Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/26

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resident at Oxford at Michaelmas 1383. He died on 24 Jan. 1396, and was buried before the entrance to the choir in the church at Finchale.

Bale and subsequent writers attribute to Uhtred a long list of works. Those of which the existence has been traced are: 1. ‘De Substantialibus Regulæ Monachalis,’ extant in Durham Cathedral Library (Bernard, Cat. MSS. Angliæ, iii. 12; Raine, North Durham, p. 360). 2. ‘De Perfectione Vivendi,’ extant in the Durham manuscript. The same manuscript contains some remarkable ‘Meditaciones,’ extracts from which are printed by Raine, who does not, however, think they are by Uhtred. 3. ‘Contra Querelas Fratrum,’ a copy formerly in the abbey library at St. Albans, and now in British Museum Royal MS. 6. D. x, was written about 1390. 4. ‘Meditacio edita ab Uthredo,’ extant in Brasenose College MS. xv. f. 61 seq., in Cambridge Univ. MS. Gg. iv. 11, and also in the Bodleian (Coxe, Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon.; Nasmyth, Cat. MSS. in Univ. Cantabr. iii. 151; Bernard, Cat. MSS. i. 142). 5. ‘Numquid licitum sit Monachis secundum B. Benedicti regulam professis carnes edere, exceptis debilibus et infirmis,’ formerly extant in Cotton. MS. Vitellius E. xii. 32 (Thomas Smith, Cat. 1696, p. 160), is now destroyed. A translation of Eusebius's ‘History’ which Uhtred had made in 1381 is extant in British Museum Burney MS. 310.

[The principal authority is the remarkably circumstantial but brief Vita Compendiosa Uthredi monachi Dunelmensis, written early in the fifteenth century, probably by John Wessington [q. v.], prior of Durham, and extant in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 6162, f. 31 b. See also, besides authorities cited, Bale, De Ill. Scriptt. vi. 53; Pits, p. 528; Tanner's Bibliotheca; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 220; Wood's Hist. et Antiq. ed. Gutch, i. 475, 491; information has also been kindly supplied by Mr. E. Bishop.]

A. F. P.

ULECOT, PHILIP de (d. 1220), judge, was in 1204–5 constable of Chinon (Patent Rolls, p. 40 b). He seems to have been taken prisoner in France, and he stood so high in the royal favour that on 7 May 1207 King John gave him two hundred marks for his ransom (Close Rolls, p. 82 b). He witnessed charters at Rockingham and Carlisle in July and August 1208 (Charter Rolls, pp. 181 b, 182), and is mentioned by Roger of Wendover (ii. 60) as among John's evil counsellors in 1211. On 11 May 1212 he was given the custody of the lands of Robert de Ros (Patent Rolls, p. 92 b). In 1213 he became forester of Northumberland, received several manors from the king, 12 Feb. 1213 (Charter Rolls, p. 190), and became sheriff of that county and custos of the bishopric of Durham during its vacancy in conjunction with the archdeacon of Durham and Earl Warenne (Patent Rolls, p. 94 b). On 3 Sept. 1212 he and Reiner de Clare seem to have been in charge of Richard, the king's son (ib. p. 104). He afterwards held the sheriffdom alone, and continued to hold it during the first four years of Henry III.

In 1216 Ulecot and Hugh de Balliol were put by John in command of the country between the River Tees and Scotland, and held the castles against the barons' ally, the king of Scots (Wendover, pp. 166, 191). The custody of the lands of the bishopric of Durham between Tyne and Tees had, however, been taken from him and given to Robert de Vieuxpont [q. v.] on 15 Aug. 1215 (Close Rolls, p. 225 b). Early in the reign of Henry III Ulecot had a quarrel with Roger Bertram, and was threatened with the seizure of his lands before he would restore Roger's castle of Midford on 4 April 1213 (Close Rolls, p. 357 b), while on 18 July he was ordered to destroy an adulterine castle he had built at Nafferton to the injury of the lands and castle of Prudhoe, belonging to Richard de Umfraville (ib. p. 379 b). He still held his offices in the north, though Pandulph had no confidence in him (ib. p. 434; Rymer, i. 162). In 3 Henry III he was one of the justices itinerant for the three northern counties, and on 16 Sept. 1220 Henry committed Gascony to his custody, in addition to his other commands. He died before 2 Nov. following (Close Rolls, p. 473 b). He married Johanna, sister of the wife of Sewel FitzHenry, and was fined 100l. and a complete horse for doing so.

[Authorities cited in text; Foss's Judges of England.]

W. E. R.

ULFCYTEL or ULFKETEL (d. 1016), earl of the East-Angles, probably, as his name suggests, of Danish descent, is perhaps the thegn Ulfcytel who witnesses a charter of 1004 (Kemble, Codex Dipl. No. 710); in that year he was earl of the East-Angles, and, Norwich having been taken and burnt by Sweyn [q. v.], king of Denmark, Ulfcytel gathered together the East-Anglian ‘witan’ and made a peace with the invaders. Shortly afterwards the Danes broke the peace and marched against Thetford. On this Ulfcytel sent to men whom he trusted to destroy the ships of the Danes in their absence, but they did not carry out his orders. Then, having gathered such force as he could muster, he met the Danes near Thetford on the day after