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Round, J. Horace. 1910. Peerage and pedigree: Studies in peerage law and family history. Vol. 2, pp. 17-27. London: James Nisbet. Digital image HathiTrust Digital Library https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31158004767389;view=1up;seq=9 : viewed 30 July 2017.

See also:

• ‘Godwine 65’, Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) database, http://www.pase.ac.uk, accessed 30 July 2017.