Aubrey de Coucy was the earl of Northumbria from 1080, by appointment of William the Conqueror, until he resigned it. After the rebellion and suppression of Earl Waltheof in 1075, William Walcher, prince-bishop of Durham, was installed temporarily. In 1080, the Conqueror gave the earldom to Aubrey, a Norman lord, from Coucy. Soon after, probably that very year, he left for Normandy, the job of earl in the far north being not to his liking (or capabilities, he was regarded as "of little use in difficult circumstances"). With his formal resignation, he lost all territories, of which he had much in the Midlands, in England. He was not replaced until 1086, when Robert de Mowbray was given the earldom. Soon after the great old earldom dissolved into the earldoms of Northumberland and York. His English lands were not redistributed by the time of the Domesday Book, which notes them as belonging to Earl Aubrey (1086). His central lands eventually became the Honour of Hinckley, an important component of the landholdings of the later earls of Leicester.
Sources
- Hynde, Thomas (ed). The Domesday Book: England's History Then and Now. (1995)
- Stenton, Sir Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition. Oxford University Press, 1971.
| Preceded by William Walcher |
Earl of Northumbria 1080–1086 |
Succeeded by Robert de Mowbray |
