Thurbrand the Hold

Þurbrand se Hold
Born	unknown unknown
Died	c. 1024 Northumbria
Cause of death	Ealdred II of Bamburgh, Earl of Northumbria
Residence	Southern Northumbria, perhaps Holderness
Other names	Thorbrand
Known for	Killing Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria
Children	4 known sons, Thurbrand, Cnut, Sumarlithr and name lost
Parent(s)	unknown

Thurbrand (Old English: Þūrbrand; fl. 1010s), nicknamed "the Hold", was a Northumbrian magnate in the early 11th-century. Perhaps based in Holderness and East Yorkshire, Thurbrand was recorded as the killer of Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria. The killing appears to have been part of the war between Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut the Great against the English king Æthelred the Unready, Uhtred being the latter's chief Northumbrian supporter. Thurbrand may also have attested a charter of 1009 and given a horse to Æthelred's son Æthelstan Ætheling. The killing is the first known act, if it did not initiate, a bloodfeud between Thurbrand's family and Uhtred going into the time of Earl Waltheof. It is possible that Holderness took its name because of Thurbrand's presence or ownership of the peninsula.

Thurbrand's floruit lay in the reigns of Æthelred (978–1016), Sweyn Forkbeard (1013–1014) and Cnut (1016–1035). The Historia Regum and Chronicle of John of Worcester say that Thurbrand was a "Danish nobleman" (nobilo et Danico viro) His title, that of "Hold", derives from an office said by the Norðleoda laga ("Law of the North People") to have been equal in wergild to a royal high-reeve, above a thegn but below an ealdorman. There is a strong possibility that Thurbrand ruled Holderness (see below).

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