Wulfrun

__NOTOC__ Wulfrun(a) ( - ) was a Mercian noblewoman and landowner who held estates in Staffordshire. Today she is particularly remembered for her association with Hēatūn, Anglo-Saxon for "high or principal farm or enclosure", which she was granted in a charter by King Æthelred II (Æthelred the Unready) in 985, and where she endowed a collegiate church in 994. By 1070 this had become known as Wolvrenehamptonia – Wolfrun's heaton – now the city of Wolverhampton, the sixth largest district by population in the West Midlands.

__NOTOC__ Wulfrun(a) ( - ) was a Mercian noblewoman and landowner who held estates in Staffordshire. Today she is particularly remembered for her association with Hēatūn, Anglo-Saxon for "high or principal farm or enclosure", which she was granted in a charter by King Æthelred II (Æthelred the Unready) in 985, and where she endowed a collegiate church in 994. By 1070 this had become known as Wolvrenehamptonia – Wolfrun's heaton – now the city of Wolverhampton, the sixth largest district by population in the West Midlands.

Biography

She was born around 935 in Mercia and she seems to have also had a close connection with Tamworth, the main centre of royal power in Mercia at the time. It was from here that according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle she was abducted by Danes in 943. Later her son Wulfric Spot left to his daughter the lordship of an estate there that was "not to be subject to any service nor to any man born", that he may have inherited from Wulfrun; and it is believed that she was buried with the religious community there, to which Wulfric also left land. Her son Wulfric "Spot" became one of the king's principal thegns in the 990s and an even more extensive landowner than his mother, with holdings in Derbyshire, western Warwickshire, the territories "between the Ribble and the Mersey", Northumbria, and seven other English counties as well as his inheritance in Staffordshire by the time of his death circa 1002¹-1004. In his will, which survives, he endowed much of his land to re-found Burton Abbey. Another son, Ælfhelm, was made ealdorman of Northumbria, in practice southern Northumbria (the area around York), from about 994 until his death in 1006. His daughter Ælfgifu would go on to be married to Cnut, future king of England, in the wake of his father Sweyn Forkbeard's invasion of England in 1013. Ælfgifu later played a key role in securing the throne for her son Harold Harefoot in 1036. Wulfrun is known to have also had at least one other child: Wulfric's will contains bequests to the daughter of a sister, Ælfthryth, who had apparently died before the will was written in 1002. Her exact death date is unknown, but a reference however can be found in a charter to Ensham Monastery dating to 1005¹ which states that Wulfrun bequested land at Ramsey (now located in Cambridgeshire), being "at her last breath", indicating that she died shortly after the charter was written, sometime in 1005, although a now outdated source states that she died in Tamworth in 995 or 996, although she was probably alive until 1005. Her lands may have been inherited from Wulfsige the Black, who was granted lands by King Edmund in 942, some of which correspond with lands later endowed by Wulfrun, and some with lands described in the will of her son Wulfric. Wulfsige may thus have been her father. The West Midlands placename Wolverhampton seems to have come from Anglo-Saxon Wulfrūnehēantūn = "Wulfrūn's high or principal enclosure or farm", though a local tradition says that King Wulfhere of Mercia was involved in the founding of the town, the church, or both. Older forms of the town's name run against this hypothesis. Many buildings and firms in Wolverhampton are named after Wulfrun, for example, The Wulfrun Centre, Lady Wulfrun (formerly "The Goose in the city" pub), Wulfrun Hall and the Wulfrun Hotel. It is thought probable that these references all refer to the same woman, Lady Wulfrun. The "a" commonly seen at the end of her name is a Latinisation.

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