Tostig Godwinson

Tostig Godwinson (died 25 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson.

Tostig was the third son of Godwin (d. 1053), Earl of Wessex and Kent, and Gytha Thorkelsdóttir. In 1051, he married Judith of Flanders. The Domesday Book recorded twenty-six vills or townships as being held by Earl Tostig forming the Manor of Hougun.

Earl of Northumbria

In 1051, Tostig and his father were banished from England, to which they forcefully returned in 1052. Three years later in 1055, Tostig became the Earl of Northumbria upon the death of Earl Siward.

Tostig appears to have governed in Northumbria with some difficulty. He was never popular with the Northumbrian ruling class, a mix of Danish invaders and Anglo Saxon survivors of the last Norse invasion. Tostig was said to have been heavy-handed with those who resisted his rule, including the murder of several members of leading Northumbrian families. In late 1063 or early 1064, Tostig had Gamal, son of Orm and Ulf, son of Dolfin, assassinated when they visited him under safe conduct. Also, the Vita Edwardi, otherwise sympathetic to Tostig, states that he had 'repressed [the Northumbrians] with the heavy yoke of his rule'.