order (Vita, u.s. pp. 421–2). He continued the alliance that Siward had formed with Malcolm III [q. v.] of Scotland, became his sworn brother, and gave him help against Macbeth (ib.; Sym. Dunelm, Historia Regum, c. 143). In common with his wife he paid much reverence to St. Cuthbert [q. v.], and was a liberal benefactor to the church of Durham. Judith, being grieved that as a woman she was not allowed to worship at the saint's shrine, sent one of her maids to the church by night to try whether the prohibition placed on her sex might be set at nought with impunity. As soon, however, as the girl set foot in the burying-ground, she was blown down by a sudden gust of wind and much hurt. On this Tostig and his wife appeased the saint by presenting to the church a crucifix with figures clad in gold and silver and other gifts (ib. Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiæ, i. 94–5). In 1061 he and his wife went as pilgrims to Rome, in company with his younger brother Gyrth [q. v.], Aldred [q. v.], archbishop of York, and several nobles of the north. They passed along the Rhine, and were received at Rome by Nicholas II, who is said to have shown honour to Tostig, and to have placed him next to him at a synod. He sent his wife and most of his company back to England before him, and stayed for a while at Rome to urge the cause of Aldred, to whom the pope had refused the pall. Failing to persuade the pope, he set out with the archbishop on his homeward journey. On the way he was attacked by robbers, who sought to seize him, apparently for the sake of ransom. A young noble of his company named Gospatric declared himself to be the earl to save his lord, was carried off in his place, and afterwards freely released. The robbers despoiled the party of everything. Tostig and Aldred returned to Rome, and Nicholas granted Aldred the pall out of pity for their misfortune (Vita, pp. 411–12), though it is also said that he was moved to do so by the reproaches of Tostig, who is represented as complaining angrily of the treatment he had received, and threatening the pope that if he did not keep better order the English king would send him no more Peter's pence (Gesta Pontificum, p. 252). The pope made good his losses, and he returned to England. During his absence Malcolm, in spite of the alliance between them, made a fierce raid on the north. In the spring of 1063, in obedience to the king's order, he joined his brother Harold in invading Wales, being in command of the cavalry (Flor. Wig. sub an.)
His government was unpopular in the north; he was violent and tyrannical, and was constantly absent from his province, for Edward kept him at his court and employed him there (Vita, p. 421). In his absence the government was carried on by his deputy, Copsi or Copsige [q. v.] The discontent of the north seems to have been brought to a head by two special acts of lawless violence. In 1064 Tostig caused two thegns, named Gamel and Ulf, who had come to him with an assurance of peace, to be slain in his court at York, and he instigated the treacherous murder of a noble named Gospatric, who was slain on 28 Dec. of that year in the king's court by order of the earl's sister, Queen Edith or Eadgyth (d. 1075) [q. v.] (Flor. Wig.) On 3 Oct. 1065 three of the chief thegns of the province and two hundred others met at York, and, on the ground that the earl had robbed God, deprived those over whom he ruled of life and lands, especially in the cases of Gamel, Ulf, and Gospatric, and had unjustly levied a heavy tax on his province (ib.; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ‘Abingdon’), declared him an outlaw, and chose Morcar [q. v.] as earl in his stead. Their doings were generally approved in the north, and many joined them. They slew two of Tostig's Danish housecarls, and the next day plundered his treasury at York and slew more than two hundred of his followers. Morcar accepted the offer of the insurgents, and placed the country north of the Tyne under Osulf, the son of Eadulf of the line of the ancient earls [see under Siward]. Meanwhile Tostig was hunting with the king in a forest near Britford in Wiltshire. Morcar advanced southwards with a large force, and was joined by his brother Edwin, the rebels doing much mischief about Northampton, where perhaps the inhabitants were not hostile to the earl (Norman Conquest, ii. 490). When, after repeated messages from the king, the rebels refused to lay down their arms and insisted on the banishment of Tostig, Edward gathered an assembly of nobles at Britford, at which some blamed Tostig, declaring that his desire for wealth had made him unduly severe, while others maintained that the revolt against him had been caused by the machinations of his brother Harold, Tostig himself swearing that this was so (Vita, p. 422). Though the king was anxious to subdue the rebellion by force, he was overruled by Harold, who met the rebels at Oxford on the 28th, and yielded to their demands; the deposition and banishment of Tostig and the election of Morcar were therefore confirmed [see under Harold]. Later writers assert that there was an unfriendly feeling of old
