Morcar, Earl of Northumbria

Morcar (or Morkere) (Old English: Mōrcǣr) (died after 1087) was the son of Ælfgār (earl of Mercia) and brother of Ēadwine. He was the earl of Northumbria from 1065 to 1066, when he was replaced by William the Conqueror with Copsi.

In October 1065 Northumbrian rebels chose Morcar as earl at York. He at once satisfied the people of the Bernician district by making over the government of the country beyond the Tyne to Oswulf, the eldest son of Eadwulf, the Bernician earl, whom Siward had slain in 1041. Marching southwards with the rebels, Morcar gathered into his forces the men of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, members of the old Danish confederacy of towns, and met his brother Edwin, Earl of Mercia, who was at the head of a force of Mercians and Welshmen, at Northampton. There the brothers and their rebel army considered proposals for peace offered to them by Earl Harold Godwinson. Negotiations continued at Oxford, where, the Northumbrians insisting on the recognition of Morcar, Harold yielded on the 28th, and Morcar's election was legalised.

On the death of Edward the Confessor, Morcar professedly supported Harold, but the people of his earldom were dissatisfied, and Harold visited York, the seat of Morcar's government, in the spring of 1066, and overcame their disaffection by peaceful means. In the summer, Morcar joined his brother Edwin in repulsing Tostig, who was ravaging the Mercian coast. When, however, Tostig and his ally Harald Hardrada invaded Northumbria in September, Morcar evidently was not ready to meet them; and it was not until York was threatened that, having then been joined by Edwin, he went out against them with a large army. The two earls were defeated at Fulford Gate, near York, in a fierce battle, in which, according to a Norse authority, Morcar seems to have been prominent.

...
Wikipedia