Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon and Northhampton.

Following the Harrowing of the North, William the Conqueror set his sights on East Anglia, where men like Waltheof and Hereward the Wake were resisting Norman forces, eventually though, Waltheof accepted Norman authority and was rewarded for this with an advantageous marriage to the Conqueror's niece, Judith of Lens.

In the bottom left of my photograph taken at Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire, you can see a representation of Waltheof.

Five years later, Waltheof was suspected of being involved in what has come to be known as the Revolt of the Earls.

Historians differ over what exactly his involvement was, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle state that he one of its ringleaders, while Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury suggest that he knew of the revolt but had sworn an oath to keep quiet. It was inevitable though, that news of Waltheof's actions would come to the Conquerors attentions, and when it did Waltheof confessed his guilt to the conqueror in person.

Ignoring the Earl's words, William the Conqueror ordered that he be tried, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

​Following a year in prison Waltheof was executed on the 31st May 1076 at St. Giles's Hill, near Winchester. His decapitated body was thrown in a ditch, however it was later recovered and buried in the chapter house of Crowland Abbey where it lay, untouched, for sixteen years until in 1092.
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That year a fire in the chapter house forced Ingulph, Abbot of Crowland, to have Waltheof’s body moved elsewhere. On
​opening the coffin it was said that the Earl's corpse was found to be intact, his severed head re-joined to the trunk.