THE CASTLE AND PARLIAMENTS OF NORTHAMPTON.
At the time of the Conqueror's survey the possessions in the town of Northampton lay divided betwixt the crown, some of the abbatial ecclesiastics, and other persons of rank and consequence. Amongst the names of these various proprietors that of Countess Judith, a daughter of Odo earl of Albemarle, by Adeliza, half sister of William I., is not the least remarkable, whether regarded in reference to her dignity and her affinity to the new sovereign, or in connexion with one of his bravest supporters. She had been given in marriage to the Earl Waltheof, a warrior whose prowess greatly assisted her uncle in the arduous subjugation of Yorkshire, and probably out of consideration for this valuable service, as much as with a view of conciliating a noble whose hereditary influence might have been dangerous to his ambitious projects, he loaded him with fresh accessions of territory in various parts of England.
The history of secular dignities at this early time is involved in great obscurity, and it would be foreign to the present enquiry to attempt to elucidate a question so pregnant with difficulty. Waltheof's father was the Saxon earl Siward, unquestionably a name of dignity, both before and after the Norman invasion, and Waltheof himself has been called earl of Northumberland, Northampton, and Huntingdon, but of this no sufficient proof has ever been adduced. Besides this reputed rank, he however inherited large estates; several of the tenants held their lands from him during the time of Edward the Confessor, and the dowry of the countess considerably augmented them. It may be readily imagined that the Conqueror would find himself little at ease in his new kingdom; the people had scarcely had time to become reconciled to their slavery, and a sudden endeavour to liberate themselves from its yoke could hardly have been unsuspected. In this age of darkness and inhumanity, an age when the broad distinction betwixt might and justice was universally confused, the slightest cause, whether
